Customer Reviews

Roastbeef's Promise: When Your Dad's Dying Wish Is to Have His Ashes Sprinkled in Each State, What's a Son to Do?

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The premise in unusual yet carried out so well that it is sometimes hysterically funny. Jim "Roastbeef" Hume's father is suffering from a severe case of Alzheimer's Disease, a lifelong hater of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he now believes that he is Roosevelt and making executive decisions. In his last hours, he asks that his body be cremated and his ashes scattered throughout the 48 contiguous states of the United States. Jim is a mediocre college student with no money, so even though his father was demented when he made the request, to Jim a promise is a promise, so he embarks on the journey, which starts in the Washington D. C. area.
Jim travels by car, bus, moped, bicycle, truck, train, and on foot. He bums rides, jobs and almost everything else when he can't find enough work to continue the journey. In a very funny book, the best part by far was when he was describing his "Uncle Spud." "Spud" was a member of his father's army unit in World War II and he received a Purple Heart for his wound in "hand-to-hand combat" with a German woman armed with a potato peeler. Spud is an unmarried Professor of agriculture at Cal Poly and the description of this colorful character had me laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes.
This is the most unusual road story that I have ever read, Jim struggles with adversity, everything from getting his car stolen to being thrown in jail to having the container of his father's ashes overturned and stolen. Yet he perseveres, meeting some of the oddest people ever to appear in a story, so quirky that they were plausible. It is one of the best pieces of humorous fiction that I have ever read.

Have you ever started a book, was captivated by the first page and then found it got better with each one you turned? Well this work by David Jerome falls into that category. The reader must remember while reading this book that it is a novel which, according to the author, is loosely based on his own experiences while visiting all of the lower 48 states.

Briefly, the premise of the "novel" is that a young man, nick-named Roastbeef, makes a promise to his father who is in end stage Alzheimer's to have him (his father) cremated and to sprinkle a few of his ashes in each and ever state. Now our young hero, whose collage career at that point is less that stellar, follows his father's wishes and set out upon a journey which turns out to be quite remarkable. With very limited funds, a certain naivety, but determined attitude, along with a rather quirky outlook on life, Roastbeef hits the road. Little planning is involved here and the travel is by the seat of his pants and on a shoestring budget. In short, Roastbeef, our first person hero, is pretty much clueless. I will say that I had to admire his tenacity and devotion to his father's wishes.

Now I am a big, big fan of road trip books and set at the feet of the Godfathers of road trip books such as William Least Heat Moon (Blue Highways) and John Steinbeck (Travels with Charlie). I simply cannot pass a book up in this genre. Mind you, I am not by any means placing or comparing this author with these two giants, but I will say for pure reading pleasure, Jerome certainly delivers.

This book is indeed fiction but the reader must constantly remind themselves of this fact. This is due to the fact that the author has an uncanny ability to describe the individuals our hero meets in his travels and has a wonderful ability to catch the essence of the places featured in this story. I have been fortunate enough to have visited and passed through most of the areas and many of the towns and burgs the author references and I can assure you he has them nailed perfectly. We are taken to places the average traveler never sees, but never-the-less exists; trust me! He has also conveyed a very insightful profile of each and every individual mentioned in the book. I did not find one character that I could not identify with a counterpart or person from my own life and travels. As to the events, situations and messes Roastbeef finds himself, with the exception of two scenarios, e.g. the adventure with Uncle Spud in Mexico and the moped portion of the trip (I have ridden my share of mopeds and have traveled the route mention in the story several times, but certainly not via mope, it could be done I suppose, but....), I found all be to quite believable and logical, if viewed from a certain angle. Even the two events mention above; well I suppose they could be done and could have happened. The author certainly makes the believeable; you, the reader, simply should not be overly analytic and practical here. Just read it and enjoy it.

How to separate fact from fiction in this work is the question, as I suspect much of this novel is at least a bit autobiographical. But to be honest, that is a rather moot endeavor when it comes to this type of work. Show me a travel book by any author (and this includes Moon and Steinbeck) that has not elaborated just a bit here and there, and have not used their literary license, and I will show you one boring book. At least with this work the author does present it as a novel and he does not take himself all that serious. I found that to be refreshing.

