Author: Sy Nazif

ISBN: 0977923800

 The following review was contributed by:  Evelyn Sears:    Click To View More of Evelyn's Reviews.

Eddie Howell is thirty-something.  He is smart, funny, charming, independent, lazy, self-centered and rebellious.  He repeatedly falls in and out of love, but he never loves.

This book is Eddie’s account of his adolescent and early adult life.  The first chapter describes the adolescent experiences that shaped the man Eddie later became.  The opening scene, a humiliating (but hilariously expounded) episode that takes place in a sixth-grade English class, provides the background for Eddie’s determination to become a “bad boy.”  The chapter closes with Eddie’s heartbreak over the loss of his first girlfriend and his father’s exhortation to get over it and be a man.  These events lay the groundwork for his inability, or unwillingness, to take the risks that arise with opening one’s soul and completely giving oneself to another.

Another significant influence in Eddie’s life is his relationship with his younger brother, Eric.  Eddie and Eric race motorcycles through the streets, races that often result in visits to the ER to piece Eric back together.  Despite being underage, Eddie and Eric are frequent customers at some local bars.  And, since they are real men, they smoke unfiltered Camels, observing that Marlboro Lights are for girls.  Even though Eric is the younger sibling, he is the dominant partner in the relationship.  Eric is the daredevil whom Eddie seeks to impress, the instigator of their numerous perilous escapades.

Eddie attends Duke University for two years, where, regardless of what his transcript records, his major is social life/sex.  He drops out near the end of his second year and decides to drift around the countryside on his motorcycle and figure out what to do with his life.  While drifting, he runs into Nikki, the girl who will quickly become his first wife.

Eddie and Nikki get married and lead dull but reasonably satisfying lives in Pittsburgh.  Shortly after a vacation in Los Angeles, they decide to move west in search of more excitement.  In California, their lives and interests diverge and their marriage disintegrates.  Eddie becomes a successful writer of insipid television shows, but feels that he has sold himself too cheaply.  He wants to write real literature, like Faulkner or Salinger.  He meets Anna, falls in love and then leaves her waiting at the altar.  As he puts it, rather than replaying past mistakes, he’s going to find something new.  The book ends with Eddie abandoning Anna, California and his career and cycling away in search of a new life. 

Eddie is simultaneously likeable and maddening.  A multifaceted character, he’s neither completely bad nor completely good.  Like most people, he’s a bit of both.  His chronicle divulges his vulnerability and charm.  It reveals his determination to live life on his terms and his desire to be loved.  But it also discloses that Eddie is stuck on the idea that love is a feeling; he never realizes that love has little to do with how one feels and everything to do with one’s attitudes and actions.  Most of the time, love is something one does, not something one feels.  Eddie is almost thirty when he abandons Anna at the altar and, smart as he is, he still has not figured this out.  As Eddie rides away, one can’t help wondering if he ever will get it. 

Never Mind the Track, Sy Nazif’s first novel, reveals him to be a promising writer.  Mr. Nazif’s writing is witty, engaging and evocative.  You will laugh out loud at some scenes and grit your teeth at others.  All in all, the book provides a good evening’s entertainment.