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Theodore Weesner
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The Car Thief Paperback – April 27, 2001

by Theodore Weesner (Author)
3.5 3.5 out of 5 stars 58 ratings
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Hailed by The Boston Globe as "so poignant and beautifully written, so true and painful, that one can't read it without feeling the knife's cruel blade in the heart," The Car Thief was first published to enormous popularity, and sold over half a million copies. Alex Housman is a kid who at the age of sixteen has had fourteen cars, harbors many hurts, and seems to fade into his environment while raging inside. His father is an alcoholic, losing his grip on life even as he wants the best for his son. The Car Thief explores the love Alex and his father share, in a tremendously poignant story that is filled with unusual triumphs.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    384 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Grove Press
  4. Publication date
    April 27, 2001
  5. Dimensions
    5.25 x 1.25 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0802137636
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0802137630
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Press; Reprint edition (April 27, 2001)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0802137636
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802137630
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.5 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 1.25 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.5 3.5 out of 5 stars 58 ratings

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Theodore Weesner

Theodore Weesner

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Customer reviews

3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5 out of 5
58 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Free Press Advocate
5.0 out of 5 stars No wonder it's a cult book
Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2013
Verified Purchase
It has taken me more than 30 years to get around to reading this novel since first hearing about it from friends who were students of Ted Weesner at UNH. I read the first few pages recently and wondered what had taken me so long--but then again, you only get one first reading of a great book.

I probably can't say much more than has already been said about this book. The economy of the writing has the classic effect of directly evoking emotion and response in the reader. No emoting and interpreting from the author; just reader inside the story with the characters. (Just!) I do have to confess, and this is a compliment to Ted Weesner, that the first 20 pages of this book made me so anxious I had to stop reading. I was fascinated by the character and and drawn into his story--except the incipient danger and horror was so real, I couldn't stand it. I put it down for a few days, and then, because I'm a writer, I knew for a fact the book couldn't continue this way.

Car Thief made a deep impression on me. I can't recommend it highly enough. My only regret about waiting so long to read it, is that I missed the chance to put it into the hands of two decades' worth of students--

And it did.
5 people found this helpful
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Clifford Garstang
4.0 out of 5 stars Coming of Age in 1959 -- not so different now?
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2014
The Car Thief, republished as an eBook in 2012 by Astor & Blue and now available in paperback also, was Theodore Weesner’s first novel, originally published by Random House in 1972. Weesner, a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, went on to publish several more novels and a collection of short stories and is said to be, though nearing 80, working on a memoir and a new novel.

The book tells the story of young Alex Housman, in 1959, in Detroit, a sixteen-year-old car thief. He is driven to steal—but not to steal, exactly, Alex is a joy-rider—out of boredom. He lives with his alcoholic father, has memories of being abandoned by his mother and separated from his younger brother, is ashamed of the squalor in which he now lives. He’s a smart kid, but doesn’t apply himself in school. But, of course, getting caught is the best thing that could happen to him, and after a stay in a juvenile detention center he’s on his way to rehabilitation. He’s seen what the future can be, and he wants no part of it. It’s a fragile recovery, though, with pitfalls and setbacks. The great tension of the novel is the reader's fear that Alex will make a mistake and backslide, and his journey unfolds against the drama of life in his dysfunctional family.

It’s a coming-of-age story, one that is based closely on Weesner’s own life. The biographical note on the author tells us that his home life was similar to Alex’s and, like Alex, he was charged with car theft as a teen. The coming-of-age genre refuses, unfortunately, to go away, and so it’s hard to imagine that readers today will care much about Alex and his 1959 problems. We’ve got more than enough contemporary coming-of-age stories as it is, and way bigger problems.

Still, it’s a compelling read. Alex is a troubled kid, and if we don’t exactly like him, it’s not hard to sympathize. If he doesn’t behave well toward girls—and he doesn’t—he hasn’t had very good role models. His father is a drunk and his mother disappeared years earlier, resurfacing only long enough to take her younger son away. And if he doesn’t make very good choices, it’s because he gets no guidance. Alex is left to fend for himself most of the time—cooking, laundry, house cleaning—and school doesn’t interest him at all.

