The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 2 March 1998
by William Least Heat-Moon
Take to the road! Do it alone. William Least Heat-Moon does just that after losing his job and losing, apparently, his wife. The blue highways of the title refer to the back roads once colored blue on maps (though in Rand McNally, blue roads are now the superhighways). The title also refers to one of the author's revelations out on the roads of Oregon. He crosses the country taking 13,000 miles along our back roads, in search of the old and the folksy and the remote. Unusual town names, people telling town histories, and the perfect five-calendar cafe. His road trip is an engaging portrait of backroad America, and intimations of his own personal exploration. The book is often compared with Kerouac's On the Road, but the two have very different purposes. While Kerouac is a more rambling personal stream of consciousness, Heat-Moon is an exploration of a changing American culture. (River-Horse, the story of a journey across the United States by water, is a sort of sequel to this book.)
Also by William Least Heat-Moon: [River-Horse]