Born to Be, Among Other Things, Wild

Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 12.13.01 | 12:21 AM ET

Three books about motorcycle journeys have recently been published. Each one, according to The New Yorker, is noteworthy. Rich Remsberg weighs in with Riders for God: The Story of a Christian Motorcycle Gang. Barbara Joans, a biker and anthropologist, provides a female perspective on motorcycle culture in Bike Lust: Harleys, Women and American Society. Finally, Jill Dubisch and Raymond Michalowski join a group of Vietnam veterans and supporters as they make a pilgrimage on their bikes from Southern California to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. in Run for the Wall: Remembering Vietnam on a Motorcycle Pilgrimage. “[They] view the Run as a modern, secular pilgrimage that helps alleviate various kinds of pain,” Leo Carey writes in The New Yorker. “One vet puts it more simply and forlornly: ‘I ride my bike to stay sane. The last time they let me out of the loony bin, I got this bike.’”