American Literary Nomads: A Wayward Traveler Book

By Robert Louis DeMayo

Book Overview

An extraordinary 4,000-mile odyssey across America's diverse landscapes and its literary imagination.

American Literary Nomads isn't a carefree road-trip romp; it's a beautiful, slightly haunted drive through America with the ghosts of its greatest travel writers riding shotgun.

What happens when you take a solo road trip across America with a car full of ghosts? In American Literary Nomads, Robert Louis DeMayo retraces the spirit of Steinbeck's Travels with Charley in a very different United States-4,000 miles of deserts, badlands, small towns, and back roads, with his dog up front and a chorus of American writers riding in his imagination.

At first, he sees them clearly: Steinbeck and Charley in the next booth, Edward Abbey in the back seat, Whitman and Twain trading lines by the fire. As the miles pass and the country grows stranger, those presences fade; nearing the East Coast, they've retreated into scraps of remembered quotes, leaving him alone with hard questions about what "American" even means now.

This isn't nostalgia for a simpler time. DeMayo is more wary than Steinbeck, knowing that pulling into a stranger's yard to share Scotch and politics might end badly today, yet the book still carries the meditative, questing energy of road classics like Blue Highways, Ghost Rider, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance-a journey that's part map, part mirror.

After finishing this book, be sure to explore other stand-alone journeys in the Wayward Travelogues series, including The Wayward Traveler, The Road to Sedona, and Pithecophilia.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DGT731FD
• ISBN13: 9798989343027
• Release Date: November 2024
• Publisher: Wayward Publishing
• Length: 230 Pages
• Weight: 0.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"