Blue Highways - William Least Heat-Moon
I love this book more than any other travel book I’ve read yet. Steinbeck was writing a similar book, but Least Heat-Moon goes more in depth with the land and the people he’s discovering. In following his journey I feel like I’m gaining experiences of my own. The dialogue is meaningful and natural, full of lessons and questions a reader will mull over long after the book has been read and put aside.
Least Heat-Moon truly travels alone, and even mentions in the book during a conversation with a waitress that he’d never travel with a dog, and neither would I, because you can’t fully experience your trip if you’re busy talking to a dog. He cuts watercress from a bank and puts it on his sandwich which he eats under Sycamores. It sounds foolish that I want to replicate something so simple, but I can’t help but want it anyway.
Least Heat-Moon meets dozens of unique characters, and not unique according to the politically correct, hipster definition, but truly unique people with grit and stories even the greatest story writer could never make up. This book deserves five stars, and it makes me want to steal my ragged, green Dodge Stratus, pack some necessities into the trunk, and haul away to get a taste of the same adventure and learning that Least Heat-Moon did.
