As Far As You Can Go Without a Passport: The View from the End of the Road : Comments and Comic Pieces [Hardcover]

Tom Bodett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1985

Tom Bodett, humorist, radio star, and pitchman for Motel 6, lives and writes in Homer, Alaska, the little town in the blue Northwest where America stops, carwise. "If you got into your car in New York, " he said, "and wanted to take a nice long drive, I mean the longest drive you could without turning around or running into a foreign language, this is where you'd wind up." It's a place of moose and salmon and spectacular sunsets, but, Bodet insists, it's also small-town America, a place not all that different from the Michigan town of his youth. That's why he's made it his everyday, for the rigors of the outdoor life and the mundane joys of the family circle. "As Far As You Can Go Without a Passport, " Bodett's first collection of casual essays, contains pieces on eveything from trapping, tree cutting, and halilbut fishing, to soap operas, lost socks, and sleeping in. It's guaranteed to please both the renegate and the homebody in every reader.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From the isolated town of Homer, Alaska, Bodett, a building contractor and National Public Radio commentator, ponders the depths and trivia of life with a wisdom that belies his 30 years. This collection of thoughts and anecdotes treats with good-natured and self-deprecating humor the petty dilemmas and frustrations of daily life anywheresuch as compulsive supermarket buying and junk mail. His observations on his wife's pregnancy and delivery will strike a responsive chord in new fathers, and many men will appreciate his always inappropriate attempts to grow a beard. Amusing, too, are his descriptions of particularly Alaskan situations such as dressing for and working in the bitter cold, and the doubtful joys of halibut fishing. October
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Bodett, a building contractor working in Alaska, writes with honesty and good humor of ordinary, everyday events. The book is made up largely of commentaries he contributed to Na tional Public Radio's All Things Con sidered on such themes as reaching the age of 30, trying to grow a beard, and cooking during his wife's pregnancy. The topics Bodett writes about run pleasantly through the mind, leaving but slight trace of their passage. This is not entirely a defect; it is simply indica tive of the sort of popular magazine-ish category to which they belong. Kessler also submits material to All Things Considered (and to ABC News Nightline ) under the name Ian Shoales. His commentaries are an odd mixture of cynicism, idealism, humor, and sat ire. His prose has a certain man-of-the- world strut, and his pages are full of urbane malice. Sometimes it is not easy to decide whether the satire is con scious or unconscious. The reason for the uncertainty is probably that Kessler is at bottom an idealist and, as is com mon with the breed, a bit shy of appear ing so. He has provided an amusing book full of sly chuckles as he mimics and mocks people and objects badly in need of a good drubbing. A titillating collection for sophisticated palates. A. J. Anderson, Graduate School of Li brary & Information Science, Simmons Coll., Boston
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 143 pages
• Publisher: Perseus Books; 1 edition (October 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201106612
• ISBN-13: 978-0201106619
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,984,423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The deadpan yet revealing humor of a man literally at the end of the road, December 25, 2007

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: As Far As You Can Go Without A Passport: The View From The End Of The Road (Paperback)

The best comedy writers often use their own experiences to generate their material. If their subject matter is a particular lifestyle or area of the country, then they must have lived it and generally stay within it. Bodett lives in Homer, Alaska, and a place that I quite frankly had to look up on a map. His real life is that of a building contractor, and his deadpan delivery made him very popular on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."
In this book, Bodett puts forward a series of short "observations" about life in small town Alaska. He talks about hunting, fishing, having and raising a child, a reclusive trapper with his sled dogs and other natural things found in that area of Alaska. He also talks about other annoyances that all other adults can relate too. Socks getting lost in the laundry, cooking a meal that smells like a pile of long neglected laundry, the perils of Christmas shopping and the universal junk drawer containing a "required" set of worthless materials. Bodett puts it all down in a matter-of-fact style as if these situations are a natural part of the human condition. His attitude is that since we can't do anything about it anyway, we might as well take it in stride. For some people, comments and comedy are one and the same and Bodett fits well into that group.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life in Alaska, November 29, 2009

By 

Barrie T. Savage - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: As Far As You Can Go Without A Passport: The View From The End Of The Road (Paperback)

Tom Bodett's glimpses of life in Alaska are completely entertaining. Great people and stories, along with lots of laughs.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars True Enough, September 5, 2010

By 

S Moore - See all my reviews

This review is from: As Far As You Can Go Without A Passport: The View From The End Of The Road (Paperback)

I was born and raised at the end of the road. Homer, Alaska. Brilliant writing. Thanks for taking me home every time I open this book!