As Far As You Can Go Without A Passport: The View From The End Of The Road [Paperback]

Tom Bodett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 22, 1986

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From the isolated town of Homer, Alaska, Bodett, a 30-year-old building contractor and National Public Radio commentator, collects thoughts and anecdotes about such things as the doubtful joys of halibut fishing and compulsive supermarket buying. PW noted that the book was distinguished by its "good-natured and self-deprecating humor."
Copyright 1986 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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; F edition (January 22, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201106736
• ISBN-13: 978-0201106732
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #516,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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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
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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
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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!