Former radio broadcaster Keith, a Boston College communications lecturer, tours his childhood in this charming, often poetic memoir, a hitchhiker travelogue that reads like Little League Kerouac. The journey begins in Albany, N.Y., in 1959, two years after Keith's parents divorced. Together, 11-year-old Mikey and his alcoholic father, Curt, plan their trip to California: "The West beckons, and I am dizzy with anticipation." The duo travels by Greyhound, stopping in New York City, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Denver along the way. They seek shelter in missions, motels and back-street rooming houses, finally arriving at the Encino Paradise Motel: "I think I'm happier than I have been in my whole life," Keith writes. They survive on stolen sardines and graham crackers between the odd jobs that Curt occasionally lands and encounter plenty of quirky characters, including a paranoid embalmer's assistant who has his umbrella filed into a weapon. From Los Angeles, they proceed to Las Vegas, Fort Worth and finally back to Albany. Keith brings to life these long-ago people and places. He doesn't shy away from his father's "bout with the bottle," but the boozy past is bathed in a wistful, rosy hue: "Sitting in a moving Greyhound is the closest I come to experiencing the bliss of home. If I could, I would live on one forever."
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
Although this autobiographical narrative is hardly an American version of Angela's Ashes, there are several parallels. The book recounts Keith's 11th year, in 1959, when his mother allowed him to live with his father because she could not care for her son and his two younger sisters. In the dubious charge of this man-a feckless alcoholic and drifter, dependent on the charity of others and the Catholic Church-Keith was always filthy, often hungry, and seldom in school. The quest for a better life in California took the hapless pair from Albany, NY, to Los Angeles and back again, with stops in Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Denver, Las Vegas, and Fort Worth. It was a life-changing odyssey for both, managed via Greyhound and hitchhiking, peppered with unusual characters (including bums and bedbugs), and brightened by the kindness of strangers-all in search of "the next better place." Keith, now a broadcast media expert and the author of numerous books, skillfully and humorously re-creates his experience and his vision of a world that is rarely threatening and always full of promise and adventure. Recommended for all public libraries.
Janet Ross, formerly with Sparks Branch Lib., NV
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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