Rating: 
Summary: I love the American characters Peter Jenkins finds
Review: Peter, the person who walked across America and just came back from a year and a half in Alaska, takes to the water in his boat The Cooper. I think he is brilliant at finding distinctly American characters that capture so much. Here he explores the Gulf Coast region and all I knew of it prior to this book was Spring Break on the Florida Panhandle, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and not much more. If you want to believe America is a glossy, full color TV comercial stay brain washed and do not read this book or any other of his books. If you wnat to make fun of people or feel superior to them read some of the other travel writers. If you want to get to know a diverse group of people that make up some of your own country read this book and all the rest of his. I was as moved by the story of the ragged, toughened brothers Billy and Red and their surpriing love story as any human story I have ever read. Thanks Peter for taking me on another journey outside of my comfort zone.
Rating: 
Summary: Not quite the Walk Across America book
Review: This book didn't seem quite up to the standard that the "Walk Across America" book was. This book seemed kind of dry, a bit forced. I felt that it went into too much detail about his preparations, the actual sailing experience, etc. This was great if you are interested in sailing, but I would have preferred to have him expand a little more about his relationships with the people he met along away, like he did in "Walk Across America". There were some things that he didn't go into detail enough on. For instance, what all happened to his first marriage that resulted in the divorce and his depression? I would have liked to hear more about his current family. He talked about bringing his family on his trip, but there wasn't much mentioned about them. There was little mentioned about his boys, nothing that I recall about his daughter from his first marriage. He did talk a little about his dad, but when he mentioned that his dad came with him on the boat a 2nd time, he didn't expand at all on that experience. And he didn't expand much on his experience with his wife and younger daughter being with him toward the beginning of the trip. He also mentioned coming to Christian faith in his "Walk Across America book". But again, that was barely mentioned in this book. Did he lose that faith? It was interesting hearing about some of the people he met on his trip and about life in the southern US along the coast. And this book may be of interest for someone really interested in sailing. But it didn't quite hold my interest like "Walk Across America".
Rating:
Summary: Not quite the Walk Across America book
Review: This book didn't seem quite up to the standard that the "Walk Across America" book was. This book seemed kind of dry, a bit forced. I felt that it went into too much detail about his preparations, the actual sailing experience, etc. This was great if you are interested in sailing, but I would have preferred to have him expand a little more about his relationships with the people he met along away, like he did in "Walk Across America". There were some things that he didn't go into detail enough on. For instance, what all happened to his first marriage that resulted in the divorce and his depression? I would have liked to hear more about his current family. He talked about bringing his family on his trip, but there wasn't much mentioned about them. There was little mentioned about his boys, nothing that I recall about his daughter from his first marriage. He did talk a little about his dad, but when he mentioned that his dad came with him on the boat a 2nd time, he didn't expand at all on that experience. And he didn't expand much on his experience with his wife and younger daughter being with him toward the beginning of the trip. He also mentioned coming to Christian faith in his "Walk Across America book". But again, that was barely mentioned in this book. Did he lose that faith? It was interesting hearing about some of the people he met on his trip and about life in the southern US along the coast. And this book may be of interest for someone really interested in sailing. But it didn't quite hold my interest like "Walk Across America".
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Summary: REAL PEOPLE AND REAL PLACES
Review: This is a real story about real places and real people. I know because Chapters 30-33 are about my hometown and my family. I am forever grateful to Peter Jenkins for preserving part of my family history. I got to know my great uncle Esten that died before I was born. Several weeks ago my family said goodbye to sweet Daisy Durante who passed away in her sleep. She was loved not only by my family, but now by the multitudes that read this book. I highly recommend this book as a way of getting to know a part of the real South and the real people who live there.
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Summary: A BOOK OF RECOVERY, Symbolic like `Pilgrims Progress'
Review: This powerful book is a pure symbol of a humans recovery from the punches and blasts we all get in life. Don't read this as only a boating journey....you will miss so much. Mr.Jenkins searches out an inspiring cast of characters who have taken lifes worst shots and survived, even shined. If you have a perfect, painless life this may not be for you. If you don't, take a trip with Peter.
