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A review by rponzo
A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins
1.0
In 1973, Mr. Jenkins decides to walk across America. He just graduated from college and is disillusioned with the country; Vietnam and Watergate, Attica Prison riots, all the awfulness of that era…..Which, sure, but I can’t help but be a little nostalgic about those times...pay phones and paper maps. Newspapers and magazines. So charming the use of land lines and the writing of letters. No internet, not ATMS, no cell phones.
Mr. Jenkins wants to give the land of the free and home of the brave a chance so sets out with his plan being to walk and walk, stopping along the way for a few weeks or months to earn money, then continue on his way.
It’s actually a walk halfway across half of America—Jenkins starts in New York State and ends up in New Orleans. (The second half is covered in another book called The Walk West.)
The book began as an article for National Geographic, and Mr. Jenkins comes out of the gate saying he’s not a writer, which, sorry for being so crude, is kind of a dick move.
One might say this book just didn’t age well. But it really couldn’t have that great to begin with. Partly because the narrator is not particularly self-reflective; he is a traveler lacking in curiosity. Also, there’s no central conflict and no metaphorical quest for anything. The whole endeavor seems unimportant.
The plot includes his dog dying, spiritual awakening, and falling in love, but each are just another scene along the way. He stays at “The Farm” in Tennessee (a hippy community that still exists—including the midwives.), almost dies in a snowstorm, and gets hassled by small top cops. He hangs out with a hermit living off the grid. In rural North Carolina, he befriends and lives with a Black family. He describes their poor living conditions and bad diets.
Eventually he moves on, through Alabama which he finds quite lovely. He enjoys meeting the governor, George Wallace. (GW was a racist segregationist well into the 70s. Wikipedia says he changed his views later in life.)
It is probably not fair to hold the book to standards of these woke times. But I don’t know how someone can walk around the south for months and not delve into the topic of racial segregation, the legacy of slavery, generational poverty. Something? Not that this book gives serious consideration to anything.
I swapped it back to the used book shop, maybe someone else will enjoy it more than I did.
Mr. Jenkins wants to give the land of the free and home of the brave a chance so sets out with his plan being to walk and walk, stopping along the way for a few weeks or months to earn money, then continue on his way.
It’s actually a walk halfway across half of America—Jenkins starts in New York State and ends up in New Orleans. (The second half is covered in another book called The Walk West.)
The book began as an article for National Geographic, and Mr. Jenkins comes out of the gate saying he’s not a writer, which, sorry for being so crude, is kind of a dick move.
One might say this book just didn’t age well. But it really couldn’t have that great to begin with. Partly because the narrator is not particularly self-reflective; he is a traveler lacking in curiosity. Also, there’s no central conflict and no metaphorical quest for anything. The whole endeavor seems unimportant.
The plot includes his dog dying, spiritual awakening, and falling in love, but each are just another scene along the way. He stays at “The Farm” in Tennessee (a hippy community that still exists—including the midwives.), almost dies in a snowstorm, and gets hassled by small top cops. He hangs out with a hermit living off the grid. In rural North Carolina, he befriends and lives with a Black family. He describes their poor living conditions and bad diets.
Eventually he moves on, through Alabama which he finds quite lovely. He enjoys meeting the governor, George Wallace. (GW was a racist segregationist well into the 70s. Wikipedia says he changed his views later in life.)
It is probably not fair to hold the book to standards of these woke times. But I don’t know how someone can walk around the south for months and not delve into the topic of racial segregation, the legacy of slavery, generational poverty. Something? Not that this book gives serious consideration to anything.
I swapped it back to the used book shop, maybe someone else will enjoy it more than I did.