Larry McMurtry criscrosses America -- driving in search of the present, the past, and himself -- as he shares his fascination with this nation's great trails and the culture that has grown up on either side of 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..."
And 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 has read, including more than 3,000 about travel. He describes why episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show might be the best place to find joie de vivre in Minnesota; the scenic differences between Routes 35 and I-80; which vigilantes lived in Montana and which hailed from Idaho; and the history of Lewis and Clark, Sitting Bull, and Custer that still haunt Route 2 today.
From South Florida to North Dakota, from Eastern Long Island to Oregon, Roads is travel writing at its best.
Library JournalMcMurty, who won a Pulitzer Prize for Lonesome Dove and Oscar for the screenplay for The Last Picture Show, has now delved into the "on the road" genre. He covers most of the country with the exception of the Northeast (reflecting a dislike of I-95) and limits his roads to primarily interstate highways, usually flying to some point in the United States, renting a car, and driving back via the interstates to his home in Archer City, TX. Along the way, he comments on writers indigenous to the area, his own books and screenplays, his likes and dislikes, and his own life. On the whole, there is nothing exceptional here-the best chapter in the book concerns the dirt roads of the author's youth. Recommended only for libraries with a large demand for the author's fiction and those that wish to provide some supplemental autobiographical material on McMurtry. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/00]-John McCormick, New Hampshire State Lib., Concord
Categories:
- History
- United States
- State & Local
- United States
Publisher : Simon & Schuster
Author : McMurtry, Larry
Language : English
Edition : First Edition
Published :2001-06-05
Number Of Pages : 206
Binding : paperback
ISBN-10 : 0684868857
ISBN-13 : 9780684868851
Item weight : 0.4 lb
Dimensions : 0.63 in x 5.2 in x 7.87 in
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