Blue Highways

At first, I did not know that to expect from this book. I figured it would be purely travel and was not expecting to learn much about the author. William Least Heat-Moon actually has a great sense of humor and makes the stories a lot more appealing. He begins by talking about how is let off from his job of being a college professor, then finds out that his ex-wife that he broke up with 9 months ago, now has a new "friend." It is easy to see the struggles that this man is going through, and when he decides to take a trip across America by ways of the smallest highways he sees, the reader gets the impression that this guy is crazy. I have heard of people taking trips across the country, but never by the longest route possible. He is amused out of the names of towns, and that is one attracting element for William. Brooklyn Bridge, Kentucky; and Nameless, Tennessee are two of my favorites. He tells humorous stories, and is never afraid to go into towns and learn from the natives. His story in Nameless involves him going into a "mom and pop" store and conversing about why the name of Nameless was given to this town. Once they tell him, they then ask him to join them for lunch, and he ends up making a day out of it. It takes a lot of guts to be able to do what William is doing. Its obvious that he reached his breaking point in life and just needed something new to look forward to.