Blue Highways

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Summary: Heat-Moon in search of self..............
Review: Blue Highways tells an inner story as captivating as the external wanderlust it records. Heat-Moon sets out from Missouri and circles the country meeting commonfolk, providing commentary, and bringing the less traveled road to life. All too often life forces us into warp speed where we fail to notice the ordinary. With Heat-Moon's closer inspection, we see the ordinary as interesting and an experience worth having. The author makes this journey under a personal cloud due to a failing relationship. His admissions are honest, his emotional battles thought provoking, and the philosophy with which he girds this effort well worth rumination. I may not share all of this man's political leanings, but, nevertheless, I respect him immensely as an author. His sincere gratitude to his readers is palpable and his down-to-earth persona refreshing. Read this and Heat-Moon's two other efforts, River Horse and Prairy Erth. You'll be very happy that you did.

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Summary: Perfect for the closet wanderer!
Review: I enjoyed this book immensely. I often harbor the fantasy of taking off, no plans, no real goals, just the American expanse to explore. I think it takes a lot of courage to actually do it. Heat-Moon's story is beautiful. It is simple and real. He shares his feelings as his journey progresses. He also meets some real characters! I think every person is unique and eccentric in there own way and Heat-Moon recreates these people extremely well. If you are a closet wanderer... read this book, it will not disappoint you.

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Summary: Moon nails it
Review: My copy sat, almost untouched for 17 years. Was it just a poor man's Travels With Charlie? A guy with a penchant for towns with cool names? I started in the middle "West by Northwest", Oregon to Montana. Wouldn't put it down. Found out how good this book really is.

Least Heat Moon is pretty consistent in avoiding commercial establishments. Instead he gets into the heads and stories of special people: There is Holliston the hang glider. The evangelist hitchhiker. The runaway girl. Moon's friend Chisholm, with whom he builds a stone retaining wall, "the wall would be there until other men came, and, with effort, moved it".

By the time he recounts the fishing craft wherein he joins 3 men who fish the Atlantic, it is clear this is a book about an increasingly ethereal aspect of America. The parts that take guts and sweat to make happen. That might have just years before they disappear. Or are gone.

There is the Italian family who no longer farm specialty foods. The maple syrup tapper family, geneology recounted. How long will their work continue? I think of National Geographic. Miz Alice, retired teacher on a Maryland island, points to an island that "has a couple hundred years before it disappears". Not all is corporate vs family, red vs blue. It is history (Lewis and Clark Expeditions, etc.) and what others here said.

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Summary: Too Liberal
Review: I've travelled many parts of this country with and without money. I enjoyed many parts of this book and I recommend it to fellow adventurers.However, I kept getting the feeling that Mr. Heat-Moon was condescending.His snide remarks about religion and faith made me wonder what he was doing freeloading off of a monastery.It seems pointless to me to try to understand people without understanding their personal beliefs and how central they are to these "colorful"characters. He doesn't seem to GET what several of the people are saying, and does cringe-worthy things like telling people in an old southern white saloon in Selma Alabama, he's here to "See how the Blacks are doing."All in all though, everybody should do something like discovering your own backyard, and keep off the beaten track.

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Summary: Blue Highways: Journey into My Depressed American Self
Review: Least Heat Moon's descriptions of America's people and places are densely atmospheric and wonderfully true to life. Without a doubt, they're the best part of the book. If only they were the only part of the book... His nostalgic (melancholy?) brooding and dreary introspection are not what I expected from this "Journey into America." I am not against bias; I did not take the trip-- but it would have been a lot more enjoyable without the clutter and weight of the author's personal baggage. I enjoyed reading about the folks and forgotten spots he visited along the way, but suggest that the title and publisher copy be changed to reflect his depressed inner journey if it's all part of the long, boring trip.

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Summary: "Blue Highways"- to blow away your blues.
Review: Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon is a marvellous book about his "journey into America" in search of his identity. He travels on small byways (marked in blue on the maps)which manifest the true spirit of America, rather than the bleak outlook presented by unbroken interstate highways. Consequently, the reader experiences a spark of wanderlust, and wants to meet that innocent America which never distrusts strangers.

Starting out on a low key (after he loses both his wife and his job) in his van named "Ghost Dancing," Heat-Moon begins to enjoy his journey from the South to the Pacific North-West when he talks to numerous people about their lives. His knack to make others talk to him is worth noting.

The colorful use of language and parallel structures makes the reader feel as though he/she was sitting beside Heat-Moon and having fun. I likened it to a Star Wars ride I had at Disneyland. The reader relishes the wonderful flavor of the book when we meet enigmatic people such as Bob Androit who is building a log cabin and Bill Hammond who is building a boat. The spirit of Individualism stands out as we note numerous things which are characteristic of a particular state such as the blue grass of Kentucky and its well-bred horses.

The book is astonishing due to the fact that we don't read about "created characters." Genuine people living in rural locales talk to us through Heat-Moon. The inclusion of their photographs makes it even more interesting.

This journey through America reminded me of my journey on life's highways and brought back many memories. I hope it does for everyone else too.

