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Traveling Light: On the Road with America's Poor
How far can you get on two tacos, one Dr. Pepper, and a little bit of conversation? What happens when you're broke and you need to get to a new job, an ailing parent, a powwow, college, or a funeral on the other side of the country? And after decades of globalization, what kind of America will you glimpse through the window on your way? For five years, Kath Weston rode the bus to find out.
Weston's route takes her through northeastern cities buried under layoffs, an immigration raid in the Southwest, an antiwar rally in the capitol, and the path traced by Hurricane Katrina. Like any road story, this one has characters that linger in the imagination: the trucker who has to give up his rig to have an operation; the teenager who can turn any Hollywood movie into a rap song; the homeless veteran who dreams of running his own shrimp boat; the sketch artist who breathes life into African American history; the single mother scrambling for loose change. But Traveling Light is not just another book about people stuck in poverty. Rather, it's a book about how people move through poverty and their insights into the sweeping economic changes that affect us all.
The bus is a place where unexpected generosity coexists with pickup lines and scams, where civic debates thrive and injustice finds some of its most acute analysts. Hard-working people rub shoulders with others who rap, sketch, and story new worlds into being. Folded into these poignant narratives are headlines, studies, and statistics that track the intensification of poverty and inequality as the United States enters the twenty-first-century. If sharp-eyed observations and down-to-earth critique-of the health care system, imperialism, the state of the environment, or corporate downsizing-are what you're looking for, Weston suggests the bus is the place to find it. The result is a moving meditation on living poor in the world's wealthiest nation.
Weston's route takes her through northeastern cities buried under layoffs, an immigration raid in the Southwest, an antiwar rally in the capitol, and the path traced by Hurricane Katrina. Like any road story, this one has characters that linger in the imagination: the trucker who has to give up his rig to have an operation; the teenager who can turn any Hollywood movie into a rap song; the homeless veteran who dreams of running his own shrimp boat; the sketch artist who breathes life into African American history; the single mother scrambling for loose change. But Traveling Light is not just another book about people stuck in poverty. Rather, it's a book about how people move through poverty and their insights into the sweeping economic changes that affect us all.
The bus is a place where unexpected generosity coexists with pickup lines and scams, where civic debates thrive and injustice finds some of its most acute analysts. Hard-working people rub shoulders with others who rap, sketch, and story new worlds into being. Folded into these poignant narratives are headlines, studies, and statistics that track the intensification of poverty and inequality as the United States enters the twenty-first-century. If sharp-eyed observations and down-to-earth critique-of the health care system, imperialism, the state of the environment, or corporate downsizing-are what you're looking for, Weston suggests the bus is the place to find it. The result is a moving meditation on living poor in the world's wealthiest nation.
- GenresNonfictionPoverty
272 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2008
5 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
Kath Weston
12 books9 followersKath Weston is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Virginia. A Guggenheim Fellow and two-time winner of the Ruth Benedict Prize, Weston is the author of several books, including Traveling Light: On the Road with America's Poor; Gender in Real Time: Power and Transience in a Visual Age; and Families We Choose: Lesbians, Gays, Kinship.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 26, 2014
why isn't this book more popular? kath weston writes beautiful, poetic sentences about riding the greyhound--not as a middle-class anthropologist intent on delivering stories of how "the other half lives" to folks shivering in their expensive armchairs, but rather as someone who's been there, who rides the bus out of necessity. everything is layered with history, humor, pathos, class rage. a fucking gem. i would have DIED for this book when i was an 18-year-old queer greyhound nomad. i can't wait to read everything else this person has ever written!
May 21, 2022
A review I wrote found on an old piece of paper in 2014:
"On finishing this:
I really loved these stories. They were revealing of a lot of things I take for granted and of things our society doesn't make us aware of. However I have some questions.
1. Yes, these inequalities exist, and poor are getting poorer, but who does have the power, and how do we as a society dissipate the fear that surrounds our misconceptions of the poor, the buses, and an alternative lifestyle? Not everyone wants to read a book, and not everyone will listen to someone who has.
2. Working for businesses where some homeless do try to take advantage of my generosity makes it very hard to be empathetic and just. Even when I am respectful about [communicating that I can't let them] use the washroom or get how water [for free] they are offended because they are not paying customers. Part of this is my job - to keep the store environment comfortable for those who would feel uncomfortable around the homeless, but I have also found needles, clothes, etc... and had to clean up literal shit before. My paying customers (for the most part) don't treat me or the store this way. How can I be fair-minded when I feel taken advantage of?"
"On finishing this:
I really loved these stories. They were revealing of a lot of things I take for granted and of things our society doesn't make us aware of. However I have some questions.
1. Yes, these inequalities exist, and poor are getting poorer, but who does have the power, and how do we as a society dissipate the fear that surrounds our misconceptions of the poor, the buses, and an alternative lifestyle? Not everyone wants to read a book, and not everyone will listen to someone who has.
