New Travel Book: ‘Riding Toward Everywhere’

Travel Blog  •  Frank Bures  •  01.24.08 | 9:51 AM ET

imageAuthor: William T. Vollmann, whose novel Europe Central won a National Book Award.

Released: Jan. 22, 2008

Travel genre: Trainhopping

Territory covered: United States

Promo copy: “For Riding Toward Everywhere, Vollmann himself takes to the rails. His main accomplice is Steve, a captivating fellow trainhopper who expertly accompanies him through the secretive waters of this particular way of life. Vollmann describes the thrill and terror of lying in a trainyard in the dark, avoiding the flickering flashlights of the railroad bulls; the shockingly, gorgeously wild scenery of the American West as seen from a grainer platform; the complicated considerations involved in trying to hop on and off a moving train. It’s a dangerous, thrilling, evocative examination of this underground lifestyle, and it is, without a doubt, one of Vollmann’s most hauntingly beautiful narratives.”

Critical verdict: “Back from many years of exploring the darkest war-torn corners of the earth, Mr. Vollman feels something amiss in his home country…But he has trouble thinking his grievances through, and even more trouble expressing them cogently.” (New York Sun) “Faced with a contemporary America he does not like, Vollmann seems torn—does he wail or does he wander? More out of habit than conviction, Vollmann decides to wander. And in this case, in the shadow of the war, Vollmann’s wandering looks an awful lot like getting lost.” (Esquire). Furthermore, “As a vehicle for probing the dark underbelly of America, examining the virtuous souls of the underclass and any number of other hoary literary conceits, riding the rails is so 19th century. But Vollmann still finds some juice in the conceit, so much so that his literary gift propels this slender, elegantly written book along like a third rail.” (Los Angeles Times)

Find it: Amazon, Powell’s, Publisher

Related on World Hum:
* William T. Vollman on Hopping Trains
* Romance By Rail: Europe Does It Better

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