July 23, 2019

Blue Highways: A Journey into America



Blue Highways: A Journey into America by William Least Heat-Moon
Nonfiction - Travel/Memoir
2013 Hachette Audio (first published in 1982)
Read by Joe Barrett
Finished on July 20, 2019
Rating: 2/5 (Fair)

Publisher's Blurb:

Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation's backroads. William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about "those little towns that get on the map-if they get on at all-only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill: Remote, Oregon; Simplicity, Virginia; New Freedom, Pennsylvania; New Hope, Tennessee; Why, Arizona; Whynot, Mississippi." His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience.

Maybe I should stick to reading travel blogs. Apparently, travel essays are not for me; at least not those of Steinbeck's or Heat-Moon's. I have this book in both print and audio and having just finished almost 18 hours of listening time, I know the print edition would not have held my interest. The only reason I continued with the audio is because I really enjoyed listening to the reader. He was spot-on with all the various accents and his "performance" made the story just interesting enough to keep me listening. Meh.

6 comments:

  1. It sounds like I'm safe to skip this one.

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    1. My mom, stepdad and husband really enjoyed this one. It just wasn't for me.

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  2. The love of my life recommended this book to me, and I read it happily (although probably because I cared more about him than the book itself, as I can’t remember much about it).

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    1. Meredith, the things we do for love! ;) I had such high hopes for this, but it just wasn't meant to be. I have one more "travel across America" type book that is a little more current, so I'll start in on it when we head out on our next road trip. The title is The Longest Road: Overland in Search of America, from Key West to the Arctic Ocean by Philip Caputo.

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  3. I'll never forget reading Blue Highways years and years ago, back when it first came out. I was wowed by how the author walked around and talked to people he met.

    I feel certain it would read as dated now.

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    1. Deb, maybe that was part of my issue. It's almost 40 years old.

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