Great Race: The Amazing Round-the-World Auto Race of 1908 Book

The Great Race by Gary Blackwood is a very well written book about a race from New York to Paris, taking place in February of 1908. With the first car ever made would have only been around for 23 years at this time. Cars not being as advanced has they are today adds lots of action as they drive through snow, mud and desert. The six different cars with very different styles of drives. With their own way of getting throw the difficult race. The different ways people actually participated in the race is what made this book interesting to me in the first place. This book follows the racers threw their ups and downs all the way from New York to Paris. These ups and down causing me to want to read more of the story. Blackwood's purpose for writing this story is to show that there are many ways to do the same thing. For example the racers, needing to cross the ocean on a ship. They all agreed to cross at the same time but each took different ship " by train just in time to board a steamer that sailed for Alaska on the 26th. If they missed that ship, they would have to wait nearly a week for the next one". So, they all shipped separately because in waiting for one they would all miss the ship so some left and others didn't quite make it.

Six different cars with six different drivers shows that there are many ways to finish the race. Blackwood shows that all the ways will get to the end but some are better ways to get there. The American car getting to the end first shows that their way was better than the others way. This style of writing shows that there are many ways to do something but some are better than others. Blackwood expresses this very well in his writing. Each car had its own plan on how to get through each part of the race, which causes the story not to be repetitive . Blackwood uses the different ideas from each car to make you question what is going to happen next. Blackwood doing this makes the story very interesting at all points. I would give The Great Race by Blackwood a 4 out of 5 the story is very interesting at all points. It constantly makes you want to keep reading.