Shifting Through Neutral is the story of a young girl's sad family drama. Rae Dobson is a child of the seventies in Detroit. I fell in love with her, and her world - and I just had to leave my own world to go live with her for a couple of days. I finished the novel in a single weekend, hardly putting it down until the end. I became so involved in her beautifully told desires and pain.
Rae Dobson is a gem. She is a troubled, but strong young woman. She longs for the love of her self-involved, cold mother who is "weak for men"; she idolizes her trendy and fun big sister Kimmie; and she vows that the only man she'll ever need is her Daddy.
The story is told at several times in Rae's life. This is confusing sometimes, especially at the beginning, but as you become familiar with the amazing characters, you will also learn to read the time shifts. We begin with a 4 year-old Rae, then jump to 9. A bulk of the story takes place during the summer of Rae's 9th year, when her big sister Kimmie comes back to Detroit for a visit. Kimmie had stepped in as a mother-figure for Rae because their own mother was so inept. Then when Rae's father enter's the picture, when Rae is 4, Kimmie is shipped down to Louisiana to live with her own father. It's a bit complicated, of course, adding to the turmoil of Rae's personality.
The whole "driving as a metaphor for life" thing has been done before, but this is cute. Each section is labeled and begun with a quote from the Michigan Secretary of State What Every Driver Must Know manual. And all the more fitting because Detroit is the Motor City.
The language is beautifully poetic, and very descriptive. The large dark house, the highways, the industrial air. Her language calls into life this very real world, and I relate with these things, maybe because I grew up a half hour outside of Detroit, but maybe because she paints them so vividly. The UAW. Cedar Point. 1-75. I know these places, and these people.
Sometimes it felt like she dropped names a little bit too much, as if to say, "Hey, I'm from Detroit, and I'll prove it." It didn't bother me too much, but was just something I noticed, and maybe if you're not from the area, you wouldn't notice at all.
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