Book Review — The Ride

J. Harold Melton’s “The Ride” is a very masculine novel.  What do I mean by that?  It smells like aftershave and bourbon and axle grease, with maybe an overtone of testosterone.  This doesn’t mean that The Ride isn’t the kind of book that women wouldn’t like – it isn’t masculine in the stereotypical shoot-em-up way, or the sports and crotch scratching way.  It’s more like leather armchairs and cigars.

And biker bars.

In fact, much of the action takes place in a biker bar.  Travis Waite is a former national-level athlete whose life took a turn after a tragedy.  Overweight and depressed, when his estranged father dies and leaves him his estate, he takes a break from his every day life to clean out his father’s house.  There, he meets a collection of characters: bikers (both bicyclists and motorcyclists), alcoholics and bartenders, and finds redemption.  Many of the characters aren’t people: they are cars and bikes and bottles of booze and comic books. 

Richly detailed, The Ride is ultimately a book about facing your demons in whatever form they take and loving people as they come to you.

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For more information or to buy The Ride, click here.