Review of Twist of the Wrist

[Alicia Salanick]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Twist of the Wrist" by David Andersen.]

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3 out of 5 stars

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Twist of the Wrist: A Young Man’s Travels In the 1960s by David P Andersen is a short novel describing the main character’s travels across the United States on his motorcycle as he tries out different careers and finds his true calling. At the book's opening, Edgar works in a lumber yard in Montana. From Montana, he travels to Iowa to visit Bestemor, an elderly character living in a nursing home who seems to be his grandmother. After this visit, Edgar dreams of traveling south, but he instead ends up in Wisconsin watching an air show. Next we see Edgar in Camano Island, Washington, in the Puget Sound. Here, Edgar is working at a marina. We follow him on his journeys and jobs in Minnesota, Kansas City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and even across the Atlantic in Germany. He works in various industries - a print shop, a computer factory, as a beekeeper, and as a jazz musician. He goes back to college in San Francisco. He has an epiphany on a canoe trip around the Great Lakes - “A family working together protecting, growing, sharing and having a good time while doing it, something he had always sort-of known but not until now did the truth of it hit him hard. That’s what life is for!” At the conclusion of the book, Edgar meets his future wife at a ballroom dance.

The novel felt very pieced together and disjointed. One chapter didn’t necessarily lead to the next in any reliable pattern. I’m not even sure if it was told chronologically or not. There were some nice themes that I could see the author repeating to tie things together a little bit - the twist of the wrist phrase was used frequently and pointedly throughout. I enjoyed the message of the importance of family, but it wasn’t supported by the text. Edgar has his epiphany about life being all about building a family about halfway through the novel, but then he doesn’t pursue this goal in any meaningful way until the last chapter where the author describes Edgar meeting his future wife in a few sentences. Meanwhile, we got full pages written about a college romance with another woman that went nowhere.

I would rate the novel three stars out of five. It was meandering and disjointed with pointless interludes that did nothing to advance the plot or overall theme. This novel would have benefited from a heavy editing mostly to piece the sections together in a more structured way, but also to correct for spelling and grammar errors. It might have worked better as a collection of short stories. Some of the descriptions of Edgar’s work and insights were interesting and well-written, but overall everything needed to be tied together better.

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Twist of the Wrist
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[Shaniz Tobiaz]

Edgar must have really tried to find his calling, i would like to know more about him, this therefore a must read for me.

[Subroto Chatterjee 1]

Twist of the Wrist: A Young Man's Travels in the 1960s is a personal time capsule, taking you back to an era of adventure, change, and exploration. The writer tells his travels as if he's sharing a friend's favorite road trip stories over coffee. It's not where he went—it's the people, the culture, and the feeling of freedom that defined the '60s.

While parts of it do lag a bit, the book is undeniably sweet. If you like memoirs, travel books, or just a good dose of nostalgia, this one's worth reading.

[Mark Lazarus]

The concept of following someone’s journey across different places and careers sounds intriguing, especially with the personal growth aspect. But the lack of structure and the disconnect between themes would probably make it a frustrating read for me. I prefer stories that feel cohesive and purposeful, so I’m not sure this one would be my cup of tea.