The bottom line here is that David Jerome is an excellent story teller. He is funny and has a very odd outlook on life and has given us a very readable work that is simply fun and a shear joy to read. His style is easy to follow and his characters are rather all endearing; even the not so nice ones. I do hope we, as the author sort of hints at, hear more of the adventures of Roastbeef and his most interesting new career! I know I will be the first in line to buy the books.

Recommend this one highly. It need to go to the top of your "to read" list! As and added note; I took a close look at the maps of the route followed by our young adventurer...my goodness, it is tempting!

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

I'm a sucker for a travelogue, and the funnier, the better. So it was only natural that I loved David Jerome's first novel, Roastbeef's Promise, from start to finish. He reminded me of two of my favorite authors--Tony Horwitz and Bill Bryson, except that these two write works of nonfiction. But I'm sure that there is a fine line between fact and fiction in Roastbeef's Promise. Jerome did make a similar trip in his younger days, although I assume without the ashes.

Jim "Roastbeef" Hume is barely scratching his way through college and his dad is dying of an aggressive case of Alzheimer's. On his deathbed, "this lifelong Republican now believed he was Franklin D. Roosevelt." When all memory was lost, the disease made him an "FDR savant." Mr. Hume made his son promise that he would scatter his ashes in all 48 contiguous states. He also gave specific directions for some states. "Don't sprinkle too much of me in Vermont. In four elections, I never carried that damn state." So after the funeral, Roasbeet takes off in his Hyundai, with very limited funds and 3/5s of his dad's ashes (not all of his siblings agreed with his mission, so the ashes were divided).

What begins as a smooth trip quickly becomes a bumpy road. Throughout his 15-month journey, he travels by car, bus, train, plane, moped, and on foot. He sleeps everywhere from the "Hyundai Hotel" to the side of the road. He runs out of money on a number of occasions and seeks temporary employment. But what makes Roastbeef's Promise so successful is his colorful cast of characters and his ability to see comedy and irony in all situations. He meets a crop-duster (who helps scatter his dad's ashes over New Hampshire), a lesbian softball coach, the owner of a Mt. Rushmore tourist trap, a van of frat brothers, and a pregnant couple driving to Las Vegas to be married--just to name a few. And as he progresses in his journey, he becomes more creative in scattering the ashes. Instead of just throwing them out the window of vehicles, he paints some on the end-line of the Indy 500, attaches them to a fireworks display, and scatters them on wet cement (in which he carves his dad's initials). Some of the "drops" are really hysterical, and he even manages to pick up some more ashes along the way.

Jerome's zany humor comes through on each page. "I now believe the only thing worse than the loss of a loved one is being one of the surviving relatives who has to eat all the sympathy tuna casseroles and three-bean salads." As for Key West, "It didn't take me long to realize that Key West is a kooky town, full of gays, misfits, seasonal workers, drunks, trust fund kids, tourists, vagrants, and drifters, with several of those categories overlapping on a nightly basis."

Roastbeef's Promise is good enough that I plan on purchasing a number of copies to give out for gifts. And I will definitely be in line to purchase the up-coming sequel, Roastbeef Sprinkles.

I don't know what drew me to this book but I am SOOOOO glad I bought it.

Okay, no need to go over the plot as all the other reviews have done a good job of that. However, this really is a road trip like no other. It is laugh-out-loud funny and a real page turner. The pace is fast so there is no time to stop, and I ended up reading it in less that a weekend, which is good going for me.

I loved the way 'Roast Beef' showed us another side of America and the friends he made along the way will keep you thinking for a long time after you have finished the book.

The whole tale is really heartwarming and just goes to show that the human spirit is alive and kicking and that some kids will go to any length to honor their late parent's wishes.

I recommend this book wholeheartedly, in a world where there is all this doom and gloom, 'Roast Beef' is a ray of sunshine!

