THE GREAT AMERICAN BUS RIDE

Cosmopolitan columnist Kurtz (Mantalk, 1987, etc.) chronicles her voyage of discovery made by criss-crossing the country on Greyhound buses. An American expatriate residing in London, Kurtz—with Australian raincoat and flask of bourbon in hand—set out to explore her native land with three one-month Ameripasses, good for unlimited bus travel. She journeyed north from Manhattan to Maine, then west to Seattle and back east as far as Nashville; west again to San Francisco, by way of Denver; down to L.A., back east across the southern route to the Florida Keys, and back to New York. Deliberately seeking out obscure places, she found herself stranded in Minnesota blizzards; dumped off at 4:00 a.m. in Dinosaur, Colorado; and sampling the Basque restaurants in a long string of western towns. Kurtz has a good ear for American speech, and gives us samples of talk from midnight conversations with strippers, cowboys, teenagers, crazies, tourists—all the bizarre variety of Yanks on the road. And she records the unwritten customs of bus travel: who gets which seats; how much to reveal in conversation; ways to repel unwanted companions. There's no deep revelation of the spirit of America here, but the ride is good fun, and the characters and dialogue are as alluring as in many novels. (Eight pages of b&w photographs, map- -not seen)