As the engines roar and the green flag waves, these stories tear across their rural landscape with the energy of a Winston Cup race. Like W.P. Kinsella's minor league ballplayers, Jonis Agee's drivers, pit crews, mechanics, and their families live in small towns, eat at truck stops, and have a hard time keeping their dreams from destroying their lives. From the garage to the kitchen table, from demolition derby to nascar, Agee's hapless heroes open our eyes as they take the wall.
The wildly popular sport of auto racing is a backdrop in these stories for exploration of the creative and destructive aspects of obsession. In farmhouses, mobile homes, and roadside trailer courts, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters all try to figure out how to keep their families running as smoothly as their cars. Taking the Wall is rich with details about racing and rural life, and richer yet in insight into that part of the human spirit that just doesn't know how to quit. Agee takes a personal and compassionate look at a grab bag of individuals linked by obsession.
Good to go
The level of my uncertainty
Over the point of cohesion
The pop off valve
Omaha
What's it take?
The trouble with the truth
Losing downforce
You know I am lying
Getting the heat up
The first obligation
Flat spotting
What I'm doing in Missouri
Dwight Tuggle
Mile a mud
The luck of Junior Strong
Adjusting the bite
Billy Kitchen
Caution
Mystery of numbers