The Road to Somewhere: An American Memoir [Paperback]

James A. Reeves (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2011

A photo memoir of one man's travels through America that is as sprawling and chaotic as the country itself.
One day James A. Reeves realized that he no longer understood his country or what he should be doing in it. There was a time when the road to manhood was clear--go to war, find a job with a big company, wear a tie, and start a family --but then the wars got strange and companies changed. He decided to go for a drive to clear his head. What resulted is a scattershot journey spanning five years, forty thousand miles, twelve speeding tickets, and several moments of unexpected kindness through the neon corridors and dark corners of America.

Reeves drove along the back roads taking pictures and looking for answers, kept company by the nervous chatter of talk radio and the ambient drone of twenty-four-hour diners, as he drifted toward a slow reckoning with his own compulsions and sudden loss.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Unpretentious and insightful, James Reeves' Road to Somewhere is a photo memoir of his journey driving all over the United States. His unique point of view clearly comes through in both his writing and images--quirky, beautiful, disturbing, humorous, and at times unexpectedly and achingly moving." -- Photo Life

"The next page is always unexpected but never ill-considered and the writing hitches the hubris of the perpetual interloper to genuine empathy." -- The Huffington Post

From the Back Cover

"The inspiration is so simple: Head out at random into America and see what you find. James A. Reeves found the America no one seems to be looking for anymore, and he also found himself." -- Roger Ebert 

"On The Road for a new century." -- Michael Lesy, Wisconsin Death Trip 

"A tantalizing 21st Century cross between James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men and Jack Kerouac's On the Road, this remarkable and utterly original memoir heralds the arrival of a new and important American voice. James A. Reeves's The Road to Somewhere will take you places you will not easily forget." -- Andre Dubus III, House of Sand and Fog

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 411 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Original edition (August 15, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393340058
• ISBN-13: 978-0393340051
• Product Dimensions: 1.2 x 7.5 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #358,907 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James A. Reeves is a writer, educator, and designer. He attended the University of Michigan, Pratt Institute, and Tulane Law School. He has taught courses in design, research, history, and visual culture at Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design. He is a partner at Civic Center. His first book, The Road to Somewhere: An American Memoir, was published by W. W. Norton in August 2011. He's currently finishing a book of essays called American Hit Parade and his first novel, Tragic Americans on the Radio. He lives in New Orleans.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm Almost Inspired To Get My Road Trip On August 30, 2011

By Fun Lover & Truth Seeker

Format:Paperback

I've just never enjoyed driving longer than about three hours. Too many mile markers, too much "wasted time." Maybe I've been doing it wrong. James A. Reeves almost inspires me to grab the camera and head off toward wherever and buy underwear at Wal-mart in the middle of the night when I run out of clean ones. I like the people in the stories, like the two first-grade boys "who have never had a haircut. They wear wife-beaters. Maybe they're in a band." And the insomniac walking a dark, deserted road in the middle of a night, carrying a cat. And Reeves' father and grandfather. These people have stayed with me. Having been to New Orleans right after Katrina, I understand Reeves' observation that "nobody writes on doors when things are going well." I like his remembrances of flipping around the AM radio dial out in the middle of nowhere and hearing, well, everything. I'm almost inspired to go gather stories and images of my own, except for those mile markers and too much "wasted time." Must be doing it wrong. There's stuff to see and hear out there. Thank you, James A. Reeves, for sharing your stories and images.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughts on America and a personal state of mind September 4, 2011

By wogan TOP 50 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

James Reeves has created a memoir of a trip to self-discovery and America. To some it might look like a small coffee table book, others might think it is a travelogue; what it really is - is a journey to find one's self and in the process, a real America is discovered. The musings cover; men, country, work, home, discipline, God, guts and strength. The book is easy to read with pictures on each side and usually just a few lines on the facing page.
One is drawn into the journey from the first - with the stories of his father and grandfather's military service and what would he have done if he was drafted or had to go to war as they did before him. His thoughts shift from what he observes to his family and even the loss of some as he is writing this, to..."Do people who live out west ever fantasize about driving to New York". He covers the nationalism and the all engulfing patriotic displays after 9/11. The pictures of his family and the sights he sees help to draw you into the trip.

This is a personal life tour that shows you the real heart of America. One can be inspired to make a journey of their own and should be inspired to make a family album to go with it. It is a book of interest for those who wish to explore where these journeys can go.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Road Don't Stop September 28, 2011

By Alex M. Pruteanu

Format:Paperback

Hidden within the usual cliches for "road books" lies someone's truth of this chameleon country we call the United States. James Reeves' road memoir reveals for him answers--albeit not necessarily complete--to questions he's carried within himself all his life.

But reading James' account and witnessing his vision of our country (through wonderful, personal photographs) as it enters the 21st century in a chaotic, almost dismembered state, only further obfuscates the (declining) force that is America, for this reviewer. And that is a good thing. It's one of the truths evident. Through his search for his own answers, James reveals the partitioned state that is our country, at times unveiling its Philistine, fundamentalist tendencies for maintaining status quo, at others underscoring its inventive, innovative, and optimistic drive into a new era. At the core of these dueling forces we find...people.

James personalizes The Road with profile slices of those who inhabit it; who hitchhike it; who love or loathe it; who defend it. In reading this book I found my America quickly slipping away from me; I found I know no more of it now than I did thirty-two years ago when I came to it as an immigrant/refugee from a communist regime. And that should stand as a credit to this country--rapidly moving whether forward or backward or laterally.

Within his expansive, several-thousand-mile journey, James reveals the profile of a young, travelling man fighting to understand ideas passed down through his culture and familial rituals, and how they intersperse with the mentation of his own experiences, in his own time, as a man in America.

Four and a half stars!