2. Working for businesses where some homeless do try to take advantage of my generosity makes it very hard to be empathetic and just. Even when I am respectful about [communicating that I can't let them] use the washroom or get how water [for free] they are offended because they are not paying customers. Part of this is my job - to keep the store environment comfortable for those who would feel uncomfortable around the homeless, but I have also found needles, clothes, etc... and had to clean up literal shit before. My paying customers (for the most part) don't treat me or the store this way. How can I be fair-minded when I feel taken advantage of?"
February 16, 2021
3.5 stars
The author spent time riding long-distance buses and getting to know the other passengers, most of whom rode the bus because they couldn't afford to travel any other way.
I really enjoyed this look at poverty from a focused perspective, up close, instead of the typical read on poverty, which is mostly numbers with a few anecdotes thrown in.
I appreciated that people were described realistically and weren't romanticized.
Some profanity and a few sexual references were included in dialogue.
The author spent time riding long-distance buses and getting to know the other passengers, most of whom rode the bus because they couldn't afford to travel any other way.
I really enjoyed this look at poverty from a focused perspective, up close, instead of the typical read on poverty, which is mostly numbers with a few anecdotes thrown in.
I appreciated that people were described realistically and weren't romanticized.
Some profanity and a few sexual references were included in dialogue.
February 9, 2022
This was an excellent book. I had to read this for one of my college classes and I’m glad we read it. It is a huge eye opener into what life is like around the U.S, specifically on the bus. I think it’s important that everyone understands what others go through or how lucky they may be with what they have in life compared to others. I enjoyed Weston’s point of view with everything as well. This is a shorter review compared to the long book review I wrote for class!
June 9, 2009
As someone who has traveled on buses, I found this to be an interesting read. Along the way, you learning interesting tidbits about the author and the myriad of characters she mets in her travels by bus. My favorite part is when she talks about going through Flagstaff, since I have traveled to and from that particular station on many occasions.
The author does a skillful job of mixing narratives that hold your interest with political realities which could have fallen into dry academic speak, but manage not to.
Some compare this to Nickeled and Dimed, though I think there is an important difference. The author of this book speaks from this socio-economic level because she has been there, not because she put her life on a self-imposed financial diet to "see how the other half lives". While Nickeled and Dimed is a fine book and one of my favorites, this book sings a different song (while on a bus).
The author does a skillful job of mixing narratives that hold your interest with political realities which could have fallen into dry academic speak, but manage not to.
Some compare this to Nickeled and Dimed, though I think there is an important difference. The author of this book speaks from this socio-economic level because she has been there, not because she put her life on a self-imposed financial diet to "see how the other half lives". While Nickeled and Dimed is a fine book and one of my favorites, this book sings a different song (while on a bus).
February 20, 2011
I personally did not enjoy this book. I felt it lacked any hook or singular narrative that I think strong nonfiction needs. This seemed like a serious of short essays milled together into one long book; I tried to give it a shot, but after 50 pages there wasn't anything that had grabbed my attention enough to warrant continuing it. I personally greatly enjoy nonfiction books; but felt like this was poor story telling. Every sentence had to stress how poor everyone in the book was, there was no room for reader to learn anything or come to their own conclusions. All in all, I did not enjoy this book.
February 18, 2016
This book was assigned to me by my cultural anthropology professor. Though I do agree with previous reviews that the book lacks a hook, and tends to sound repetitive/like the same story told with slight renditions, Weston's diction is what really made this book for me. For assigned reading, I flew through this book. It's not your typical nonfiction -- though dry at times, it's a travelogue, not a textbook; she tells the story from her seat on the Greyhound.
December 31, 2008
A twist on the books about living in poverty in America. The author spends several years riding around the country on Greyhound. She intertwines stories about her travels and the people she meets on the bus with commentary about the state of the poor in America. Most of the information about America's poor was not new to me, but the stories about her experiences on Greyhound were interesting.
November 1, 2011
Interesting read. The author travels by bus for economic reasons and describes her interactions with other bus travelers. As someone who usually travels by personal car and occasionally by air (although I made a few bus trips during college), it was an interesting glimpse into other people's lives.
July 14, 2011
Interesting. Kind of like Barbara Erinreich in the blend of experience and bigger-picture statistics and analysis. Weston uses a lot of anecdotes, things she overheard on the buses. A very quick read, not dense at all.
December 10, 2013
My book was an alright book. Traveling light is about poverty in America, and how we need to see it and be more aware of it. I would suggest this to any one wanting to read up on the poor of America. After reading this i really did feel as if i was learning as I read it.
October 13, 2008
If you liked "Nickeled and Dimed" you'll like this non-fiction tome of a professor(the author) who investigates the poor and working poor by traveling on Greyhound buses around the United States.
Want to read
November 4, 2008OST NEW NON-FIC 1ST FLOOR 305.5 WES
abandoned
January 17, 2013too boring, didn't read.
July 16, 2013
Riding the bus across America, and listening to the stories the passengers tell.
August 17, 2010
If you've ever been poor, then you'll like this book.
April 29, 2014
Could have been a good book if someone else had written it.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews