The Flamethrowers

The Flamethrowers is a historical fiction novel published in 2013 by the American author Rachel Kushner. It follows the story of Reno, a young woman experiencing the turbulence of the 1970s in New York City. An aspiring artist, Reno finds herself in remarkable situations both in New York and abroad in Italy. Kushner weaves Italian and American history to highlight how people experience the implications of the societies and histories they inherit. Kushner subverts typical genre and novel structures and creates her own type of unstructured novel that still holds the necessary parallel structure to develop nuanced characters. Published by Scribner, the novel is a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the National Book Award.    

Plot Summary

In 1975, a young woman moves to New York City after graduating from art school in her home state of Nevada. She is lonely but eager for adventure. Her only friend is a diner waitress named Giddle, who seems to make up most of her stories. One night, the young woman is out exploring the city and unceremoniously meets Thurman and Nadine, a wealthy-looking couple who invite her to stay and drink with them. A friend of theirs appears. He is young, handsome, and nicknames the woman from Nevada Reno. The night is turbulent, but Reno ends up in bed with the friend, whose name she does not know. It’s only one night, but it stays with her.

Reno finds a job with a film production company. One day her bosses tell her that a man has been asking about her. Reno hopes it’s the nameless stranger from that night, but instead it is a wealthy, older, Italian artist named Sandro. They begin dating and Reno is whisked into a highly chaotic and intoxicating lifestyle of wealthy creative and intellectual types. She meets Sandro’s best friend, Ronnie—the same stranger from the one-night stand. Reno navigates her relationship with Sandro while hiding her attraction to Ronnie. Sandro is kind to her, but also can’t tell if Sandro is with her because he truly loves her or because he likes to pick and choose the women he surrounds himself with.

Reno is a landscape artist inspired by speed; she photographs the tracks of motorcycles and other high-speed vehicles in remarkable backdrops. She has the idea to go back to Nevada for the races on the salt flats. Sandro is the inheritor of the Valera company, a business that mostly deals with tires but was founded by an Italian who created the fastest passenger motorcycle. Sandro sets her up with a Moto Valera, and Reno goes to Nevada to pursue speed and art. She crashes the motorcycle but manages to photograph the tracks left in the salt flats. She recovers from her injuries with the Moto Valera team, who have her drive the Spirit of Italy in order to break a women’s world record. Triumphant in her achievement, the team ask her to come to Italy for a photoshoot and a press tour for Moto Tires. Sandro is unhappy with this turn of events, because he has spent his entire adult life trying to separate himself from his family name and business.

One night, Sandro shoots a boy who had attempted to mug them in the street. He decides to give Reno his blessing to go to Italy and also to accompany her, to put some distance between him and the shooting. In Italy, Reno is overwhelmed by the sophisticated cruelty of Sandro’s family, who very obviously disapprove of Sandro’s lifestyle and his too-young American girlfriend. The Valera family business faces a difficult challenge: Labor rights movements in Italy have villainized the Valeras. Strikes stop work at the factory and become violent. One day, the mysterious groundskeeper of the Valera family villa brings Reno with him to the factory where the family is holding an emergency meeting with the strikers. At the factory, Reno stumbles upon Sandro kissing his dramatic and intimidating cousin Talia. Reno runs back to the groundskeeper’s car, and when he finds her he drives them both to Rome.

In Rome, Reno discovers that the groundskeeper Gianni is a leading member of the Red Brigade, an organization determined to bring down inequitable and abusive family businesses like that of the Valeras. Reno participates in a massive labor rights march in Rome, but when it turns into a riot she and Gianni escape the tear gas and hide in his apartment. One day, he asks her to bring him to the Alps. She drives to France to meet up with him after whatever mission he has in the Alps is finished, but by the end of the novel the reader is still unsure if Gianni ever showed up.

After Italy, Reno returns to New York where she tries to pursue her attraction to Ronnie, now that she and Sandro are broken up. Ronnie rejects her, and Sandro finds a new girlfriend. News breaks that Roberto, Sandro’s older brother and the head of the family business, has been kidnapped by the Red Brigade. After a few days of stalemate, the Red Brigade kills Roberto. Sandro returns to Italy, and Reno finds herself completely alone again.

In the past, Sandro’s father Valera discovers the same need for speed as Reno. Valera grew up in North Africa but moved back to Italy as a teenager. There, he grows a passion for motorcycles. In World War I, he fights on the back of a motorcycle, which is when he comes up with the idea of creating his own motorcycle. The Moto Valera becomes the fastest motorcycle in the world and is redesigned for both passenger use and wartime use. Valera makes the majority of his money during World War II, when he transitioned the company to tire producing. He sets up shop in Brazil, where deplorable abuse of Indigenous workers makes his rubber production astronomically successful. He handles his finances in Switzerland to avoid the socialization and nationalization of industries in Mussolini’s Italy. While World War II decimates Italy’s economy and spirit, Valera comes out of it wealthier than ever.