“The hitchhiker’s most constant, implacable enemy,” writes Wald, “is simple boredom.” Readers of his book may share the...
Tedious chronicle of a cross-country hitchhiking trip.
Now in his 40s, music-writer Wald (Escaping the Delta, 2004, etc.) has been hitchhiking since he was a teen. The freedom and surprise of thumbing thrill him. He loves the instant intimacy he finds with drivers. He delights in finally arriving at a truck stop and getting a shower. On the particular trip chronicled here, he meets many interesting people, among them a Russian trucker, a Mexican man who sells used cars over the border and an affable missionary who attempts to proselytize him. Wald spells out the etiquette: If the driver wants to talk, listen; speak when spoken to; try to stay awake. Interspersed throughout is a history of hitchhiking. Though the word is relatively recent, the idea is ancient; even Odysseus did it. The 1960s and ’70s were a unique era when folks hitched for pleasure, but during the ’80s, fewer and fewer people took to the road, and hitchhiking gained a reputation as dangerous rather than carefree. Men tend to hitch more than women, but Wald notes the curious fact that current pop stars who like to thumb a ride are mostly women, including Ani DiFranco, Michelle Shocked and Courtney Love. A vignette about a cop who sternly reminded him that hitchhiking is illegal is mildly engaging, a visit to Hannibal, Mo., prompts reflections on Mark Twain that are mildly insightful—but pretty much everything else Wald relates is tepid at best and his attempts at profundity and depth lame: “Hitchhiking is an exercise of faith,” “Faith is a beautiful thing,” “In every journey there are moments of doubt,” “With freedom comes responsibility.” The concluding poem is just embarrassing.
“The hitchhiker’s most constant, implacable enemy,” writes Wald, “is simple boredom.” Readers of his book may share the feeling.Pub Date: May 31, 2006
ISBN: 1-55652-605-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
