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California Dreaming: A Smooth-running, Low-mileage, Cut-price American AdventureSnagging.org In association with Amazon.co.ukOnline Shop | Property Guides | Kitchen & Home | Garden Tools | Power Tools | Consumer Electronics Get the Snagging Checklist Here! California Dreaming: A Smooth-running, Low-mileage, Cut-price American Adventure by: Lawrence Donegan  Dewey Decimal Number: 381.456292220979474 EAN: 9780140291667 ISBN: 0140291660 Label: Penguin Books Ltd Manufacturer: Penguin Books Ltd Number Of Pages: 240 Publication Date: April 07, 2002 Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd Studio: Penguin Books Ltd Related Items:
Editorial Review: Amazon.co.uk Review: Some time after he quit as bass-player with 80s popsters the Bluebells, 30-something Scot Lawrence Donegan became a Californian used-car salesman. California Dreaming is his account of that unique spiritual journey. It could have been a literary disaster. Thankfully Donegan is as good with a word processor as he was with a Rickenbacker: California Dreaming is funny, clever, sharp and very readable. And as the book chugs spiritedly along, investigating the seamy underside (and overside) of daily life at Orchard Pre-Owned Autos, it also pulls the neat trick of making you like and empathise with the victims of its well-observed satire. The narrative dynamic of this travelogue-cum-autobiography derives from the reader's wonderment at whether Donegan will ever sell a motor. He starts off by being amusingly awful, a "greenpea", he can't "work the line" to save his life. But with tuition from his colourful comrades on the car lot, he improves. By the end he's a real pro, able to sell a 77 Mustang just as well as Tony "The Tank" Tognazzini. En route to this ultimate epiphany, Donegan goes to classic LA parties and clichéd LA shopping malls, thereby getting to see a slice of the American Dream from the perspective of the American Worker. If the result isn't immortal reportage, it's still a hoot: California Dreaming is a very decent little runner indeed. --Sean Thomas Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Surprisingly entertainingThis sat on my shelf for over a year before, having run out of reading material, I finally gave it a go. What a delayed pleasure! Nothing much happens - the author sells cars; other people sell cars; we learn a little about pretensions in Silicon Valley - but the book is written with an entertaining turn of phrase which makes the last chapter's phoney epiphany pretty much forgiveable. Rating: - Do you know the way to San Jose.I bought this at Heathrow before travelling to California for a holiday. Perfect. A great perspective on the commercialism of the American dream as seen from the world's biggest used car lot in San Jose, CA. A story about ordinary sales folk that should be filmed with Robert Carlyle playing the lead. It would make a latterday chrome fendered Glengarry Glenross. Rating:  - If you've ever worked in sales you'll know!This is a very funny tale of a bass player turned journalist fulfilling a dream to move to America, after a chance meeting with an old friend from university, who had started his own company in silicon valley. On meeting his prospective colleagues, he decides he does not want the relatively easy life and decides to try out as used car salesman at the same place he bought a car, a couple of days earlier. This is a tale of one man trying to grasp the American dream and the salesman of the month award and those who would have it for themselves. This book is extremely well written and in my opinion it's only drawback is that I wish there had been a hundred pages more of it. Rating: - Brilliant book from Scotty Scott, the Scotsman from ScotlandBetter than Bryson. One edition of this book is listed under Travel/Holiday whilst another is catalogued as Biography. That is the difference. Bryson is a traveller - who is on holiday. This is Donegan's life. And because he spends more time with people you get a better insight into the places he visits. Europe from a caddy's bag, rural Ireland from a local newspaper & California from a second hand (pre-owned)car lot. Come on Bill, tour Britain as a bass player with the Bluebells & write Notes from a small mini-Van? Rating: - Well worth a readI picked this up in Newcastle airport and found it hard to put down. Everyone should be a used car salesman at some stage in their life. I was and enjoyed the book, it's a very easy read which brings out a few chuckles.  Try searching the Internet for "California Dreaming: A Smooth-running, Low-mileage, Cut-price American Adventure" or Ebay for "California Dreaming: A Smooth-running, Low-mileage, Cut-price American Adventure". You might also be interested in the following great products:
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