{"product_id":"the-essential-book-of-pickup-trucks-paperback-softback-9781496242280","title":"The Essential Book of Pickup Trucks (Paperback \/ softback) 9781496242280","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eThe Essential Book of Pickup Trucks\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eFred Haefele (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781496242280\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 1 May 2025\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e220 pages, 8 photographs\u003cbr\u003e21.6 x 14 x 1.8 cm, 0.232 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e“What better way than a memoir about pickup trucks to forge from steel, rubber, and enamel paint a rumbling portrait of an individual American life. . . . [This is] a brilliant, compelling, and wryly humorous road trip through the motorized heart of the American soul.”-Peter Stark, author of \u003ci\u003eAstoria\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eGallop toward the Sun\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“Ain’t just trucks. Also chainsaws and typewriters, canoes and climbing rope, a distant dad and an undying dream, love and sex and marriage and children, failure and perseverance and mortality. Haefele delivers a three-quarter-ton load of nontoxic masculinity that smashes expectations to reveal something universal, let’s call it the soul: soaring, striving, suffering. What a joy to ride along with a master at the height of his powers, hitting his stride after the decades of fits and starts he recounts with deadpan glee, now disarmingly humble-and humbled. A life fully lived, a tale exquisitely told.”-Mark Sundeen, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Man Who Quit Money\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eDelusions and Grandeur\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“It’s clear that Fred Haefele loves Montana as much as he loves old pickups. This memoir serves as a cultural history of a writer, a state, and the wheels that got him around. If you take \u003ci\u003eThe Essential Book of Pickup Trucks\u003c\/i\u003e for a ride, you won’t be let down.”-Steven Rinella, author, podcast host, and founder of \u003ci\u003eMeatEater\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“A great book, by a masterful practitioner. I marveled at the writing. Laughed out loud at the predicaments and antics of the dusty tree-climbing writer. Was humbled by a wise human’s insights, humility, and warmth. I envied him his amazing life, wished and hope to live something similar in the American West. Now I will try to.”-Robin McLean, author of \u003ci\u003ePity the Beast\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eReptile House\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv\u003e“I found \u003ci\u003eThe Essential Book of Pickup Trucks\u003c\/i\u003e to be deeply pleasurable. It is honest and hilarious, simultaneously lyrical and super fucking grounded, and also tender, poignant, reflective, and real.”-Jeremy N. Smith, author of \u003ci\u003eEpic Measures\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBreaking and Entering; the Extraordinary Story of a Hacker Named “Alien”\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eOf the sixty million pickups on U.S. highways today, just one in eight was bought for work purposes. The remaining fifty-four million are what truck dealers call “lifestyle purchases.” Does the pickup impulse spring from some deep, organic longing? For agrarian roots, for simpler times, for a driving experience larger than life?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Essential Book of Pickup Trucks\u003c\/i\u003e is a memoir about the complex role pickups have played in Fred Haefele’s life and in American culture at large. Growing up near the GM truck plant in Flint, Michigan, young Haefele was delighted by these centaur-like vehicles. In his adult life as an arborist, teacher, and father, pickups bore him through hard times and disaster, high adventure, triumph, and love. Through his tenure with twelve trucks, Haefele recounts his experiences with tree climbing and academia, masculinity and motor culture.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e For Haefele, pickup trucks hold a unique place in the American psyche-equal parts fantasy steed and dray horse, they’re avatars of the American spirit. \u003ci\u003eThe Essential Book of Pickup Trucks\u003c\/i\u003e is, like his trucks, uniquely free-spirited: love story, blue-collar writer’s tale, and motor-head memoir.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eList of Illustrations\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Introduction\u003cbr\u003e 1. Working-Class Hero\u003cbr\u003e 2. Prodigal Dude\u003cbr\u003e 3. Full Moon Solstice\u003cbr\u003e 4. Turning Pro\u003cbr\u003e 5. The Big One\u003cbr\u003e 6. The Lessons of Light Bulb\u003cbr\u003e 7. Vintage Natal\u003cbr\u003e 8. Aging Out\u003cbr\u003e 9. Arbor Emeritus\u003cbr\u003e 10. The High Ropes\u003cbr\u003e 11. Patina\u003cbr\u003e 12. Last Pickup\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Bison Books","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52676623040792,"sku":"9781496242280","price":15.96,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-essential-book-of-pickup-trucks-paperback-softback-9781496242280","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}