On the 7th Day God Created the Chevrolet

The Chevrolet in question is not the family car that Dinah Shore exhorted Americans to use to see the U.S.A. but a gaudy, souped-up, candy-red and pearl-white devil destined for the racing circuit. Wilkinson's sixth novel is based on a combination of interviews she did for her oral history of early stock-car racing ( Dirt Tracks to Glory ) and her own experience as a timer for various race teams. Set in rural North Carolina in the early '60s, the novel concerns Tom Pate and his younger brother Zack. Although Tom's obsession with race-car driving is supposedly the primary story, it is Zack and his rich, warm and hardly predictable evolution that is the better one. Lacking a clear plot line, this overly long novel takes the reader around and around, not unlike a race track going nowhere. Wilkinson does occasionally score, as in her hauntingly beautiful description of the death of a young child, his mother's grief and the women who comfort her. The world seen through the eyes of male characters, on the other hand, is typically superficial, although the dialogue is grittily authentic. Unfortunately, what Wilkinson says of one of her characters could be applied to her novel as a whole: ``Words ran out of her mouth like a radio disc jockey who was afraid of a moment of silence. . . .'' Author tour. (Sept.)