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Roads : Driving America's Great Highways
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Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
List Price: $13.00
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As he crisscrosses America -- driving in search of the present, the past, and himself -- Larry McMurtry shares his fascination with this nation's great trails and the culture that has developed around them.
Ever since he was a boy growing up in Texas only a mile from Highway 281, Larry McMurtry has felt the pull of the road. His town was thoroughly landlocked, making the highway his "river, its hidden reaches a mystery and an enticement. I began my life beside it and I want to drift down the entire length of it before I end this book."
In Roads, McMurtry embarks on a cross-country trip where his route is also his destination. As he drives, McMurtry reminisces about the places he's seen, the people he's met, and the books he's read, including more than 3,000 books about travel. He explains why watching episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show might be the best way to find joie de vivre in Minnesota; the scenic differences between Route 35 and I-801; which vigilantes lived in Montana and which hailed from Idaho; and the history of Lewis and Clark, Sitting Bull, and Custer that still haunts Route 2 today.
As it makes its way from South Florida to North Dakota, from eastern Long Island to Oregon, Roads is travel writing at its best.
PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS:
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 917.304929
EAN: 9780684868851
ISBN: 0684868857
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 208
Publication Date: 2001-06-05
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
Expansive, erudite, and personal -
Without pretense, lofty philosophical purposes, or political agendas, Larry McMurtry hops in a car and drives through the highways of our country, providing a running dialogue with the reader. Geographical descriptions interrupted by interjections of travel challenges play a secondary role to references of other writers, books, and life's experiences, making Roads a semi-autobiographical account of a bookman/writer's life. Like many of his fiction works, McMurtry's life has been a journey down the road of book collecting, reading, writing, speaking, and the entertainment industry.
His enviable career and obvious dedication to excellence, as demonstrated by several bestselling books, as well as his vast book store in Archer City, show Larry McMurtry to be one of the most interesting and productive writers of our time. Few writers working today can boast (which he never does) of successful fiction, non-fiction, and screenplays, not to mention an unparalleled knowledge of books and literature.
This particular book is an enjoyable, relaxing read filled with factual anecdotes, literary and historical references, and a multitude of opinions on cities, regions, and the countryside. Unlike his works of fiction that seem to avoid any kind of judgment on human behavior, while insisting on great story-telling for their value, this book has no real story yet is not afraid of taking a few sentences to offer judgment of past or current events. In a way, this makes for a refreshing read and offers the opportunity to wade in the world McMurtry is presenting.
His consistently smooth prose, erudite perceptions of people and other writers, and his ability to capture the essence of the moment, blend well with descriptions of the land and a pictorial vision of the road. Get out a map and travel with Mr. McMurtry down the road of life and its joys as you read this fine collection of essays. Aside from the personal meanderings that may or may not have interest to a wide audience, this book is no more and no less than it purports: a book of highway journeys through the United States.
I continue to enjoy his non-fiction works more than his fiction, but certainly benefit from both. Those new to the world of Larry McMurtry might prefer alternating between both as a way to gain from great story-telling as well as the perceptions of a well-traveled bookman.
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One of the Worst, Most Pointless Books Ever Written -
The title says it all. This book represents an unethical fleecing of the reader. I read it, yes, and by the time I finished, I was burning up with indignation. McMurtry has permanently lost all credibility with me. Yes, he succeeded in getting the dollars out of my pocket this one time, (and I hope he chokes on them), but it will never happen again. Caveat emptor. It is junk. I love books and treasure mine, but I tossed this one without a backward glance. It is the proverbial outhouse paper-source. Even if it is available at $0.01, it is overpriced.
Enough said.
A Book Rich with Reflection and Introspection -
This book is rich with personal reflection and introspection, as well as valuable insights about the roads travelled and its various destinations and passing points. McMurtry, the author of Lonesome Dove and other novels, recounts his travels on a number of roads that criss-cross the country in various ways. He gives us the ups and downs of the roads, and let's us in on what they have meant for him during his prolific life as a novelist and screenwriter. There is much personal revelation about his childhood and his father, and a lot of reflection and insight about the peoples and places covered by his travels. He is brutally honest in his views on peoples and places he does not like, which, for me, was unexpected but somewhat refreshing in that other travel books can sugar coat local character and place deficiencies. There are travel books written by individuals in search of adventure, or the unique, or the interesting angle. McMurtry's book takes another route, and brings his writer's/novelist's perceptions into play for the benenfit of the reader. Here and there the book takes the tone of a protracted traffic report, or the grumblings of a grumpy, frustrated driver, but overall the book is a literary work, worthy of more than a test drive.
Enjoyable, quick overview of US Interstates -
McMurtry provides a good macro level take on various US Interstates. If you're looking for minute details of each route, this book is not for you. But if a brief synopsis of what the whole highway system and the literature particular to each region mean to him sounds like an intriguing topic, I encourage you to check it out.
His observations for the handful of roads with which I am familiar, were spot on, particularly I-35. This gave the rest of his reports instant credibility and allowed me to trust with increased confidence his opinions. I really liked his analogy of the interstate system to rivers (he refers to the beginnings of roads as headwaters and talks about highways' merging like the juncture of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers).
Furtherly enjoyable were his notes on various other writers. As a novice literature enthusiast, his recommendations and anecdotes were very helpful; although, perhaps to a more grizzled book veteran, this wouldn't be nearly as beneficial. Overall, I enjoyed this quick read.
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Best of Its Genre -
I came to this book with perhaps an unusual background in that I'd not read much, if any, of McMurtry's fiction (although like most filmgoers I'd seen a lot of his overall product). On the other hand, I have read much of the American "on the road" travel literature from Steinbeck to Theroux to Least Heat Moon to Bryson, but I didn't enjoy any of them as much as Larry McMurtry's present book and it's difficult for me to explain why.
It's not simply that the author avoids autobiography and philosophizing, because he does not. When McMurtry goes off on these tangents, however, it's always in measured portions and is never tedious or preachy. He visits with people on the road but, again, doesn't overdo it by attempting to make icons or archetypes out of the ordinary. These sidebars always seem to help support the ongoing narrative and are almost always informative. What McMurtry really does best of all though is to recreate the feel of an Interstate Highway journey. For someone (like myself) who treasures these kind of journeys, there is a cinematic pleasure in reading his writing, which is present whether McMurtry is describing a road I've already traveled or one I may never see. This is actually the sort of text that a lot of photographs might detract from.
As I said, it's really very tough to explain exactly what is so pleasurable about reading this book (actually, I listened to an Audible.com reading and then bought the paperback for reference afterwards) other than to say it's very much like being on the road on a cloudless spring day in the open country, in no hurry to get where you're going, and being happy just to pick up what the author gives along the way. For me that's more than enough to warrant the highest recommendation.
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