THE FLAMETHROWERS by Rachel Kushner

Motorcycles, art, and radical politics dominate this captivating novel, told by a woman in her early twenties, whom we know only by the nickname Reno—her hometown.  Her narration comes across as somewhat detached, making her story all the more alluring, which begins with her becoming the fastest woman in the world in 1975—on a motorcycle at the Bonneville Salt Flats.  Some books are page-turners, and some just make you want to savor every page to make it last as long as possible.  This book is the latter type, although most chapters end with a surprising event.  Then the author delays telling us the consequences of the event for a chapter or two.  Intermittent diversions, such as dinner parties for New York artists and gallery owners, cause the plot to stall and become tedious at times.  After hearing about a group of anarchists in New York at one of these dinner parties, Reno then becomes more than just a bystander to another group of anarchists in Italy who are protesting against the company her boyfriend’s family owns.  This is definitely my favorite Rachel Kushner novel so far, as Reno’s misadventures in Utah, New York, and Italy all held me rapt until another unwanted dead space in the novel cropped up.