YA-- Bodett, public radio commentator and the voice of Motel 6, has written another book about the folks in End of the Road. Meeting his characters is like meeting people in a small town with real-life pleasures and problems. Junkyard owner Argus Winslow took 25 years to ask Ruby McClay for a date, and never understood the ``indelicacy'' of bringing rabbit stew to an annual Easter egg hunt. Emmit Frank, city manager, succumbs to the beauty and natural pleasures (fishing) of Alaska. Doug McDoogan's newfound success from the sale of wildlife wood carvings brings more money than he knows what to do with. Fritz Ferguson learns that quitting when the going gets rough doesn't solve problems. Ed Flannigan loses his arm in a bulldozer accident, remains strong for his family, but is able to deal with his real feelings through the support of a friend. YAs who like Garrison Keillor and Patrick McManus will enjoy this book.-- Carol Clark, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

With this reprise to The End of the Road (1989), various skits and sketches concerning the denizens of a small Mayberry-like Alaskan town, Bodett, best known for his lucrative gig as the Motel-6 spokesman, makes a fair bid to become the Garrison Keillor of oil-spill country. ""The End of the Road. . .gets more than its fair share of novel individual,"" Bodett says, and then sets out to prove it with a cast of off-the-wall comic types, mostly idiosyncratic buffoons we're supposed to smile at affectionately. His theme this time is love: Argus Winslow, known as the ""junkyard tycoon,"" suffers from memory lapses but carries on a booklong romance with Ruby McClay of Ruby's Video Roundup when his girlfriend ""left the state and died."" Late in the book Ruby accepts his befuddled proposal. Elsewhere, vegetarian activist Tamara Dupree--whose first love, a military heart-surgeon, turns into a downer--teams up with Tony Tobias, a sort of holistic physician. The ""displaced bureaucrat"" Emmitt Frank--for whom ""the terms happy and camper had never occurred in the same sentence""--finally finds Matty, a 40-year-old single mother. But for Ed Flanagan, things get reversed: wife Emily leaves him for ""a week-long personal-insight seminar,"" forcing Ed to care for a brood of kids; and then she goes to work on the oil-spill cleanup, a situation Ed at first resents but later comes to accept. Thirteen-year-old Norman grows up: he deals with a bully, then falls in love with Laura, whose babysitting lessons begin to cause a problem for him. Finally, Doug McDoogan, who finished The End of the Road as a successful woodcarver, discovered by high society, continues to carve driftwood--and to prevaricate as he realizes that no longer can he simply move up and away when his lies are found out. A pleasant, inoffensive collection--full of the good will and optimism of Bodett's commercials. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Bodett, Alaskan humorist ( The End of the Road ), returns to the old garage in the small Alaskan town of End of the Road, a local landmark where the colorful characters in this miscellany gather to tell and retell their stories. The town has grown somewhat--now there's a town hall, a mayor and a few cafes--but the garage is still the place for gossip. We learn of the unlikely romance of some oldsters--the junkyard king and the town's confirmed spinster--and observe the puppy loves of younger generations. We follow the struggle of a couple trying to rebuild their house according to very different mental pictures. Sadness permeates the little community's rallying around a favorite son who loses his arm in a tractor accident. The stories, like the characters, are plain and simple, evocative of life in a frontier state. Readers will place Bodett, a radio personality, in the company of such commentators on Americana as Garrison Keillor. First serial to Redbook; author tour. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

A second collection of stories about life as it is supposedly lived in the mythical town in Alaska known as End of the Road. Comparison with its predecessor ( The End of the Road, LJ 9/15/89) would be difficult for the simple reason that they are essentially not two books, but one. Unfortunately, however, Bodett used most of his good material in The End of the Road. There are signs in The Big Garage on Clearshot of flagging vitality. One more such book and the interest with which such characters as Ed Flanagan, Tamara Dupree, and Argus Winslow were greeted may grind to a halt. Readers unacquainted with the place and the crew shouldn't begin with this book. It's strictly for fans--but await requests.-- A.J. Anderson, Graduate Sch. of Library & Information Science, Simmons Coll., Boston (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.