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Summary: New Year's Day, 2003
Review: This review is for ""Along the Edge of America" by Peter Jenkins, which I've recently finished reading. I want this book review to serve also as my tribute to a very good writer. I still have my paperback copies of "A Walk Across America" published in 1979 and "The Walk West", circa 198l. Somewhat faded and yellowed, but treasured. These books have been unforgettable to me. The late 70's and the 80's, to the present time, often find me temporarily leaving reality behind. Escaping my own daily struggles and cares, I can mentally journey down roads or waterways with Peter, experiencing the colors and textures of his adventures, his people and the landscapes he paints with sentences. I well know the feeling of loss of confidence in ones self. Most of us do, and get beyond it, somehow. In "Along the Edge of America" Peter found his own way of conquering past disappointments. His story reflects a happier man who is better able to accept what life has handed him and to more fully enjoy the rest of it. A gentle sadness falls over me as I come to the end of any book written by Peter Jenkins. I wonder, "Will there be another book?", "What part of the world will I learn about this time?", "What people will I know through his stories?" I've never personally visited any of the people described in Peter Jenkins books. But he has introduced them to me and made me feel their happiness as well as their sorrows and regrets. We all have plenty of those three things in our lives. "Along the Edge of America" seems an honest account of a very trying, yet valuable portion of this man's life. It's a good group of stories and very pleasing to read. Thank you, Peter Jenkins.
Rating:
Summary: New Year's Day, 2003
Review: This review is for ""Along the Edge of America" by Peter Jenkins, which I've recently finished reading. I want this book review to serve also as my tribute to a very good writer. I still have my paperback copies of "A Walk Across America" published in 1979 and "The Walk West", circa 198l. Somewhat faded and yellowed, but treasured. These books have been unforgettable to me. The late 70's and the 80's, to the present time, often find me temporarily leaving reality behind. Escaping my own daily struggles and cares, I can mentally journey down roads or waterways with Peter, experiencing the colors and textures of his adventures, his people and the landscapes he paints with sentences. I well know the feeling of loss of confidence in ones self. Most of us do, and get beyond it, somehow. In "Along the Edge of America" Peter found his own way of conquering past disappointments. His story reflects a happier man who is better able to accept what life has handed him and to more fully enjoy the rest of it. A gentle sadness falls over me as I come to the end of any book written by Peter Jenkins. I wonder, "Will there be another book?", "What part of the world will I learn about this time?", "What people will I know through his stories?" I've never personally visited any of the people described in Peter Jenkins books. But he has introduced them to me and made me feel their happiness as well as their sorrows and regrets. We all have plenty of those three things in our lives. "Along the Edge of America" seems an honest account of a very trying, yet valuable portion of this man's life. It's a good group of stories and very pleasing to read. Thank you, Peter Jenkins.
Rating:
Summary: Experience the variety of "us" in Peter Jenkins new book.
Review: Without leaving your favorite reading chair, you can once again experience real travels and real people with Peter Jenkins in his latest book, "Along the Edge of America". In addition to believing that you could recognize the rather stooped Daisy Durrant, or Diane Wilson mending her nets. and Larry the commercial fisherman on the street, Peter has a unique way of weaving in his own past, his family, and his emotions almost making himself a character. Daring to be real has probably cost him criticm but to me Mr. Jenkin's transparency made me identify even more with him than in any of his other books. "Along the Edge of America" dares to present people the way they really are and does not moralize away the bad or attempt to make the people something they are not. One begins to realize that the book's characters each have special significance in forming a living human quilt which we might entitle "Americana" Once again characterization and setting predominate in "Along the Edge of America". When I reached the last page I could only ask Mr. Jenkins where he is going next and who I will meet as I vicariously travel with him. Isn't it about time that we take the time to get to know our neighbors, to sit a spell, and reflect on the great variety of "us" there are in the USA? Thanks, Peter, for getting across the message that we are participants connected to one another, not just spectators as we move through our daily routines.
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Summary: Peter Strikes Gold In Readers Hearts Once Again
Review: Years after Peter Jenkins took me on an extraordinary journey with his books Walk Across America and A Walk West, I picked up a copy of Along The Edge of America. As usual, I couldn't put the book down. There were times when I was reading this book that I secretly wished that the rest of the world would just go away so that I could concentrate on the story. The book starts by telling of Peter's life-shattering divorce and the depression that followed. It is within this time period that Peter discovers he must once again go on a journey. The journey that Peter takes us on this time around is not that of a young man searching for his place in a country but of a man searching for his place in his own life. What he finds is an extraordinary journey into lives of some very ineteresting people. He travels through parts of the Gulf Coast that are nearly cut of from the real world and the government that runs it. He finds real people living real lives, even when the chips are down. Along the edge of America, Peter takes us along as he makes lifetime friends on a life-changing adventure.
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