"Elijah
Wald sums up a life spent walking backwards. A lot of people have tried
to write books about hitchhiking, but none of them worked. This one
does."
-- Utah Phillips
"Elijah, it's good to see you keeping Kerouac's 'drive'
alive . . . From one 'road dog' to another, keep
up the nice work!"
-- Michelle Shocked
"Highly recommended for outstanding
travel writing and a unique look at the modern America that most of
us barely glance in our rearview mirrors as we whiz along at 70 miles
per hour."
--Library Journal
"This agreeable memoir of cross-country adventures
is full of good times: the friendly people he’s met, the lessons
he’s learned, the unique relationship that exists between driver
and passenger. For readers who automatically associate hitchhiking with
jeopardy, the book will be an eye-opener; and for lovers of the open
road, it’s simply a delight."
--David Pitt, Booklist
"Elijah Wald celebrates thumbing a lift, once a proud
American tradition and perhaps due for revival with current gas prices.
The journalist and musician persuasively argues that we shouldn't be
so scared of our fellow travelers."
--Seattle Weekly Critic's Pick
"A just-right combination of travelogue, culture
peek, and hitching tips...and it is a relief to be reminded how many
of us are helpful and friendly, ready to interrupt our daily rounds
at the solicitation of a random wanderer."
--School Library Journal
"...an easy-to-read travel
story about one cross-country journey on which Wald meets a motley assortment
of people who take him a little farther down the road....
Whether it's listening to popular Russian mafia rock with a Moldavian
trucker, or sleeping in the garden of Mark Twain's house in Hannibal,
Mo., or enjoying the special comforts of modern truck stops, Wald gives
an extraordinary spin to ordinary moments. And like hitchhiking itself,
it's the contemplation between rides that is part of this book's beauty.
Wald's westbound narrative is richly layered with the veteran hitchhiker's
reflections on religion, music, law, boredom, paranoia and race relations.
--Ron Franscell, San Antonio Express-News
"By the time Wald reaches the West
Coast, even the weariest of readers will be tempted to stand on a curb,
stick out a thumb, and trust in the kindness of strangers."
-- Kristen Mueller, Utne Reader
This site includes a voluminous collection
of quotations about hitchhiking that
I couldn't fit in the book, including comments by Charles Dickens, Ani
DiFranco, Ralph Nader, Jacques Chirac, and Rosanna Arquette (Woody Guthrie
and Jack Kerouac are there as well). Also a page with highlights of
my book
tour in May and June, 2006, which was of course
another hitchhiking trip. And a growing page of tips
and answers to questions I keep getting, like, "Would you recommend
that women hitchhike?"
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