I always resist rating something lower than the average but I just didn't care about most of the characters in this book. Considering it is a character-driven novel and a long one at that, it felt like a failing. I did enjoy all of the WWII passages though. ( )

A good read to understand the generation who went to war when they were far too young and how it affected their entire beings. Myrer did a great job of conveying emotions and feelings of war and the aftermath. ( )

I tried, this time, to read this book analytically- to figure out why it means so much to me, why it looms so large in my head. I don't know that I have a rational answer- the protagonist is a Puritan, bound by duty and hampered by unnecessary suffering. His wife is presented as completely unlikeable, a martinet and a shrew. Really, there aren't a lot of characters here with whom I can identify even a little bit- but it doesn't matter. Somehow, for me, this novel exemplifies a generation. It explains things to me about World War Two, about the people who were caught up in it and changed by it, and how the sixties were born. It's a huge, sweeping portrait of a time that seems golden in retrospect. I adore it still. ( )

i could not relate to any of the characters even though I've lived through many of these eras. The men as well as the woman were not easy to care about in any significant way except in the most tragic part of the book, the polio scare times.
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I never understood my dad until I read this book. This book so completely makes you feel a part of the whole pre-WWII generation and the music that kept them going despite the great depression.HIGHLY recommended! ( )

"The Last Convertible" is a story about love, war, and nostalgic reflection on the past. The opening scene takes place in 1970. Forty-eight year old George Virdon is in his garage tinkering with his classic antique convertible while having a heart-to-heart talk with his future son-in-law Ron, who has recently returned from Vietnam. All George has to do is look at the car, and memories come flooding back. Thus, dropping back in time... he shares those memories....

Most everyone has one or two years of their life that stand out as “the most memorable” - leading to a defining moment or an irreversible path in life. For George Virdon that would be from autumn 1940 through the winter of 1942. In the fall of 1940 George arrived at the Harvard campus prepared to spend the next four years working his butt off. Unlike most of the upper-class privileged freshmen, he was from a modest background and on a full scholarship. So he assumed he would be working every spare moment at part time jobs to supplement his expenses, and the mandatory good grades would require his full commitment to long hours of study.

Little did he know that on his first day he would meet four guys who became his life-long friends, and he would proceed to have the time of his life. Despite the fact that freshmen were not allowed to have a car on campus, Jean Roche Gilbert Rigord des Barres made a grand entrance with a pristine, brilliant green 1938 Packard Super Eight convertible. Jean was a French aristocrat displaced from his home country by the Nazi occupation. The car becomes a symbol for all the guys of the wild, innocent, carefree days that soon follow.

I’ve read plenty of books about the “swing band era” and civilian life immediately preceding WW II, and "The Last Convertible" is exceptional in capturing the atmosphere: wild parties, dancing in the best nightclubs to the live music of Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Harry James, football games, and beach parties. Visualize the Packard convertible loaded with kids, no seat-belts, picking up girls who pile in on laps, top down, each guy carrying a flask of whiskey or brandy. George met his future wife and the love of his life during that fall of 1940.

Even further from George’s imagination was the fact that his education would be interrupted by WW II. As Jean returned home to fight for the French, he left his convertible behind for his new friends to share. Each of the other guys enlisted with pride and patriotism: the Army, Navy, Marines, and ROTC. The war years are covered by a series of letters written by the guys and their girlfriends, scattered in all corners of the earth... Africa, Germany, France, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and from home towns and the Harvard campus. This writing style cleverly allows the reader to capture key moments of the war on a very personal level from the point of view of all the primary characters.

When the war ends, those who were fortunate enough to live through it return home to resume their shattered lives: completing their education, jobs, marriage, and bearing children... they all take different paths. George becomes the anchor binding the group together- and is custodian of the car.

Anton Myrer, having attended Harvard and serving in the Marines during WW II, presents an authentic narrative. However,The Last Convertible is by no means a novel written primarily for a male audience. There are several strong female characters, a discerning focus on women’s issues, romance, love, and lots of drama. A great summer read. ( )

Perhaps my favorite novel of any genre. Told through the eyes of George Virdon, a hardworking working class kid from Towanda, NY. This is a set of stories that cover 25 years or so beginning with a Freshman year at Harvard before WWII and ending during the Vietnam War on the day that Cadillac anounced it was stopping production of the ragtop El-Dorado - the last convertible. What ties the two eras together are the relationships - off and on - of these college friends and the one constant in their seperate lives, "The Empress", a 1938 Packard convertible, given to them by their Bon-Vivant French suitemate who returns to France to figh the Germans. For some of the characters life is about success, fame, for others it's financial comfort and for George it's everything. Love, chances taken or not taken, friendships, politics and war. His experiences as an infantryman in Europe and after coming home, raising a family, only to see his friend's son grapple with the reality of the draft.

Throughout the years, George's solidity and the "Empress" are the book's generational constant. It ends with the youngsters not very interested in the old car as gift. George heads back to the garage and tells the car: "Well old girl, I guess you stay with me." ( )

Ivy League college stdents whose lives are changed by the war. Reminiscent of F Scott Fitzgerald ( )