Description
A soulful, explosive debut celebrating the grit, passion, and bravado at Detroit’s last Cadillac factory.
Full of magic and soul, these twelve stories bring to life the people whose energy powered Detroit’s Clark Street Cadillac factory until its last smokestack was airlifted out in 1994. Each story is a tribute to the spirit that transformed Detroit into the Motor City and the Cadillac into America’s premier luxury car. They are also a heartbreaking testament to the decline of the auto industry and the loss of jobs that turned Motown inside out. In Hernandez’s stories, you will meet America—full of love, loss, pride, sweat, dreams, music, comfort food, and engine oil—and, in them, you will recognize yourself.
Awards
2005 PEN/Beyond Magazine Award Winner
2005 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Finalist
Reviews
“Autopsy of an Engine is the most surprising love story I’ve read all year. The workers in the Cadillac factory who populate this book may not be related, but in the hands of the amazing Lolita Hernandez they become one moving multicultural family. …. I stayed up all night reading and for weeks afterward Abbie, who brought a ghost factory back to life, haunted my dreams. This is a passionate cry from the factory floor, a story you can’t forget from a voice that has not been heard before.” —Ruth Reichl
