The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 11 February 2002
by Edward Abbey
This "honest novel" has an appealing autobiographical quality of self examination and even revelation. There is, of course, also a note of self absorption. After being left by his fourth wife, ailing Henry Holyoak Lightcap decides to take a meditative drive across the country to his hometown farm in West Virginia. He sets out in a 1962 Dodge Carryall with his dog, both of which are as about as old and sick as he is. Along the journey, he tells of the roadside life, and he remenisces long and thoughtfully on his own life. Much of what is told parallels Abbey's iconoclastic life. Henry is a hard drinker (perhaps the source of his ailments) and lives just as hard. He holds dearly to the ideal of the "real man", given to drink and women and an uncompromising attachment to things real (which include such items as good American cars, a good gun, good greasy food, and the great Western outdoors). Henry is also quite self-absorbed. He is stubborn and refuses to admit any need for care or help. He also has great affection for women, but holds to a traditional and somewhat selfish view of human relations. Thus, he is now losing his fourth wife. But Henry is a romantic as well, loving the good life, living in an unambitious but honest world of his own. Perhaps it is this attitude that has endeared Abbey himself to so many people with his love for the outdoors and honest living. But he (along with Lightcap) was full of contradictions. He berates the corporate waste of our beautiful country while leaving an unending trail of discarded beercans and broken bottles along the road he travels. How much of his own legend is Abbey crafting here? Lightcap longs to be a quiet scholarly philosopher, but becomes a grouchy man of the world. Yet the book rings with the honest expression of his lifestyle with only a few false notes. The book, like the man, is frustrating and a little troubling. It makes the reader want to look at a more complete biography of the author, looking for more that defines this story. Abbey's writing is energetic and engaging, sometimes gentle, sometimes enraging. There are echoes of Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, and a masculine tone remeniscent of Hemingway. It is an accessible, simple and complicated story. A good fictional autobiography.
Also by Abbey: [Desert Solitaire] [Good News]