Book Review: The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise

If you like road trip books, then The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise is for you. If you can tolerate the gratuitous language and sex most modern books seem to think everyone wants, maybe you'll go for this one. The sad thing is that it had every opportunity to be a wholesome, light, and funny book. Thus, my use of "gratuitous" - none of the language or sex seemed necessary for the plot line. The book would have been delightful without those elements. Yes, it is a convoluted plot. But the characters are a bang (if caustic). It offers plenty of small humorous lines.

Tanner is sure her life is over before she's even completed college. She always lives by the rules (until influenced by Louise). Thus, she cannot accept the fact that one stupid accident lost her the soccer scholarship and the ability to complete her education. When she takes a live-in job, shuttling Louise Wilt around to doctor appointments, she sees it as an opportunity to drill down to oblivion in constant gaming. Yet, for Louise, life may be over soon. Saddled with Parkinson's and crippled by a fall, her family insists she take in Tanner as a live-in caretaker. Thus, the unlikely duo forms.

Louise wakes Tanner in the middle of the night demanding they flee. Tanner only agrees to drive the getaway car when bribed with the exact sum she needs for college. She's clueless as to who, why, or where they're fleeing. Yet the longer she spends with Louise, the more dangerous and interesting life becomes. Their relationship warms with every passing mile. Maybe Louise isn't who Tanner thought she was, but maybe she can help Tanner figure out who she is and what she wants from life.

So, not an entire waste of a reading experience. Characters grow and learn lessons. The story arcs well and the writing is almost compulsively readable. It had the feel of The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. Ridiculous, but oh what a ride!

Content caution: language, sex