Regular marked price: $15.99Discount Price: $10.87
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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 917.304927
EAN num: 9780316353298
ISBN number: 0316353299
Label: Back Bay Books
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 448
Printing Date: October 19, 1999
Publishing house: Back Bay Books
Sale Popularity Level: 4974
Studio: Back Bay Books
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Product Description:
First published in 1982, William Least Heat-Moon's account of his journey along the back roads of the United States (marked with the colour 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 very 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.
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 colour 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 very 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.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Took a tour of America with a chip on his shoulder. Guess it gives you a different perspective.
Rated by buyers 
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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 yesterday as they were in 1978. Specifically, he laments the increasingly-homogeneous American culture, materialism, careerism, and many other problems.
I very 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.
Rated by buyers -
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.
Rated by buyers -
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.
Rated by buyers -
This is an excellent journal of a troubled man's endeavor 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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