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Summary: So, Where's the Dog?
Review: I heard Least Heat-Moon on NPR pitching River-Horse. To be honest, his name stuck in my head more than the interview. I ran across Blue Highways in a discount book store and said "What the hey, for $4.00..."

The $4.00 was definitly well spent. I liked this book much more than I thought I would. Look, John Steinbeck is my favorite author but I remember trudging through Travels With Charlie back in high school. I was expecting the same reaction to Blue Highways. Nope, I enjoyed it much more. I suspect it's because I'm 20, no, make that 24 years older and the slower, insightful pace is more to my liking now. Maybe not. I guess I'll have to make another trip with John and the dog to find out.

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Summary: Blue Highways William Least Heat-Moon
Review: Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon is a wonderfully written recollection of a cross-country adventure taken by the author. Armed only with his van (ghost dancing), his "desperate sense of isolation" and longing to leave his present situation, he sets out across the country traveling only on rural state and county roads, which are marked in blue on his old atlas (5). Heat-Moon describes an America, which travelers rarely see from the many interstates that now crisscross the country. His detailed account of the journey, and the many people he interacts with gives the reader insight into the character of the American people. He meets people of various backgrounds and culture, learning something from each, and describes the passing landscape painting a picture as clear as if the reader was sitting in the passengers seat. His journey begins and ends in his home state of Missouri, taking him in a circular path around the country. This circular journey "represents the direction of natural forces", according to the Plains Indians (418). With each new route, and each new town Heat-Moon is able to capture the essence of the America not yet commercialized. He meets Bob Androit, who is restoring a nineteenth century log cabin. Heat-Moon envied the fact that Androit was "rebuilding a past he could see and smell, one he could shape with his hands" (14). He also meets Bill Hammond and his wife Rosemary, who are building a boat the author spied from the road. "You'll walk off before I get tired of talking boats" was Hammond's response once he realized Heat-Moon wanted to talk about the boat. Through the people he meets, the author gets a feel for the changes in character, attitude, and dialect, as he moves across the country and is able to present this well on paper. When asked where he is headed next by storeowner J.T. Watts, the author responds, "I don't know" to which Watts adds, "cain't get lost then" (35). This book is loaded with dialogue, which is the fabric of the journey, for without the stories of the characters he meets the book is simply a description of the changing landscape and the roads he travels. Heat-Moon's conversations with the many people he interacted with were not degrading and pompous, but were informative and witty. The author's ability to weave comedy and light hearted jabs into conversation with locals added a great deal to the readability of the book. He describes a gas station attendant as "a surly fellow who could have raised mushrooms in the organic decay of his front teeth" (243). Humorous reoccurring themes carry throughout the novel such as his rating system for diners in which the number of calendars hanging about determines the quality of the diner, and the newspaper headlines he envisions when in certain situations such as "Drifter Blown Away In Bar" during an evening spent in a Dime box, Texas bar (267). Heat-Moon is mostly a listener and an observer who lets the people tell their stories. Throughout the book are photographs of the people who Heat-Moon has had the most engaging conversations with. This adds reality to the journey, and is a reminder that these are real people, with true stories. Recounting his journey Heat-Moon says " In my own country, I had gone out, had met, had shared. I had stood witness" (406). Heat-Moon is able to recount his journey in such a creative way and take the reader with him.

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Summary: Deeply felt journey of places and people
Review: Blue Highways is like a mug of hot coffee on a chilly morning. It is warm, reassuring, and thoroughly optimistic. A sense of freedom, of curious exploration, and of serendipity dominates this book. Blue Highways weaves stories of everyday people, living far from the coasts and major metropolitan areas on which we too often focus. The people tell their stories, and Least Heat-Moon listens. There are some great stories about the journey, and driving, and things like that, but really, the book is about the people he meets. The photographs are a wonderful bonus.

Refreshingly, and despite (or perhaps because of?) his own education, Least Heat-Moon does not brand these people as hicks or hillbillies, and he does not call their towns dumps or make jokes about inbreeding. He has respect for his subject -- which is always the mark of a great nonfiction writer. If you've ever dreamed about having more time to talk to that person you saw in a small town somewhere.... this is the book for you.

There is a bit of Garrison Keillor in Least Heat-Moon: the gentle folksy manner of a highly educated person who has small-town roots, and a sense of humor that is sometimes teasing, but never vicious. The downside of this is that some readers may find the narrative style, and what passes for a plot, to be boring and monotonous. Nothing "exciting" happens in the book if you're looking for Hollywood-style explosions, car chases, or sex scenes. But if you enjoy looking at undiscovered places, and talking to regular people, well, there's hardly anything more exciting than Blue Highways.

Rating:
Summary: WORST BOOK EVER WRITTEN!!!
Review: (Make that star rating up there NEGATIVE 5 stars) I can't believe I'm actually taking the time to write this for such an awful book, but I read all of the other reviews here and I can't understand why everyone thinks this book is so incredible. I thought it was the most uninteresting, torturous book I have ever read. If this book is any indication of what Heat-Moon's personality and his English classes were like, I understand why he was laid off (and why his wife cheated on him!). 400-something pages of grueling, thick, unconnected text ruined my entire summer and destroyed any previous desire that I might have had to travel cross-country. I would not recommend this book to anyone; I think it should be destroyed.