I like to buy the occasional book published by independent publishers for the library. I thought this one looked good - but then I also thought it was non-fiction.

First there were the grammar errors, your instead of you're, and extra quotations, "Like this," he said." As a graduate of Georgia Tech, I was also irritated at his reference to "Georgia Tech University." (It's actually Georgia Institute of Technology.) I wonder how many other factual inaccuracies there were that people from other parts of the country would recognize.

The narrative style was painful too. It was very "and then, and then, and then, and then..." And then (ha ha) the most ridiculous things happened to this guy in EVERY STATE. I can understand one or two things, but this was just too much. Not to mention some of the things that happen to him would have had major legal repercussions that just never surfaced. Plus, his general disrespect for his father's ashes was very off-putting.

And in the last page of his book, he tacks on that he's started an ash scattering business, a way too obvious sequel setup. Nope, nope, nope.

As long as I can remember, road trip books have been among my favorites. Something about that kind of mini-adventure particularly appeals to me, and reading books about hitting the road has led me to several memorable road trips of my own. Up to this point, though, all of my favorite road trip books have been nonfiction, whether they involved cross-country walks, hitchhiking, driving or even boating.

Now comes "Roastbeef's Promise," David Jerome's first novel, a classic road trip adventure that I plan to place on the shelves alongside my nonfiction road trip favorites for eventual rereading. It is that good.

Roastbeef Hume, although he knew it was coming, is somewhat shocked when the nursing home calls to tell him that his father is dead. The elder Mr. Hume, at the time of his death suffering from Alzheimer's, believed himself to be Franklin Roosevelt and that his son was one of his presidential aides. When his father, in the guise of President Roosevelt, directed him to spread his ashes, when the time came, over the 48 states he had governed, Roastbeef played along and promised to get it done.

Thus begins the road trip of a lifetime for young Roastbeef Hume who, with some relief, drops out of college and hits the road on what will turn out to be a 15-month adventure to scatter the 3/5 of his father's ashes the rest of the Hume family agrees to let him have. Armed with loads of good intentions, very little cash, a beat up old Hyundai automobile, and no idea of what he is getting himself into, Roastbeef begins a series of adventures that will at times see him penniless, on foot, a crime victim, a beneficiary of the kindness of strangers, and enjoying every minute of his quest to honor his father's last wish.

Along the way he will meet some of the nicest, but quirkiest, citizens the United States has to offer. He will visit Mount Rushmore, Graceland, Indianapolis Speedway, Key West, Las Vegas, and numerous little out-of-the-way places known to very few outsiders where he will use his imagination to decide how best to leave some of his dad's ashes behind. Among others, he will meet a van full of frat brothers and a convertible full of sorority sisters, a lesbian college softball coach, a young man who uses his wedding-crashing skills to eat better than he can afford to eat on his own, an expectant couple rushing to Las Vegas to be married, and a crop-duster pilot.

Roastbeef, as will the reader, learns a lot about human nature and the basic goodness of most people and, despite his setbacks, he comes to realize that "getting there" is the most important part of any journey. "Roastbeef's Promise" had me laughing out loud more than once and I believe it to be a book that will appeal to road warriors and wanna-be road warriors of both sexes. This one is real fun.

and so was "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles." Put those three concepts together, and you've pretty much nailed down the essence of "Roastbeef's Promise." Twenty-one-year-old Jim "Roastbeef" Hume vows to his dying father that the man's ashes will be sprinkled "in all the 48 contiguous states of the country I loved and served so well." (The elder Hume has Alzheimer's by then and is convinced that he is FDR.) Jim is nothing if not a dutiful son, and he agrees to comply with his father's request.

