The Kindness of Strangers: Penniless Across America [Paperback]

Mike McIntyre (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1996

In a book featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The O'Reilly Factor, CBS' The Early Show and CNN, journalist Mike McIntyre describes his coast to coast trek, from San Francisco to Cape Fear, with no money or plans, depending only on the kindness of strangers he encountered along the way.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A road-trip and self-discovery book with a difference: McIntyre hitchhiked across America with no money, accepting only the "kindness of strangers"--rides, food, shelter, and the occasional beer. This book grew on me with every page, just as McIntyre's feelings for the ordinary people he met grew with every mile. Few books I've read since Studs Terkel's Hard Times (a classic oral history about the Great Depression) so effectively captured the day-to-day lives of typical Middle Americans, with all their strengths and weaknesses. Highly Recommended.

From Publishers Weekly

McIntyre decided to confront his fears and the shaky path his life was taking by hitchhiking from San Francisco to Cape Fear, N.C. Along the way, he hoped to find some kindness in the soul of America and vowed to accept no money, only food, shelter and friendship. Rather like William Least-Heat Moon's Blue Highways or Andrei Codrescu's Road Scholar, The Kindness of Strangers is the story of those who help and hinder his journey: the vast array of kind souls and weirdoes, as well as Americana at its best and worst. He stays a night with Edie, who cares for her brain-damaged granddaughter yet happily takes him in. A woman with a tear-shaped tattoo teaches him to feel at home in nature, not to fear the dark woods where he sometimes sleeps. He finds a sense of family on a ranch in South Dakota and meets a couple who give him a tent, although it is one of their most valuable possessions. Not everyone along the way is kind and generous, and there are plenty of strangers with dark ulterior motives. Exhausted and road-weary, he finally arrives in Cape Fear and realizes that it is a misnomer: "The name is as misplaced as my own fears. I see now that I have always been afraid of the wrong things. My great shame is not my fear of death, but my fear of life." McIntyre writes eloquently and rekindles optimism in America's character.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 246 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade; First Printing edition (November 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425154556
• ISBN-13: 978-0425154557
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #503,040 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mike McIntyre is an author, journalist, traveler and avid golfer. His first book, "The Kindness of Strangers: Penniless Across America," an account of his coast-to-coast journey with no money, was featured on Oprah. His latest travelogue, "The Wander Year: One Couple's Journey Around the World," recounts his 22-country, 6-continent adventure with his wife, Andrea. He is also the author of the novel, "The Scavenger's Daughter: A Tyler West Mystery." He's been a travel columnist for the Los Angeles Times, a theater columnist for The Washington Post and a feature writer for The San Diego Union-Tribune. He's also published articles in Golf Digest, Reader's Digest, Air & Space/Smithsonian and Powder magazines. He lives in San Diego.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Up lifting must read, September 19, 2001

By 

Barry Felice (N. Cape May, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Kindness of Strangers: Penniless Across America (Paperback)

I have purchased numerous copies of this book to give to friends. After recently rediscovering book and reading for 5th time I was checking amazon to see if Mike McIntyre has any other titles. I felt compeled to write a review. In light of the recent World Trade center attack I really need something that confirmed my belief that good people are all around us. It really lifted me out of my gloom. A++++

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Kindness of Strangers..., June 12, 2000

By 

Quaker Annie "reader" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Kindness of Strangers: Penniless Across America (Paperback)

This book reminds me a little of Scott Savage's book (A Plain Life: Walking My Belief), although the author is not a Quaker. Reading one chapter in another book was enough to draw me to this title.

At 37, Mike McIntyre was an established journalist, with a good job in San Francisco, a girlfriend, a nice apartment. His job enabled him to travel all over the world, but he felt moved to leave it all behind, and travel by the grace of others from the West Coast to Cape Fear, North Carolina. He feels he's a coward, that he's afraid to take a gamble with anything...neither of these being words that describe Quakers. But his feeling that an inner voice is telling him to do this, and his conviction to go ahead despite less than encouraging words from his family ("you'll get raped," his own grandmother tells him) are, to me, a spiritual calling. He says he will not take money, not even if he finds it on the road in front of him. He sets out, wary but determined to go. Like Scott Savage's need to turn over his already expired driver's license, McIntrye has picked his destination as a symbolic gesture. "If I make it to Cape Hope," he says, "it will be as a different man from the one who starts the journey. I am afraid."

Right out the door, he finds himself a fill-in guest house on a talk show ("Life in the Country") on a local radio station. He isn't alone as a guest - his new partner is a tall, blond with red lipstick and high heels, a firefighter named Diana, who used to be named Dennis. The book is full of strange encounters, and is an interesting read, to put it mildly.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Travel books don't come any better, November 23, 1999

By 

Brad Newsham (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Kindness of Strangers: Penniless Across America (Paperback)

I was in a trance from page one right through the epilogue. The author had the guts to do what so many of us are terrified of doing--to leave our lives for a couple of months, to step away and challenge our biggest fears. He describes his experience in a straightforward, no-punches-pulled manner that puts the reader right into his shoes. The reader sees "the real America"--a believable America, sees Life sliced right open, sees himself or herself vicariously exposed. The book shows heart, humor, whimsy, commitment, strength, vulnerability. A moving tale. A gift. I'd give it six stars if I could.