Murray Tepper would say that he is an ordinary New Yorker who is simply
trying to read the newspaper in peace. But he reads while sitting behind
the wheel of his parked car, and his car always seems to be in a
particularly desirable parking spot. Not surprisingly, he is regularly
interrupted by drivers who want to know if he is going out.
Tepper isn't going out. Why not? His explanations tend to be rather
literal: the indisputable fact, for instance, that he has twenty minutes
left on the meter.
Tepper's behavior sometimes irritates the people who want his spot. ("Is
that where you live? Is that car rent-controlled?") It also irritates
the mayor--Frank Ducavelli, known in tabloid headlines as Il Duce--who
sees Murray Tepper as a harbinger of what His Honor always calls "the
forces of disorder."
But once New Yorkers become aware of Tepper, some of them begin to
suspect that he knows something they don't know. And an ever-increasing
number of them are willing to line up for the opportunity to sit in his
car with him and find out.
Tepper Isn't Going Out is a wise and witty story of an ordinary man who,
perhaps innocently, changes the world around him.
BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Calvin Trillin's Quite
Enough of Calvin Trillin.
