Letters to Zerky: A Father's Legacy to a Lost Son . . . and a Road Trip Around the World [Hardcover]

Bill Raney (Author), JoAnne Walker Raney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2009

In 1967, Bill and JoAnne tried to drive a Volkswagen bus around the world with their baby son, Zerky, and dog, Tarzan. From San Francisco they flew to Germany, where they purchased the camper van and headed east across southern Europe, into Asia, as far as they could go. They traveled across Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Sikkim, India, and Assam, where they hoped to take the Burma Road into China, but were turned back. From there they headed for Thailand and Hong Kong, one-year-old Zerky having a magical effect on everyone they met along the way. An adventure story about a once-upon-a-time journey, this is a story that will challenge pre-conceptions about people of the Middle East and beyond.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this plodding memoir, Bill and Joanne Raney recount a cross-continent trip that began in 1967 with a flight from San Francisco to Munich and took the couple across Europe and Asia in a Volkswagen bus with infant son Xerxes (the titular Zerky) and headstrong dachshund Tarzan in tow. Written in two voices—Joanne's diary entries and Bill's letters to Xerxes—the Raneys record daily events and interactions, from the epic (visiting the Taj Majal, witnessing a Hindu funeral) to the mundane (exchanging money in Iran, border crossings, gastrointestinal illnesses) with equal zeal, often omitting important historical, geopolitical, and regional information. Not without its moments—some of them genuinely touching—the book remains an often banal account of an epic journey without the revelations or insight one would expect from two hippies in the tumultuous 1960s.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Review

"This powerful, wonderful and compelling book . . . is for anyone who savors and celebrates personal stories of epic journeys, vividly brought to life in a dramatic way."  —Greg Mortenson, author, Three Cups of Tea

“Bill, JoAnne, their 18-month old son Zerky and their fearless dachshund Tarzan packed into their VW van to set-off to see the world. Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Sikkim, Assam, Nepal, Thailand, China. Bill takes you along on that rugged ride. Letters to Zerky captures those innocent times in this touching blast to the past and tender tribute to a son.”  —Brandon Wilson, Lowell Thomas Award-Winning author of Along the Templar Trail and Yak Butter Blues

“A masterful storyteller and beautiful description. A tale that keeps readers turning the page for more. The book will appeal to a wide audience, including those interested in travel, Middle Eastern history, and simply a well-written story of adventure.”  —Christine Canfield, ForeWord Magazine

“That rare travelogue with no ego and a true sense of discovery. A compelling and poignant read. The glimpses into Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and China are invaluable.”  —Kyle Wagner, The Denver Post

“A testament to the power of the human spirit—to wonder, endure and remember. The adventure quotient here is high, but the main ballast of the book is emotional, a testament to the power of the human spirit–to wander, endure and remember. A chronicle of travels through a bygone world.”  —Kirkus Reviews

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 436 pages
• Publisher: Nickelodeon Press; First Edition edition (November 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0982138407
• ISBN-13: 978-0982138403
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #742,087 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bill Raney was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and spent his teen years in Port Angeles, Washington. It was there he got a ham radio license and began cruising the world on its airwaves. After two and a half years at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, he dropped out to become a beatnik in San Francisco's North Beach district during the late 1950s and 60s. It was there he met and married JoAnne Walker Raney, who owned and ran The Movie, a small art theatre in North Beach at the time.

In May of 1967, soon after Bill and JoAnne adopted Zerky (Eric Xerxes Raney), they left for the journey detailed in "Letters to Zerky, a Father's Legacy to a Lost Son and a Road Trip Around the World." Upon returning to California, thirteen months later, they moved down the coast to Santa Cruz, California, where Bill got a loan from a bank and started the Nickelodeon Theatre, which is still going strong today and has become a Santa Cruz institution.

One month after the Nickelodeon opened, JoAnne died in the night of an undiagnosed cerebral aneurism, and then about year after that Zerky was run over by a truck.

