Charley Goode is running—from his past, from his grief, and from the hollow life he’s been sleepwalking through since his brother’s death. The only thing tethering him to the wreckage of memory is his brother’s abandoned ’68 Chevelle, a half-restored project car left to rot in a garage hundreds of miles away. Now, with nothing but a duffel bag, a busted knuckle’s worth of determination, and the open road ahead, Charley sets off to reclaim what’s left of the man he used to be.
From sun-scorched highways to neon-lit dive bars, Panfried Dialogues is a raw, unflinching journey through the heart of American restlessness. Along the way, Charley collides with drifters, dreamers, and ghosts—each one a mirror to his own fractured soul. As the miles blur behind him, he must confront the question that’s been gnawing at him all along: Is he saving the car, or is the car saving him?
In the tradition of Kerouac, Steinbeck, and Denis Johnson, Robert Cavaliere’s novel is a lyrical, gasoline-scented ode to loss, redemption, and the things we chase when there’s nothing left to hold onto.
Charley Goode is running—from his past, from his grief, and from the hollow life he’s been sleepwalking through since his brother’s death. The only thing tethering him to the wreckage of memory is his brother’s abandoned ’68 Chevelle, a half-restored project car left to rot in a garage hundreds of miles away. Now, with nothing but a duffel bag, a busted knuckle’s worth of determination, and the open road ahead, Charley sets off to reclaim what’s left of the man he used to be.
From sun-scorched highways to neon-lit dive bars, Panfried Dialogues is a raw, unflinching journey through the heart of American restlessness. Along the way, Charley collides with drifters, dreamers, and ghosts—each one a mirror to his own fractured soul. As the miles blur behind him, he must confront the question that’s been gnawing at him all along: Is he saving the car, or is the car saving him?
In the tradition of Kerouac, Steinbeck, and Denis Johnson, Robert Cavaliere’s novel is a lyrical, gasoline-scented ode to loss, redemption, and the things we chase when there’s nothing left to hold onto.
"A masterpiece of motion and melancholy—Cavaliere writes with the soul of a poet and the grease-stained hands of a gearhead." — Road Gear
"The road novel, reinvented. Panfried Dialogues is as much about engines as it is about the human heart—both can stall, both can roar back to life." —Zenobia Street Press
