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11 reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Do you know Buddy Palumbo????
19 May 2006
Format:Hardcover
As you can surmise from the Ferrari 156 on the cover, Toly's Ghost takes our hero, Buddy Palumbo, from late 1955, where The Fabulous Trashwagon ended, through 1961 and the tragic circumstances of Phil Hill's F1 Championship, the first for an American driver. The action focuses on Buddy's pals, Cal Carrington, as he rises through the ranks of professional sports car racing, and Hank Lyons, as he writes about Formula One and the World Sports Car Championship for an automotive magazine. The major subplot focuses on Lance Reventlow's Scarab sports cars and his attempt at cracking into F1 with an All-American team.
If you loved the earlier books, you'll like this one, although I think this volume, while a thoroughly enjoyable read, is the weakest of the series, for two reasons. First, a considerable amount of the charm of the first three books came from looking at racing, (the people, the locales, the political infighting!) through Buddy's eyes, but this book essentially grounds him at home in New Jersey with his VW dealership and family while the story is told via phone calls from Cal and Buddy's summaries of letters from Hank. This is fun for awhile but somewhat tedious about page 500--the book could use more Buddy, and really shines brightest in those moments when he is the foreground actor, instead of merely relaying information from others.
Also, this book covers nearly twice as much time (1955-61) as the first three books combined (1952-1955), as if Levy is rushing to a period he finds more interesting for his next tome. Personally, I hope the next book (Cobras, GS Corvettes, Ferrari GTOs!, and dare we hope, GT40s, I can't wait) have more of Buddy's personal experiences and fewer phoned-in race reports.
As with the other books in the series, Levy wonderfully captures the sights, sounds, and feel of motor racing as no other novelist has. If you love racing and particularly the people and cars of this period, these books are treasures. Buy one for yourself and one for a car-loving friend!
If you loved the earlier books, you'll like this one, although I think this volume, while a thoroughly enjoyable read, is the weakest of the series, for two reasons. First, a considerable amount of the charm of the first three books came from looking at racing, (the people, the locales, the political infighting!) through Buddy's eyes, but this book essentially grounds him at home in New Jersey with his VW dealership and family while the story is told via phone calls from Cal and Buddy's summaries of letters from Hank. This is fun for awhile but somewhat tedious about page 500--the book could use more Buddy, and really shines brightest in those moments when he is the foreground actor, instead of merely relaying information from others.
Also, this book covers nearly twice as much time (1955-61) as the first three books combined (1952-1955), as if Levy is rushing to a period he finds more interesting for his next tome. Personally, I hope the next book (Cobras, GS Corvettes, Ferrari GTOs!, and dare we hope, GT40s, I can't wait) have more of Buddy's personal experiences and fewer phoned-in race reports.
As with the other books in the series, Levy wonderfully captures the sights, sounds, and feel of motor racing as no other novelist has. If you love racing and particularly the people and cars of this period, these books are treasures. Buy one for yourself and one for a car-loving friend!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
From a "storied" era of International Motorsports.
20 July 2006
Format:Hardcover
Other reviewers have decried the relative weakness of the Buddy Palumbo and Big Ed Baumstien characters in this book, and rightly so. Buddy's humanity and Big Ed's worldliness certainly spiced up the first three books and made the fictional component interesting and unpredictable.
Some sections of "Toly's Ghost" read more like a non-fiction, with the fictional characters merely discussing the events of the day. I did find it interesting how Levy communicated the character's feelings about things that were going on in racing and in the world at large. The historical accounts and the fictional character's reactions to them have an interesting symbiotic relationship in this book that I can't recall being as pronounced in prior books in this series.
Some of my enjoyment of this book was in figuring out who the fictional characters are based on; I have an idea who Cal Carrington and Gina LaScala are based on but I won't tip my hat as I have a feeling that will be more obvious in the next book.
Levy does something very artful with the Toly Wolfgang character (based loosely on real-life Ferrari driver Wolfgang Von Trips); he paints him as an aristocrat with a shadowy past but in spite of this, the reader becomes hopeful that Toly will win the world championship in spite of his "outsider" status in the world of International motor racing.
There are many other characters in this book that are noteworthy- I found them interesting because they are strugging with motor racing's passage from a sport of and by gentlemen to a business venture.
Overall I feel "Toly's Ghost" is well worth the time for anyone to read and savor; not only on its own merit as a fine piece of historical fiction, but also because it is likely a bridge to Levy's next series of books which likely will cover motor racing's most spectacular and tumultuous era.
Some sections of "Toly's Ghost" read more like a non-fiction, with the fictional characters merely discussing the events of the day. I did find it interesting how Levy communicated the character's feelings about things that were going on in racing and in the world at large. The historical accounts and the fictional character's reactions to them have an interesting symbiotic relationship in this book that I can't recall being as pronounced in prior books in this series.
Some of my enjoyment of this book was in figuring out who the fictional characters are based on; I have an idea who Cal Carrington and Gina LaScala are based on but I won't tip my hat as I have a feeling that will be more obvious in the next book.
Levy does something very artful with the Toly Wolfgang character (based loosely on real-life Ferrari driver Wolfgang Von Trips); he paints him as an aristocrat with a shadowy past but in spite of this, the reader becomes hopeful that Toly will win the world championship in spite of his "outsider" status in the world of International motor racing.
There are many other characters in this book that are noteworthy- I found them interesting because they are strugging with motor racing's passage from a sport of and by gentlemen to a business venture.
Overall I feel "Toly's Ghost" is well worth the time for anyone to read and savor; not only on its own merit as a fine piece of historical fiction, but also because it is likely a bridge to Levy's next series of books which likely will cover motor racing's most spectacular and tumultuous era.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Levy Strikes Gold Again from the Debris of Finzio's Sinclair
30 Jun 2006
Format:Hardcover
Despite being too long for "those racing people" to read, let alone get through, B.S. "Burt" Levy's latest work "Toly's Ghost" spends more time recounting the glory days of pre-displacement regulated Formula and GT racing than building greatly on the character of Buddy, Julie or Big Ed Baumstein. However, none of this is in the negative column. Through the well-developed characters of Cal Carrington and journalist Hank Lyons, Cal relates his exploits to Buddy from tracks as far afield as Riverside and the cart tracks of Sicily. Nowhere yet has the true flavour of that era's experiences been put together as well as Levy's 'novel' accomplishment. A recommended read especially for those who have been waiting since the last installment from The Last Open Road series.
Looking forward to the next installment,
Chip Lamb
Contributing Writer
Sports Car Market
Classic Motorsports
Looking forward to the next installment,
Chip Lamb
Contributing Writer
Sports Car Market
Classic Motorsports
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