Solo: Life with an Electric Car

by Noel Perrin

In the spring of 1991, Noel Perrin flew from Vermont to California to pick up his newly outfitted electric car, a former gas-guzzling Ford. It would not be easy, but Perrin planned to drive Solo--as the car was soon dubbed--home, a 3,100-mile drive. Here is the picturesque story of the trip--from Solo's struggle with gravity at Donner Pass to an encounter with a man with four electric cars in Rotterdam, New York.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

196 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Noel Perrin was a professor of English literature, an essayist for the Washington Post, a hobbyist farmer, and a Korean War veteran.

Reviews

[Bob]

While this presents some interesting history on electric cars (the book takes place in 1991 and Perrin offers anecdotes from the early 1900´s), the book worked for me more as a travelogue -- the trip could have been made on foot, horseback, or in a minivan and the author´s encounters would still have the same warm and comic appeal. I lost interest after page 140, when Solo made it to the author´s home and began his life as a commuter car.

[Dan Castrigano]

Perrin is a Bill Bryson mashed together with a goofy and stubborn environmentalist. My kind of person / writer. He addressed many concerns that I have pondered in owning an electric car. So stoked to get ours! Easy to read. Witty and clever.

[Jeff Youngstrom]

My review from June 2, 1997