Mark's review
Riding Toward Everywhere by William T. Vollmann
Life got you down? Maybe you need to become a hobo!
Vollmann's optimism about people and his search for freedom in hopping trains infuses a book that might be seen as depressing. Because most of these people have nothing, and are shunned by the "citizens" they meet, to say nothing of the train bulls who arrest them, kick them off freights, and run them from yard and camps.
But for Vollmann, a little kindness goes a long way, and the feeling of sneaking onto a boxcar as it leaves a yard for who knows where is worth the discomfort and danger. Nearing fifty, with bad eyesight, a broken pelvis and a loss of balance from a series of small strokes, Vollmann's tales of train-hopping are exciting, lovely and often a little sad. He measures his own experiences against those of Twain, Hemingway, Jack London and Kerouac, never really caring what direction the train will take him, as long as it goes, taking him a little closer to a kind of American freedom that he feels is nearly...more
Vollmann's optimism about people and his search for freedom in hopping trains infuses a book that might be seen as depressing. Because most of these people have nothing, and are shunned by the "citizens" they meet, to say nothing of the train bulls who arrest them, kick them off freights, and run them from yard and camps.
But for Vollmann, a little kindness goes a long way, and the feeling of sneaking onto a boxcar as it leaves a yard for who knows where is worth the discomfort and danger. Nearing fifty, with bad eyesight, a broken pelvis and a loss of balance from a series of small strokes, Vollmann's tales of train-hopping are exciting, lovely and often a little sad. He measures his own experiences against those of Twain, Hemingway, Jack London and Kerouac, never really caring what direction the train will take him, as long as it goes, taking him a little closer to a kind of American freedom that he feels is nearly...more
nice, mark. i wonder what it is with americans and freedom. is this freedomlust another side of individualism?
