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maneatingbadger's review
adventurous
funny
informative
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
annemariewellswriter's review
4.0
I really loved this book. I started this book on my way down to Colorado, and tried to find time throughout the days afterward in order to listen to as much as I could. It was the perfect balance of history and natural history and memoir.
I loved learning the back stories of all the places that Heat-Moon visited. I got a particular kick out of the parts covering upstate new york where I'm from. The way that he recalled and described conversations reminded me of Hemingway. It was interesting to me listening to Heat-Moon express feelings of Impostor Syndrome. He recalled feeling like he did not accomplish anything noteworthy with his road trip and his experience touring the most remote areas of the United States. Clearly he accomplished a great deal, and published a fantastic memoir of his experience, but still, he felt like perhaps he wasted his time.
I can't give it five stars, however, purely on the fact that the way he described women verses men had a distinct sexist overtone. It is clear that his descriptions of women were on a basis solely on whether or not they were attractive... whereas descriptions of men had to do with their occupations, the sounds of their voices, perception of what their world experience might be, etc. Women's descriptions had to do solely on their faces, the color of their hair, the size of their breasts and their body. This difference in characterization was a real disappointment to me.
Since the parts where I heard his sexism shine through were not the focus point of the book as a whole, I still give it four stars. I look forward to reading other works by Heat-Moon.
I loved learning the back stories of all the places that Heat-Moon visited. I got a particular kick out of the parts covering upstate new york where I'm from. The way that he recalled and described conversations reminded me of Hemingway. It was interesting to me listening to Heat-Moon express feelings of Impostor Syndrome. He recalled feeling like he did not accomplish anything noteworthy with his road trip and his experience touring the most remote areas of the United States. Clearly he accomplished a great deal, and published a fantastic memoir of his experience, but still, he felt like perhaps he wasted his time.
I can't give it five stars, however, purely on the fact that the way he described women verses men had a distinct sexist overtone. It is clear that his descriptions of women were on a basis solely on whether or not they were attractive... whereas descriptions of men had to do with their occupations, the sounds of their voices, perception of what their world experience might be, etc. Women's descriptions had to do solely on their faces, the color of their hair, the size of their breasts and their body. This difference in characterization was a real disappointment to me.
Since the parts where I heard his sexism shine through were not the focus point of the book as a whole, I still give it four stars. I look forward to reading other works by Heat-Moon.
8little_paws's review
4.0
I ended up really liking this travelogue from over 40 years ago. Occasionally I would pick up my phone to Google the little towns and see what they're like now (if even still in existence). Yes-- sometimes it got a little slow, but just skim a few pages and I'd end up sucked back in. It reads like a series of blog posts. He hits the region I grew up in and I think he caught the spirit of that region during that time well.
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