Name: Sarah Sammis's review of Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon
Item: Blue Highways
Rating: 5
Author: Sarah Sammis

William Least Heat-Moon

Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation's backroads. William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about "those little towns that get on the map -- if they get on at all -- only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill: Remote, Oregon; Simplicity, Virginia; New Freedom, Pennsylvania; New Hope, Tennessee; Why, Arizona; Whynot, Mississippi." His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience.

A Journey into America

Blue Highways

Matt Soria

Sarah Sammis

I started reading this book about 12 years ago but I still need and want to finish it.

William Least Heat Moon

That unexcelled exploration of our nation based on a 13,000-mile journey in a Ford van along back roads (printed in blue on old maps) is available for the first time in a trade paperback edition that replicates the style and design of the original hardcover. Photographs and maps.

A Journey Into America

Marisel 

This book has been on my shelves for over 10 years. At a time when we have had no option but to turn inwardly, when we cannot travel far and the domestic landscape has displayed the true vastness of space and thought between Americans, this year was the perfect time to read it. Least Heat-Moon has a keen eye for taking just that one snapshot that tells The story, that tells the tale, that carries the subcutaneous message-- his writing is fluff free. With so much love he shines one narrow beam of light on each of the forgotten back alleys of rural and small town America where he lands, exposing it so well, that I felt as his travel companion throughout the journey. I met the people he met, heard the stories they told. His humor carried me through moments of absurdity so acutely observed without judgement, and brought relieve to my currently frustrated wanderlust. This is not a travel log, it's a love letter to the art of traveling. I could. not. put. it. down.

Published in 1983 to phenomenal reviews, Blue Highways: A Journey into America became a cult classic on par with Jack Kerouac's On the Road and John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley. In this highly acclaimed, bestselling memoir, a 38-year-old laid-off college professor of Sioux and white blood drives around the U.S. on the "blue highways, " the rural back made that are colored blue on old maps. The places he discovers during his 13,000-mile journey are unexpected, sometimes mysterious, and often full of simply the wonder of the ordinary.-- Blue Highways received extraordinary reviews when it was first published: -- The current trade paperback edition (Houghton Mifflin) sells 25,000 copies a year but will be out of print by August 1999.-- Heat Moon's long-awaited next book, River-Horse, will be out in September and will draw much attention to this important author. it will be supported by a 14-city author tour, national advertising, holiday catalogs, and NPR sponsorship.-- This edition of Blue Highways will include a new introduction by the author.

Luke Kanies

A good, long, different read, about America, travel, and you

I didn't know what I was biting off when I opened this, but in the end I really enjoyed it. Longer than I hoped, shorter than I'd like, and about nothing in particular yet everything around. He manages to write fantastically well, without doing anything in particular to make it happen.

Come for the stories, but stay for the writing, and the curiosity.

Matt Soria &
Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon

Reviews

Join the club

Matt Soria &Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon

Reviews

Join the club

Matt Soria &
Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon