Pulitzer Prize-winning author Philip Caputo (A Rumor of War) joins the list of great travel narrators like Jack Kerouac (On the Road) and William Least Heat-Moon (Blue Highways) with The Longest Road, a memoir that harkens back most closely to John Steinbeck's classic Travels with Charley. Like Steinbeck, Caputo wants to look at the country afresh and searches for today's America on its two-lane highways. And, also like Steinbeck, he brought along a dog--two, actually.
"The longest road," Caputo writes. "The idea brought on a rush of restless blood, stirred my imagination." His wife joins him on the transcontinental adventure, leaving Key West towing an Airstream behind their truck. He grouses about the particulars of his camper, marvels at the beauty of the Natchez Trace Parkway, laughs at his old dogs, ruminates about politics and casts light on his own marriage (as well as making note of his own foibles and triumphs). All the while, Caputo unspools America's stories--from Mississippi to Kansas, Montana to Oregon, up north through the Yukon to the final destination: Deadhorse, Alaska.
The Longest Road will make readers feel a rush of restless blood and want to get behind their own rigs, stirring their own imaginations about what's around the next bend in the road. --Jonathan Shipley, freelance writer