“The Packard Salesman” by Will Tinkham

Ike Savich wanted to play baseball for the soul and carve the US presidents from stone for money. He never wanted the words he’d scribbled to pour out his tremendous guilt to see the light of day. And he certainly never cared about meeting real gangsters, whose names everyone knew from papers.

Yet, since this is a novel by Will Tinkham, and it is his inimitable trademark style to make his characters go through the things both they and the readers least expect, Ike’s plans are about to crash with reality. In the most dramatic way possible.

“The Packard Salesman” isn’t about a man who sells cars for a living. Although one might come to question this statement, considering the regularity with which Ike is sought after by potential buyers craving to take possession of a Packard he happens to own at the time. This is a story about the zigzags of life that are presented only to those who are adventurous enough to jump on board. And the trick is not to lose one’s spirit after the first risky spin that, more often than not, ends in a painful fall.

For Ike Savich, his rollercoaster ride of a life keeps throwing him down and hurting him. Yet, something helps him to always scrape himself off the ground after each fall and move forward. It is in this manner that young Ike makes his way – always in a Packard, but not in the same one – from a puny mining town in Minnesota to the shine and glamour of Hollywood. To learn how exactly he made it happen, you’ll have to read the book. I won’t give any spoilers. Okay, maybe one. On his way, amidst the lush green groves and the murmur of the ocean waves of California, he meets none other than John Steinbeck. And this meeting becomes a turning point in Ike’s choice of a professional path, as well as a powerful boost to set him off on that path.

One quote from the book went straight into my ‘chest of life wisdom.’ “He’s a walking, talking example that you don’t have to be smart to be rich – just inscrutable.” A character says that about Sigmund Ziegfeld, a showman and entrepreneur who buys one of Ike’s Packards to showcase it as the one belonging to the guy kidnapped by Baby Face Nelson himself. It doesn’t bother him that it isn’t the same car. In show business, representation means more than facts. Inscrutability helps earn money, while openness often keeps people poor. Moreover, in Ike Savich’s case, willingness to do the right thing may bring about results that verge on the catastrophic. Again, to know what I mean, you’ll have to read the book. I won’t say more.

A reference to the character of another book in the Americana series made me start reading “The Adventures of Hank Fenn” right after I finished “The Packard Salesman.” And now, with only one instalment left unread in the series, I’m not sure whether to feel elated or deflated. I guess the remedy to this is to begin rereading all the books sometime soon.