Customer Reviews

The Mammoth Book of Tales from the Road: Tales of Life on the Move (Mammoth Books)

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I'm not much of a road book fan but while staying with a friend who *is*, I picked up this book from his coffee table and started reading. The writing was good and after a couple of stories, I really began to appreciate the theme of the book and the way the editors combined old, classic road stories (Kerouac, etc.) with new tales that speak of the same movement, wanderlust and basic curiosity. I couldn't help but notice an earlier reviewer who referred to this book as "travel writing," which it clearly is not. It's pure fiction but with all the elements of realism that travel entails. I'm still making my way through it but so far, I think it's quite entertaining.

Lots of edgy writing focusing on the journey, not the destination. Not meant to be a travel writing collection at all, but rather a collection of new and classic road tales from well-known writers and newcomers.

I found it interesting to see the theme of road tales interpreted by so many different kinds of writers. If you love the road and have a sense of awe, admiration, and fear for the darkened highways, check it out. If you want travel writing like Retread, yeah, you'll do better with Sunset Magazine.

What a great read! The stories vary from the classic (Steinbeck's Migrant People brought tears to my eyes) to edgy noir to humor to speculative fiction, encompassing film parody, inspiration from 9/11, and more. I found it to be a very diverse read, with more flavors than Baskin-Robbins. Dig in as your cold scoop melts on steaming asphalt.

A retread title to go with a lot of retread writing. Nothing new or exciting here, move on down the road - there's a lot of great travel writing to be found out there.