Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

Letters to Zerky by Bill Raney is a quick, easy read I couldn't put down. It is written in a unique way, as letters from Raney to his one year old son who accompanies him and his wife on an amazing round the world journey in a Volkswagon bus in the 1960's. As they move from country to country, traversing mountains and basking on beaches, hiking, tent camping, and meeting interesting people, Bill writes about the experiences, which his son shares but will not remember when he is grown. His wife, JoAnne Walker Raney keeps a Journal along the way and they take black and white photos. Her journal entries add to many of the letters. Unfortunately, both son and mother died in later years before the work book was written and without either re-reading the letters and journal which had been lost. When these were found Raney compiled them into a charming book which describes in vivid adjectives and down-to-earth, honest manner the way these countries were a half century ago. For inveterate travelers this window into the past is fascinating and alluring. For anyone it is a very interesting read and contains lots of history, geography, and maps and adorable black and white photos. You'll love this one!

An adventure as brimming with drama, action, comedy, and pathos as any epic movie. I was sucked in by the immensity of the journey, and the twists and turns along the way--from Western to Eastern Europe, Turkey to Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan (at a distant time, as Bill writes, "when people in the Islamic world admired America"), from India to China, and finally back to San Francisco-- oh, the intrepitude!--by freighter. If you have any interest at all in travel, travel diaries, or world affairs, come relive Bill's incredible journey.

From the Denver Post:

"Letters to Zerky, a Father's Legacy to a Lost Son and a Road Trip Around the World," is that rare travelogue with no ego and a true sense of discovery, because when author Bill Raney was writing these missives to his 10-month-old boy, Zerky--the nickname he and his late wife JoAnne Walker Raney had for son Eric Xerxes Raney--he had no plans to publish them. They were meant simply to give Zerky narrative snapshots of a trip he would never remember.

It is only now, 40 years later, with both Zerky and JoAnne long and tragically deceased, that Bill has decided to share these very personal, often amusing, sometimes painful and mostly fascinating tales of the trio's escapades across Eurasia in a Volkswagen van during the Vietnam War. Combined with JoAnne's diary entries from the time, the book is a compelling and poignant read. The glimpses into their lives and the world at the time--including travel into what was then Czechoslovakia, as well as Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and China--are invaluable."

-Kyle Wagner

Letters to Zerky: A Father's Legacy to a Lost Son... and a Road Trip Around the World is an amazing collection of letters penned to Zerky- a toddler who would accompany his father and mother in a remarkable road trip around the world. Bill Raney, wife Joanne and their 10 month old son Zerky, would travel the globe in all its splendor in the amazing 60's. Author Bill Raney initially wrote these letters so that his son would be able to bring relive the memories of this amazing journey. Tragically, it was only a few years later that son and mother both died. It was some 40 years later that the author came across the letters in an old file cabinet and wrote this memoir/travel book as a tribute to keep the memories of Zerky alive. Imagine yourself traveling forty years ago on a sphere so drastically different and breathtakingly exotic. Here is a slice of history served up in a delicious mixture of family adventure, unique characters, and heartwarming intimate stories. This book will deeply satisfy the travel buff, the historian, the adventurer and the lover of plain old good stories. I loved every second of it so thought I would recommend it to you. Letters to Zerky: A Father's Legacy to a Lost Son . . . and a Road Trip Around the World

Monday, May 23, 2011

5 stars out of 5

What a touching story told by Bill Raney. In this travel memoir, we follow Bill, his wife JoAnne and adopted infant son, Zerky, as they travel the world in their RV to experience a trip and adventure of a lifetime. Because Zerky would be too young to remember the trip, Bill documented the trip through letters to his young son, while JoAnne used a journal to document the trip. Life being unpredictable, turned this once in a lifetime adventure into a remembrance of sorts for the author, as he lost his wife while she was 8 months pregnant upon their return to CA, and a year later, his son Zerky passed away at age 4. So, instead of documenting the trip, Bill ended up turning his memories, letters and photos into this wonderful book. Letters to Zerky reads like a diary, and really does pull at your heartstrings. The book and the way Bill tells of his adventures with his late wife and son are honest and pure. You can't help but feel happy that they were able to experience this type of journey while together. So many people dream of spending time with their families in such a way, but due to hectic schedules, money restraints and more, trips like these can't be taken.

If you like reading memoirs, or are looking for a great book to read this summer, you definitely have to pick up Letters to Zerky. I promise you will not be able to put it down, and will be sharing it with friends.

--Savannah

An excellent poignant story of a young family's trip around the world during the Viet Nam War written in letters to the author's son.