trips of the road-warrior variety

Roads: Driving America's Great Highways by Larry McMurtry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Having heard of Mr. McMurtry of Lonesome Dove fame, and being quite fond of travel log books i've read, i was looking forward to this book. In it, the author makes many cross country trips of the road-warrior variety, deliberately picking the Interstate highways on which to drive. This struck me as an unusual way to experience the country, but i hung in there. The descriptions of places are rather macro and superficial, as expected, traveling Interstate highways as opposed to the "Blue Highways" of William Least Heat-Moon. Intermixed with the travel are bits of history, wit, and cynicism not unlike that of Bill Bryson. But i think what Mr. McMurtry adds to this type of narrative is his deep appreciation of books and authors. Hardly a place is traversed that some famous book(s) and author(s) are noted, often with some history linked to them. My favorite part of the book was the next to the last chapter where he reminisces about the back roads of his Depression era childhood in Texas, and how as a child he asked "where" the paved highway near their ranch "went". The answer is revealed in the the last chapter, which is a really special way to end the journey. The mode of travel presented is not inspirational, at least not to me, but this is a nice overview of Mr. McMurtry's travels.

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