| Blue Highways |  | Author: William Least Heat Moon
Publisher: Fawcett
Category: Book
List Price: $5.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  113 reviews
Sales Rank: 361176
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.5 x 4.1 x 1
ISBN: 0449211096
EAN: 9780449211090
ASIN: 0449211096
Publication Date: June 12, 1986
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
First published in 1982, William Least Heat-Moon's account of his journey along the back roads of the United States (marked with the color blue on old highway maps) has become something of a classic. When he loses his job and his wife on the same cold February day, he is struck by inspiration: "A man who couldn't make things go right could at least go. He could quit trying to get out of the way of life. Chuck routine. Live the real jeopardy of circumstance. It was a question of dignity." Driving cross-country in a van named Ghost Dancing, Heat-Moon (the name the Sioux give to the moon of midsummer nights) meets up with all manner of folk, from a man in Grayville, Illinois, "whose cap told me what fertilizer he used" to Scott Chisholm, "a Canadian citizen ... [who] had lived in this country longer than in Canada and liked the United States but wouldn't admit it for fear of having to pay off bets he made years earlier when he first 'came over' that the U.S. is a place no Canadian could ever love." Accompanied by his photographs, Heat-Moon's literary portraits of ordinary Americans should not be merely read, but savored.
Product Description
William Least Heat-Moon's journey into America began with little more than the need to put home behind him. At a turning point in his life, he packed up a van he called Ghost Dancing and escaped out of himself and into the country. The people and places he discovered on his roundabout 13,000-mile trip down back roads ("blue highways") and through small, forgotten towns are unexpected, sometimes mysterious, and full of the spark and wonder of ordinary life. Robert Penn Warren said, "He has a genius for finding people who have not even found themselves." The power of Heat-Moon's writing and his delight in the overlooked and the unexamined capture a sense of our national destiny, the true American experience. (A Mariner Reissue)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 108 more reviews...
 Tour book August 2, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Took a tour of America with a chip on his shoulder. Guess it gives you a different perspective.
 A Lot of Good Remains in America July 7, 2008
I have written many reviews for Amazon.com. Blue Highways is the only book to which I've given five stars. I would recommend it to anyone.
Blue Highways is William Least Heat-Moon's account of his 1978 low-budget car ride across America. Heat-Moon's reporting reminds me a lot of Charles Kuralt's On the Road reports for CBS News. Heat-Moon has a talent for engaging strangers on the road and bringing out the best in them.
What separates Blue Highways from so many other travel books? There are a variety of factors. Heat-Moon is a good writer. He understands pacing - and does not allow the story to bog down. He is, overwhelmingly, positive about the people and places that he encounters. Heat-Moon took pictures of many of the people he met and I think that those pictures add much to the book.
More so than the above factors, however, I think that Heat-Moon's philsophical bent adds a lot to the book. Blue Highways is not just an account of a trip; in meeting these people and engaging them, Heat-Moon wants to help answer some of the big questions about why we are here and what it means to live a good life. While no one can answer those questions once and for all, Heat-Moon provides some great food for thought.
As several reviewers have pointed out, Heat-Moon's 1978 descriptions of the USA are now poignant due to the changes in our society. Sadly, many of the older people he encountered must now be dead. Many of Heat-Moon's other observations are just as valid today as they were in 1978. Specifically, he laments the increasingly-homogeneous American culture, materialism, careerism, and many other problems.
I first read Blue Highways in 1993. I reread it this summer (2008). It lost nothing on the second reading. If you like travel writing and are at all philosophical, this book will "speak" to you on so many different levels. Don't pass this one up; it's that rare, wonderful book that makes reading all of the mediocre books worthwhile.
A 'Must Read', Over and Over Again June 24, 2008
I bought this book over 25 years ago. I picked it up by random because the the book's cover synopsis was intriguing. This book has been one of those books that I come back to over and over again. I enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone who seeks a soul-searching adventure. You will feel like you are travelling right along with the author; experiencing his adventures and depth of self-discovery,,, first-hand.
Buy this book and it will be a treasured book that you too, will come back to again, over and over throughout the years.
a road trip classic April 7, 2008
If you stop to think about it, this book and those like it really aren't about anything - just a person driving around the country because his relationship wasn't going well and he didn't have anything else to do. But for those of us who love to travel, doing it in person or vicariously through the words of a good travel writer is equally enjoyable, and Moon's anecdotes and experiences - the take he has on humanity - is ample reward for accompanying him on his wanderings.
Good Book February 27, 2008
This is an excellent journal of a troubled man's attempt to try to figure out who he is by taking a solitary journey to meet real people and see real places in this country. For all the loners and independent thinkers out there this is our "magic bus".
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