Road Stories
-
-
4.0 • 2 Ratings
-
-
- $4.99
-
- $4.99
Publisher Description
In 1972, Ed Davis, like many in his generation, felt the call of the road. Unlike most, Davis rode freight trains. He caught rides on-the-fly, slept in hobo jungles and dodged railroad security across the Pacific Northwest and Canada. And like Jack Kerouac and Jack London before him, Davis wrote about what he saw.
For the next four decades, whether catching freights, trekking the Sierras, visiting an old friend in prison or attending a presidential inauguration, Davis took to the road whenever possible. Written in freight cars and truck stops, hotel lobbies and high mountain camps, Road Stories will take you places you’ve never been.
Join Davis working in an African hospital in a country on the verge of collapse. Spend a week exploring the remote paths of the Peruvian Andes. With a keen eye, he describes the seemingly mundane details of bus travel, and the feel of the warm prairie breeze blowing through an open car window at night.
Davis's travel tales resonate with readers because, as he says in the Forward, “We spend our lives on the road.” Told with honesty and humor, Road Stories makes you want to hop a fast freight for parts unknown. Just watch out for the railroad bulls.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Davis revisits four decades of travel by hitchhiking, hopping freight trains, bus, automobile, airplane, and foot, in this memoir compiled from individual travelogues. His writing shines in descriptive passages, showing his love of travel and landscapes, but at other times reads like a journal in need of editoral attention. Davis shares the ups and downs of train-hopping, backpacking the Pacific Coast Trail with friends, and volunteering in a Zimbabwe medical clinic. He describes experiences that have marked his life, from Obama's inauguration to visiting a former high school classmate in prison. Food is a common theme; the author recounts a candy treat for weary hikers, a can of tuna in the cab of a train, the presentation of fried mice in Zimbabwe, and the sharing of food between prisoners and visitors. In the end, the reader may not understand Davis any more than in the beginning, due to the regular changes in point of view and the general lack of emotional insight, but the individual anecdotes are enjoyable. (BookLife)