Today, Bill is re-married to Nancy Raney, who for many years helped him run the Nickelodeon. Together they took many periodic get-away trips to exotic places such as India, Africa, Papua New Guinea, South America and the Arctic. After selling the Nickelodeon in 1997, Bill and Nancy moved to Spain for six months, and then in 1997 bought an old 42-foot trawler on which they lived for the next eight years, cruising the Pacific Coast from Santa Cruz north to Alaska and back. It was towards the end of their peripatetic life on the boat that Bill ran into the letters he had written to Zerky on that trip of so many years ago, and also some old pictures and JoAnne's diary. Bill realized they could be a book to serve as a memorial.

Today Bill and Nancy live in a redwood forest outside Santa Cruz, California, with the deer, no antelope to play with them, but with Lucy and Hardy, their two remaining cats. Hardy's sister Laurel got eaten by a coyote!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring and haunting, March 22, 2010

By 

James McCormack (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Letters to Zerky: A Father's Legacy to a Lost Son . . . and a Road Trip Around the World (Hardcover)

This isn't just a collection of thoughts. In his letters to his son, Bill writes with incredible detail, trying to explain the significance of what he's seeing to a son that won't remember all of his adventures. He writes to include him - "You were a hit, Zerky!" and educate him about global politics, but not in an overbearing way. He has the writing skills to draw us into these very personal moments. I've owned a small RV in the past and did a big cross country trip, and reading his accounts has gotten my wanderlust going again!

It's haunting for several reasons - the biggest one being that his son and his wife die only a few years after the trip, leaving Bill alone with these memories. Another is the sense of loss of opportunity. There was a short window of time where Americans were met with reactions of intrigue and welcome in many of the countries they visited. Today, not even the adorable Zerky could save them from open hostility.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An enticing and fun read, well worth reading for lovers of true adventure, February 9, 2010

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Letters to Zerky: A Father's Legacy to a Lost Son . . . and a Road Trip Around the World (Hardcover)

Wanderlust doesn't wait for peace. "Letters to Zerky: A Father's Legacy to a Lost Son... and A road Trip Around the World" is a unique memoir as a father addresses his son about a roadtrip the son took when he was a young child. Bill Raney took his son across the globe when he was only an infant, as they toured Europe and Asia. Aimed at his son, there's no exclusion as any reader will be mesmerized by this truly unique and legendary family vacation that makes Disney World look dull. "Letters to Zerky" is an enticing and fun read, well worth reading for lovers of true adventure.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Poignant Sixties Global Adventure, March 25, 2011

By 

Old Saratoga Books "The Book Trout" (Upstate New York, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letters to Zerky: A Father's Legacy to a Lost Son . . . and a Road Trip Around the World (Hardcover)

Raney's forty-year old letters to and photos of his young son Eric Xerxes Raney, affectionately known as Zerky, make for a compelling armchair adventure. In 1967, Raney and wife JoAnne, Zerky and a dachsund named Tarzan, flew to Cologne, Germany, where they bought a Volkswagen bus that was their home for the next year through Spain, Eastern Europe, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Tibet. Zerky's blond head and Tarzan's doggie charms opened borders, hearts and minds for the family as they traveled during the height of America's unpopular intervention in Viet Nam.

The author doesn't get into details until the final chapter about the tragedies that befall his family later, but the reader learns from the front jacket blurb that both JoAnne and Zerky die shortly after their American homecoming, so this lends an extra poignancy to the exuberant letters that Raney wrote for his son to savor about a trip that he wouldn't remember when he grew up. Raney's letters are also accompanied by some journal snippets that JoAnne wrote along the way, and they are often an interesting, practical counterpoint to her husband's more upbeat accounts (though diarrhea features way too prominently in her entries).

I found the photos sprinkled throughout the text to be very evocative and often very funny. Zerky, named for ancient Persian Emperor Xerxes the Great, is often posed in front of world landmarks as a toddler conqueror and they are sweet, funny and well-composed shots. Confusingly, though, there are a number of other photos also bound in at the front of the book, some of which are duplicated later on in the text. The accompanying maps that are sprinkled among the chapters are also loaded with too many dots identifying areas that are not even visited in the book and simpler maps would provide more effective communication of the Raney's travel routes.

The book offers an original contribution to travel literature as a poignant and perceptive travelogue by two Americans journeying into lands where not too many Westerners find an easy welcome today.