SARATOGA SPRNGS — Local residents may remember Michael Grant from his time in the community as co-operator of Saratoga Coffee Traders, as a photographer, as the co-curator of the Empire Film Festival, or in any of the other innumerable things the “accidental serial entrepreneur” entertained in and around Saratoga Springs.
Now, add NOVELIST to the list.
“Eve stormed across The Deerwood parking lot to fetch her paycheck, the magenta stripe in her dark hair twisting with the pounding fury of every step...”
So begins Grant’s 472-page debut novel “The Limited Edition Bicentennial Cadillac Convertible Joy Ride,” newly published by Wordbinders Publishing, an imprint of Journey Institute Press.
“It’s a strong story that’s getting high praise from early readers, and I’m hoping that Saratogians and beyond will discover it,” says Grant, who these days lives in Connecticut with his husband, artist Jon Galt.
“Our 20 years in Saratoga were indelible, of course,” says Grant, “and part of my new novel takes place there.”
The story takes place over the course of a week when a 16-year-old learns a dark family secret and then absconds with an elderly resident desperate to escape her managed care facility. The unlikely pair hit the road in search of the truth in a rare and pristine 1976 convertible Cadillac.
In a unique twist, the car itself serves as the omniscient narrator for the story.
The car as narrator?
Early versions of the story were told in first-person using two narrators, Grant explains. “My husband asked if there was a way to simplify it with a singular narrator, and I jokingly said the only one who knows everything is the car. He said, ‘so what if it’s the car telling the story?’
“I immediately rejected the idea, fearing correlations to My Mother the Car and Herbie, but then I set my ego aside and considered it. It couldn’t be a talking, haunted or magical car,” Grant says. “I’ve owned 19 cars in my short life, and every time I sold or traded one, I felt like I was saying goodbye to a friend who seemed to know me. I channeled that feeling, solidified the device, and then proceeded to completely rewrite the entire novel from this new perspective.”
The novel is available at a variety of bookstores, including via Northshire Bookstore Saratoga, and through the author’s website at: michaeljaigrant.com.