Fortunately, though, after his arrest, he is aided by two men who understand where he’s coming from. Without them, Alex’s life would take one tragic turn after another. That, maybe, is the message here. You can’t expect a kid to grow up and get it right without someone showing the way. In this case, it’s Mr. Kelly, who runs the juvenile detention center, and Mr. Quinn, his probation officer and counselor. From them he gets discipline and advice. In them he sees men who have come from similar backgrounds who have risen above their youthful mistakes. He sees that he doesn’t have to end up like his father.

We can’t expect kids to figure everything out by themselves, the book appears to be saying. We have to show them the way.
4 people found this helpful
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Splashy P
3.0 out of 5 stars Just Average
Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2013
Verified Purchase
The main character in this story was very introspective and the vast majority of the content lacked dialogue and action. If you're looking for a story showing the mental processes of a rather disturbed young delinquent, then this might be the book for you.
One person found this helpful
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NYMIKEY
1.0 out of 5 stars BORING!!!!!
Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2013
Verified Purchase
extremely slow moving. boring where was the book going. I did not enjoy reading this book. tHE BOOK STARTED NOWHERE AND ENDED UP NOWHERE
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D. E. Sievers
5.0 out of 5 stars As advertised, well packed, timely delivery
Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2023
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Item arrived as described, timely and well packed.
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C. K. Reasor
2.0 out of 5 stars none
Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2016
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none
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Velomoon
4.0 out of 5 stars Rat Trap
Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2012
"Buick Riviera. The Buick, coppertone, white sidewalls, was the model of the year, a '59, although the 1960 models were already out. Its upholstery was black, its windshield was tinted a thin color of motor oil. The car's heater was issuing a stale and odorous warmth, but Alex remained chilled. He had walked several blocks through snow and slush, wearing neither hat nor gloves nor boots, to where he had left the car the night before. The steering wheel was icy in his hands, and he felt icy within, throughout his veins and bones. Alex was sixteen; the Buick was his fourteenth car."

This is our introduction to the hero of this book, although in reality this sixteen year old boy is less rebel without a cause, more lost without a compass bearing. Alex has no understanding of why he steals cars beyond a restlessness, an ache for something different than the life he has.

"Billy don't like it living here in this town
He says traps have been sprung long before he was born
He says "hope bites the dust behind all the closed doors
And pus and grime ooze from its scab-crusted sores
There's screaming and crying in the high-rise blocks"
It's a rat trap, Billy, but you're already caught
And you can make it if you want to or you need it bad enough
You're young and good-looking and you're acting kind of tough
Anyway it's Saturday night, time to see what's going down
Put on a bright suit, Billy, head for the right side of town
It's only eight o'clock, but you're already bored
You don't know what it is, but there's got to be more
You'd better find a way out, hey, kick down that door
It's a rat trap, and you've been caught" *

Alex Housman is intelligent, yet school holds no interest for him, he lives with his father in a part of town that, if he had friends, he would be to ashamed to take them. His father has moments of sobriety between his alcoholic normality whilst still holding down a job working the second shift at the local Chevy plant. Alex spends an awful amount of time by himself, struggling with feelings that bubble & boil just below the surface, or else he buries them behind the wheel of a stolen car. The inevitable happens and he is arrested, as both Alex and reader knew he would be. Taken to a detention home, he finds himself locked up with no idea of a release date. Confined, with no way to escape or hide from himself, forces Alex to confront his feelings & acts as a catalyst. We follow Alex as he faces this moment and the issues that arise from it, until an event both horrific & yet ultimately freeing sends him off on a path that will define his life.

The car thief is a blunt & harsh tale of one individual trapped in a world not of their own making, with seemingly no way out. The writing has a simplicity that allows all the intensity of Alex's life to be laid bare without any unnecessary embellishment. This is a tale that appears devoid of hope and yet a slight glimmer shines and in grasping that we can see there are possibilities of a future. Having read Theodore Weesner's biography, made me realise that this is a work of autofiction & it takes quite a chunk of his youth as the basis of the tale. This isn't meant as a slight on the book, just a relevant observation.

*This is part of a single called Rat Trap written by Bob Geldof of The Boomtown Rats, it reached #1 in the UK singles charts in November 1978
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