The title is a bit of a misnomer, because he doesn’t go all the way across the country, just from his home in Connecticut to New Orleans. Which is plenty far enough! But I thought the map look awfully truncated, and when getting close to the end of the book I realized this was just the first half of his trip. (There’s a second book that details the rest of his journey). Young man in the seventies, disillusioned with life and especially his own country, decided he better get out and see a good part of it, before giving up and leaving (to become an expat I think). Accompanied only by his beloved dog, he walked all that way, stopping at various small towns to find jobs when he needed funds to keep going. He worked in a sawmill in North Carolina, did farm labor in a Tennessee commune, shoveled out horse stalls on a Alabama farm, among other things. He camped where he could in a tent (which the dog usually torn down the next morning in his exuberance, ha), but often just stayed with people who warmly invited him in- sometimes for weeks on end. He lived with an old mountain man in a remote cabin in Virginia, walked part of the Appalachian trail, and got run out of more than one small town because the locals were suspicious of a long-haired looking stranger who looked like a disreputable hippie. (I know this isn’t in order). It was interesting. Especially the section where he lived with a poor black family for so long, he almost forgot he was the only fair-skinned person among them. Or the time he ended up at a seminary in a dorm room with space to write, feeling completely out of place but then falling in love with a girl the first time he saw her (end of the book). I liked reading about the characters he met, the small incidents of travel, the stories that honest hardworking people shared with him, how they lived their lives. But a big part of the book was also about his search for spirtuality (although he didn’t seem to realize he was seeking it)- attending Methodist church in small communities, going to a huge revival in Alabama, listening to the rambling commune leader preach. All that a bit tiresome to me, personally- I would have rather read more about the people he met, the wildlife he must have seen, even the weather. His personal take on a personal journey.
Note: don’t be like me, and look through all the photos in the book before reading it. You’ll give yourself a very BIG and SAD SPOILER.
3 Responses
I’ve read this and several other of the man’s books, and for the most part, I’ve enjoyed all of them – some a lot more than others. I don’t have a copy of this one anymore, but I do have a copy of “The Walk West: A Walk Across America 2” in which Peter and Barbara walk from New Orleans, a long way through Texas, barely cross into New Mexico, through Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Oregon, stopping on the Oregon coast in Florence. It’s a worthy follow-up to the first one.
Thanks for the recommendation, Sam! Other reviews of the second book made it sound not-quite-so-great, so I was dubious about that. But now I’ll keep my eye out for it and give it a try.
I haven’t read this one but I’ve read his Looking for Alaska. In fact, I read it before we went to Alaska for the first time and it was extremely helpful — gave us lots of ideas about what to see and do. It was a good read.