In his first novel, Red Weather, Pauls Toutonghi explored the world of a son of Latvian immigrants in Milwaukee (a background mirroring his own past as the son of Latvian-Egyptian immigrants). In Evel Knievel Days, he mines his personal history again to follow a confused young man coping with an absent Egyptian-born father, a decidedly non-American name (Khosi Saqr) and borderline OCD tendencies ("I'd once labeled my underwear according to the days of the week"). This time, the story is set in the mountain city of Butte, where a Stetson hat is a "guarantee of authenticity in Montana high society" and native son Evel Knievel is recognized by "America's only festival entirely devoted to motorcycle daredevils."
Khosi can barely get through the day, what with working as a guide in a local history museum, caring for his Wilson's disease-afflicted mother and pining for a local beauty named Natasha. Suddenly, like the slightly mad Knievel, he leaps from Butte to Cairo to run down his father and uncover his Egyptian roots. In the sweltering chaos of the world's second oldest city, Khosi meets the ghost of his great-great-grandfather, confronts his deceptive father, visits his Egyptian relatives and contracts yellow fever. Toutonghi manages to hold all this mayhem together with wit and compassion; in the end, Khosi recognizes that "inhabiting a place doesn't require being in that place," and that "an overflowing platter of falafel" can be "a special peace envoy." --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.