Ramble:
A Field Guide to the U.S.A. ,
by Eric Peterson
Reading Eric Peterson's brand
new book Ramble: A Field Guide to the U.S.A. made me
feel like a Roman emperor with the weighty decision of whether
this was going to be a "thumbs up" (and we would publish
a recommendation on the RTA site) or a "thumbs down"
(and it would be tossed into the pile of road trip books that
are not quite good enough). When he wants to be, Eric Peterson
is a gifted travel writer who captures the quintessence of the
road trip experience and whose prose far transcends the ordinary.
Occasionally, as happens in this new book, he lapses into some
version of an "angry young man," using language that
would probably make even Jack Kerouac uncomfortable. All that
said, this book is enthralling, even if it is also occasionally
heavy-handed.
The best writing in the book is the "Author's
Epilogue," and I suggest reading this excellent piece
first. This masterful essay captures why many of us take road
trips and why the magnetic pull of the open road never completely
leaves us. The color photography, the road trip maps and cartoon
graphics found on virtually every page are excellent, and
the colors and images are rich and compelling. Even if you
were unable to read English, this book would still grab and
hold your attention to the very last page.
Six rather interesting road trips told in Peterson's
unorthodox narrative style provide lots of chuckles and even
made me laugh out loud. He searches for Sasquatch in the Pacific
Northwest, looks for aliens in the Rockies, and uncovers human
oddities in the Northeast. His commentaries on the rest of
the country are similarly quirky and very engaging.
What makes this book a stand-out among road trip
guides is Peterson's selection of attractions from across
the country. He divides the U.S.A. into seven regions: California,
the Pacific Northwest, the Rockies & the Southwest, Texas,
the Midwest, New England, and the South. For each of these
seven regions he provides vivid details about the best places
for grub, lodging, road art, dead people, vice, and people
who qualify for his "Ramble RoadTrip Hall of Fame."
Again, his selections provide lots of laughs and delightful
incentive to get out there and see these things in person.
Interestingly, a sentence that Peterson
wrote in the introduction is what ultimately led me to give
this book a "thumbs up." He writes, "In the
end, the best the writer can hope for is to spark the reader's
curiosity to such an extent that he or she actually goes and
visits the area described and experiences a similar sense
of wonder…" Ramble: A Field Guide to the U.S.A.
succeeds superbly as an inspiration and will enrich any roadtripper's
adventures, whether they're traveling by armchair or actual
wheels on the back roads of America.
Mark
Sedenquist
5/7/06
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