AutoFlick: A Study of Whales and Cigarettes That Became a Novel

“AutoFlick: A Study of Whales and Cigarettes That Became a Novel,” is a contemporary novel centered on the first-person narrative of a 16-year young man trying to come of age in the summer of 1968. Born into a secret sect of Moby Dick disciples, Isaac Yardley did not know what he was getting into when he and his father starting chasing after people who throw cigarettes from cars. He didn't know that it would lead to being tear-gassed in the war on poverty, to a bare-naked chase through the woods, to a Beatles debut in North America and to a meeting with canal people in a dusty café. And when he learned what it cost, he swore off the project. Until years later, when he dragged his own son into the whole sorry mess. The story features numerous historical anecdotes and descriptions of the 60-odd vehicles from which cigarettes are observed being flicked to the road.