Roads to Quoz: An American Mosey (Hardcover)

by William Least Heat-Moon (Author) "As travelers age, we carry along ever more journeys, especially when we cross through a remembered terrain where we become wayfarers in time as well..." (more)
Key Phrases: ghost light, goat woman, forgotten coast, Great Mound, North Carolina, Great Plains (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. It was almost a decade ago that Least Heat-Moon (Blue Highways) followed the trail of Lewis and Clark in River Horse; in the first section of his latest peripatetic writings, he and his wife, Q, trace the lesser-known Dunbar-Hunter Expedition of 1804 through the southern half of the Louisiana Purchase, searching out the head of the Ouachita River in Arkansas. Least Heat-Moon's fans will find this territory, and that covered in the five other journeys to places a goodly portion of the American populace would call 'nowhere,' instantly familiar, as he and various companions take digressive paths from one small opolis (where anything metro was clearly missing) to the next in search of quoz (an 18th-century word meaning anything out of the ordinary). Among his many adventures, Least Heat-Moon rides a bicycle along an abandoned railroad track, discovers a road to nowherebuilt by a Florida county so local drug smugglers would have a landing strip, and comes up with what he believes is the real story behind the murder of his great-grandfather. Or maybe the highlights of these journeys are the people he meets along the way and their stories, like the man who tried to fund a school for disadvantaged children by providing lonely widows with special massages, or the artist who's turned his cabin into a walk-in kaleidoscope. Either way, few readers will be able to resist tagging along. (Oct. 29)
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From Booklist
*Starred Review* Heat-Moon’s love for back roads, buried history, mesmerizing stories, and colorful language launched a life of inquisitive travels and meticulous writing. In his fifth book, this attentive listener and observer and sly wit in the mode of Twain reports on his quest for quoz, that is, “anything strange, incongruous, or peculiar.” Accompanied by his smart, funny lawyer-historian wife, Q, Heat-Moon follows the 1804 trail of William Dunbar and George Hunter on the “forgotten” Jeffersonian mission along the Ouachita River through Arkansas and Louisiana. Amidst hilarious commentary on road food and uncharismatic small towns, Heat-Moon continues on to Florida, Maine, New Mexico, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, and Texas, writing vividly and insightfully about diverse and quirky places. But it is the people he meets, or resurrects, that give this spellbinding and immensely satisfying book its soul. From freethinker William Grayson, shot down on the street in Joplin, Missouri, in 1901 (Heat-Moon finally solves the case) to artist Indigo Rocket, a “wizard of quoz”; Jean Ingold, whose “carbon footprint was that of a cat”; conservator James Canary, guardian of Kerouac’s On the Road scroll; Glenn Gore, who is dedicated to photographing “every mile” of the Ouachita; and Frank Xavier Brusca, who is doing the same for U.S. Highway 40. Natural, national, and personal history converge in this resplendent “mosey,” an inspiriting antidote to hurry and a profound tribute to this good land and its people. --Donna Seaman

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 592 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (October 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316110256
• ISBN-13: 978-0316110259
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #56,496 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quoz , November 23, 2008

By	Gary Gackstatter (St. Louis MO) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I wasn't sure there was a word for what happens to me when I read Heat-Moon's works. I find treaures in them that seem to be written just for me to find. How can that be?

"PrairyErth" was such a treasure-box; I have read it every year since it was written, each time finding something new. "Roads to Quoz" is also such a book. Its wisdom, depth and humor take you on journeys that are pure joy for the intellect and the imagination.

Heat-Moon's "roads to Quoz" cover a vast area, so I was suprised that one of his Quoz stories mentioned a tiny town in Kansas called "Otis". It is where my mother grew up. I cannot explain such crossings of paths, but at least now I have a word for them: Quoz.

This is simply a gem of a book. It looks forward and backward at the same time, giving insights along the way, and finding wonder.
Gary Gackstatter, St Louis

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not his best..., January 5, 2009

By	nto62 (Corona, CA USA) - See all my reviews

I've been an avid fan of Heat-Moon's since I first picked up Blue Highways and Prairy Erth many years ago. Whether it's his melancholy wanderlust or the ability to make the commonplace come alive, William Least Heat-Moon is one of America's finest travel writers. I pre-ordered Roads to Quoz with much anticipation. It came, I read it, I let it stew, and in the end find I'm a bit underwhelmed.

It's not that the book isn't entertaining. It is. Heat-Moon once again has much to tell his audience. But, there is something naggingly absent. Roads to Quoz is a series of roundtrips that Heat-Moon makes with his wife. Gone are the solitary miles stretching before him to be replaced with hotels and eateries. It isn't a journey so much as a jaunt and Heat-Moon's prose suffers because of it.

"Q", his mono-initialled wife, is a complete enigma. She is quick with a quip, but not much else and remains indistinguishable throughout. She's a void beyond her sardonic comments. Furthermore, Heat-Moon, never shy about his politics, is so inclined to the point of repetition. Yet, those new to Heat-Moon might find this book adequately pleasing. I would challenge them to read Prairy Erth and Blue Highways. One simply can't come away thinking that Quoz compares favorably with anything previously written. 3+ stars.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An engaging tour of quaint and quirky people and places, November 24, 2008

By	Roy E. Perry "amateur philosopher" (Nolensville, Tennessee) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"Samuel Johnson said it in five words: `Solitude is dangerous to reason,'" writes the author. "I can think of no greater reason for taking to the American road."

In 1982, William Least Heat-Moon published Blue Highways, a remarkable book whose title refers to highways colored blue on maps. Now, in Roads to Quoz, he ventures again off the beaten path to encounter quirky but charming out-of-the-way places and people.

With an easy banter, Heat-Moon engages those whom he meets along the way--colorful characters eager to tell their stories. Venturing from Florida to New Mexico, Maine, and Idaho, and to other states in between, he writes with the delightful wit and humor reminiscent of Twain, Steinbeck, or Jack Kerouac.

He explains that "quoz" (rhymes with Oz) means anything out of the ordinary: "anything strange, incongruous, or peculiar; at its heart is the unknown, the mysterious."

Not all of America, perhaps not even the best, can be found along the Interstate highways or in the big cities. As the poet Robert Frost put it, "I took the road less traveled by--and that has made all the difference."

William Least Heat-Moon, the pen name of William Trogdon, is of English, Irish, and Osage ancestry. He lives near Columbia, Missouri, on an old tobacco farm he's returning to forest. His first book, Blue Highways, is a narrative of a 13,000-mile trip around America on back roads. His second work, PrairyErth, is a tour on foot into a small corner of the great tallgrass-prairie in eastern Kansas. River-Horse is an account of his four-month, sea-to-sea voyage across on the United States on its rivers, lakes, and canals. His three books on travels have never been out of print. Heat-Moon is also the author of Columbus in the Americas, a compendium of the explorer's adventures in the New World.