Product Description
The End of Hitchhiking is a coming-of-age novel that describes the confusions of modern youth and the feelings of being trapped between adolescence and adulthood – an increasingly blurry line for America’s young people. Humorous, thoughtful, and full of compelling dialogue, The End of Hitchhiking is about the individual search for identity, personal meaning, and real experience amidst six billion Facebook status updates and the ambiguity of an increasingly digital world.
The plot features five Ivy League college sophomores. As the school year draws to a close, they make plans for their summers and eventual careers. They are unsure whether they’ll earn their future accomplishments themselves, or if, like their education, they will ultimately be molded and paid for by their parents.
The story is told by Jim, a quirky narrator who pushes his friends to carefully consider their potential futures while struggling to define his own. Unnerved by the pervasive sentiment at college that he should live his life as though it were a professional résumé, Jim convinces his friends to set out with him on a cross-country road trip. In search of a ”real adventure,” they find themselves admiring their parents and previous generations - generations which they envision as more “real” than their own. They wonder if the time when college students could be truly spontaneous – when they could hop freight trains and hitchhike without GPS navigation or smart phones – has really ended, and what that means for their own adventure.
During their journey, Jim learns more about his friends than he could have back in the bubble of college life. As each character relates their past and the private battles they fight, their encounters on the road introduce them to the indistinct America they are inheriting - the good, the bad, and the ominous.
The plot features five Ivy League college sophomores. As the school year draws to a close, they make plans for their summers and eventual careers. They are unsure whether they’ll earn their future accomplishments themselves, or if, like their education, they will ultimately be molded and paid for by their parents.
The story is told by Jim, a quirky narrator who pushes his friends to carefully consider their potential futures while struggling to define his own. Unnerved by the pervasive sentiment at college that he should live his life as though it were a professional résumé, Jim convinces his friends to set out with him on a cross-country road trip. In search of a ”real adventure,” they find themselves admiring their parents and previous generations - generations which they envision as more “real” than their own. They wonder if the time when college students could be truly spontaneous – when they could hop freight trains and hitchhike without GPS navigation or smart phones – has really ended, and what that means for their own adventure.
During their journey, Jim learns more about his friends than he could have back in the bubble of college life. As each character relates their past and the private battles they fight, their encounters on the road introduce them to the indistinct America they are inheriting - the good, the bad, and the ominous.
