The Gold Cadillac
by Mildred D. Taylor
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Book Summary Information
Author: Mildred D. TaylorBrand: Penguin Group USA
Illustrator: Max Ginsberg
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-02-01
ISBN: 0140389636
Number of pages: 48
Publisher: Puffin
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780140389630
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Gold Cadillac
Book Review: A great book in every sense of the term.
Summary: 5 Stars
Beware the spoilers.
First published by Mildred D. Taylor through the Penguin Group in 1987, "The Gold Cadillac" is one of the greatest- and shortest- books I have ever read. At a mere 43 pages, it is on the borderline of novels and short stories. I consider it a novel, but perhaps 'novella' is more like it. Anyway. I first read this book in elementary school. I remember clearly seeing a book as I scanned over a library shelf one day. "The Gold Cadillac". Being a great lover of cars since the earliest of ages, I could not resist picking the book up and taking a closer look. Soon, I read it. Then I checked it out and read it again. Yet, for some reason, it took me over ten years to finally get my own copy. Now I have one, and having read it again for the first time in years, I regret taking so long to purchase a copy of my own.
The book's namesake is a gold-painted, gold-upholstered 1950 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, purchased suddenly and unexpectedly by the father of a black family living in Toledo, Ohio. The story of the Cadillac's arrival at this family's home is not explained firsthand, but rather is explained piece by piece as the story progresses. We learn that the unnamed father of the family stopped by a Cadillac dealership on his way home one day, trading in the not even year-old Mercury for it. The car's magnificence and grandeur soon makes this family the talk of the neighborhood, and the main character, young Lois, and her sister Wilma are enthralled with it. So are their uncles, aunts, and all the others who stop by to look, or see the car while walking through the neighborhood. But one person is not, someone whose staunch dislike for the gleaming new Cadillac changes things dramatically- the mother of the family. They had been saving up to buy a newer, better house, and the Mercury they'd owned before had been perfectly good. The cost of the new car sets them back on the planned new house considerably, making Lois' mother very unhappy with her husband's spontaneous purchase. She also resents his decision to buy the car without speaking to her first at all. She soon says that since her husband bought it alone, he can ride in the Cadillac alone as well. But when Lois' father decides to drive down to Mississippi to visit relatives, all the talk about the Cadillac, positive and negative, subsides in the face of a much bigger issue. In the segregated South of the 1950's, a new Cadillac with Northern plates and a black family inside will not be met with the admiring looks and enthusiastic compliments it has been so far. Despite all the attempts made to dissuade him from making the trip, Lois' father does so, and her mother decides to accompany Lois, Wilma, her husband and their aunts and uncles on the drive to Mississippi.
The trip goes exactly as expected- Kentucky, Tennessee, and most of all Mississippi are far from welcoming to this family and their new car. Pulled over by a pair of Mississippi state troopers, Lois' father is accused of stealing the car. The troopers refuse to believe that a black man could, through his own honest work, afford to pay for such a car as this Cadillac. Released with a fine for 'speeding', they drive back North and borrow the Chevrolet of a relative to make the rest of the trip. Lois has a conversation with her father, expressing her long-standing confusion over why so many "Whites only" signs are seen in the South, and why a black man behind the wheel of a Cadillac is viewed with suspicion and hate rather than respect and admiration. Lois cannot understand why such simple facts- that her father paid for the car with his own hard-earned money and should have the right to drive it wherever he wants- are willingly ignored by so many in America, especially below the Mason-Dixon Line. Her father answers her questions as best he can, but has no concrete answer, no great revelation or solution. We are shown the utter wrongness, the blind hate, of racism and prejudice, of segregation and racial discrimination of all kinds. Books like this do not make those of us who are terribly proud to be Southern. This centers around one of the most, if not the most,shameful parts of our history. There is something very wrong with a place where a man cannot drive down the street behind the wheel of a car he paid for.
Returning home, the Cadillac is put away in a garage. One day it disappears, and Lois' father returns home on foot. The DeVille has been sold. Another Mercury is soon factory-ordered, and until then the family, united once again, rides around in an old 1930's Ford. The Cadillac, grand as it was, divided the family and caused more trouble than it was worth. Lois vows she will never forget it or the trip to Mississippi, and what they saw and went through along the way.
This is a book largely written for elementary school students, but one I would recommend to anybody interested in a little story about the grandeur of one gold Cadillac and the wrongheadedness of an older, more hateful and prejudiced America. Despite its small size, I consider it to be one of the best books I have ever read.
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