Fairlane

by Sara Sandberg

Drive along with the various owners of a 1964 Ford Fairlane in this debut novella by Sara Sandberg. Find heartbreak, love, and disaster in a wild ride that spans four decades. Each chapter introduces a new character, all who have a connection to the same car. Limited edition print run includes a beautiful dust jacket printed by Firefly Press.

95 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Sara Sandberg is a writer and artist. She has published short stories, fanzines, and a novella. She is currently at work on a novel about a city.
A tactile love of books was fostered from a young age by the Modesto Public Library. Punk Rock taught her to document the wild happenings of life. Fanzines soon followed: Space Craft Convention, Secret, The American Girl, Forgotten Letters. In 2001, an epiphany with a stranger propelled the creation of Double Ears, a free one page zine. Fairlane, Sandberg's first novel, was released in 2002.
Sara Sandberg lives in an old punk club in San Francisco with her husband.

Reviews

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so upset with myself. This book went through the ringer in the year or so that I've owned it. My dog attacked it not once but twice, my girlfriend read most of it before it got stashed in my underwear drawer (where I have to hide things like books and eyeglasses at night so the aforementioned dog won't eat them whilst I sleep) where it languished for many months before I rediscovered it a couple weeks ago. I read the first couple stories before the book slipped between the wall and the mattress and found a new home among the clumps of dog fur and random socks that huddled there. Just two days ago, looking for my cell phone, I pulled the bed away from the wall and came upon Fairline yet again. I immediately brought it into the bathroom with me so it could be my new morning reader, where I could read a chapter while hiding in the back of the hot shower, finishing each one as I acclimated to the heat of the water.

This worked for exactly one chapter. As I got out of the shower, I bumped the book off the shelf where I had set it after finishing the chapter, and it fell into the tub, which was draining at an exceedingly slow pace thanks to the clog that had been hampering it for weeks.

Unfortunately, it wasn't until I finished drying off and turned around to hang up the towel that I realized this slim volume was at the bottom of milky, tepid water. By the time I retrieved it, it was ruined. The pages, the inspired cover, everything.

Ultimately, this unintentional dunking led to the book's even more unceremonious placement in the kitchen trash, along with used coffee cups and soiled puppy pee pads (for the same terrible dog who refuses to relieve herself outside). A terrible ending for a book that had been to that point quite charming, though at least it wasn't set afire.