When his father finally dies, Roastbeef quits the college life -- which wasn't going all that well, anyway -- and hits the road with the urn. But he's either the luckiest guy in the world or the UNluckiest guy in the world. His journey is far from easy; and it comes complete with quirky characters, bizarre encounters, additional sidebar tasks to accomplish, and shake-your-head laugh-out-loud moments. If our hero isn't helping a man with an oxygen tank jump up onto a moving freight train, he's either judging an "International Night" contest for a college fraternity or selling cheap Mount Rushmore souvenirs in the Black Hills. Over the course of the next fifteen months, his father's ashes are stolen, mashed into chewing gum, exploded in fireworks, and dumped on the ground more times than we can count. The result is the funniest, fictional Road narrative I think I have ever read. I'm sure someone could write a decent paper equating Roastbeef's adventures with the traditional hero quest outlined by Joseph Campbell and others. The challenges here are just as demanding as any faced by Jason and the Argonauts or by any knight or Monty Python member searching for the Holy Grail.

David Jerome's dust jacket bio claims that the novel is "loosely based on the author's experiences while visiting the forty-eight contiguous states during the mid-1990s." If even a third of this book borders on the truth, then we really do live in a country of wackos. I've driven through only 38 of those states and have seen many of the sites that Roastbeef visits. I guess I have some catching up to do. But I'm not sure I would want to meet Roastbeef out there, on the road. He's a nice enough guy, but weird things happen when he's around. Still: I can't wait for the sequel!

LOVE this book!!!!! After my husband died in 2004 we started thinking of unique ways to deal with his ashes. So imagine how giddy I was when the book ended up on my desk.

Not only is it a fun, tender tale of a son who ended up scattering the ashes of dozens of people. Back in the 90's when Northern Exposure was on TV I remember a wonderful episode where the towns people made a big catapult to launch a friend way out into a rural lake where he could be buried in a green way.

Again this book is a TEN star winner!!

A nice blend of meaningful plot and humor... I can see why Jerome used to write for the Jay Leno show... He is hilarious... I actually laughed out loud at some of the anecdotes.

As you know by now it is the story of a son scattering his Dad's ashes in each of the 48 states, and his travels through them. David Jerome was nice enough to send me a copy of this when I inquired about it, and the timing was perfect. Our family was about to scatter ashes in Maui at sea for a family member and I took it with me. I shared some of the segments with the family especially my nephew, the deceased's eldest son, who could positively relate. It brought us many chuckles and broke up the somberness of what was going on before and after the ceremony. Since we are from Southern California we could totally relate to the west coast destinations and found we shared his impressions of what the locals are like in other parts of the U.S. We've all met people like this, but he describes them so humorously.

My nephew remarked that well, he was lucky... he only had one destination to deal with. Thank you, David, for your thoughtfulness and for sharing this story with us.

We wish you much success in your journey as a novelist.
A family in Murrieta, CA.

What a request! Roastbeef's father died and left his request to be cremated and for his son to take his ashes and spread them in each of the 48 contiguous United States. What a challenge Roastbeef had. This started a trip to carry out his fathers' wishes with little funds and only the small, old Hyundai that his dad had bought for him two years earlier. The family wasn't too enthused over this method of scattering dad all over the nation but it was a wish that had to be followed through.

Thus started the trip where Roastbeef met all kinds of people, got his lodging through many ways, some unimaginable, actually lost the urn a few times, broke it and had to find a replacement urn, and did work that he never imagined he would ever perform in his life. He performed jobs that were disgusting, were carried out in places he never dreamed of being, wore uniforms of various kinds for little pay, but all in all, Roastbeef kept prodding along.

The humor is great. You never know what Roastbeef will get into next or how he would get out of it. When the car broke down, he had to find other transportation since the car was beyond any chance of repair. He used trains, buses, hitchhiking, walking, and bicycling to talk his way along through the states. He met many characters, some he felt he could trust but others that he wanted to get away from very quickly. He even ended up in jail followed by prison for staying at the house of a person growing marijuana in his basement. Eventually he got out of the trouble he got into by sweet-talking mostly and got on his way again.

I do not want to ruin your enjoyment of the many trials, tribulations, and adventure that Roastbeef incurred along his way. He saw and did things he never dreamed of doing and as he visited each state he crossed that state off the list so his dad's wishes could be carried out. I loved this book. It gave so much diversity of humor, characters, different locales, and how one can survive with very little money if they use their heads and are not afraid to work.