In September 1960, John Steinbeck and his poodle, Charley, embarked on a journey across America. A picaresque tale, this chronicle of their trip meanders along scenic backroads and speeds along anonymous superhighways, moving from small towns to growing cities to glorious wilderness oases. Travels with Charley is animated by Steinbeck’s attention to the specific details of the natural world and his sense of how the lives of people are intimately connected to the rhythms of nature – to weather, geography, the cycles of the seasons. His keen ear for the transactions among people is evident, too, as he records the interests and obsessions that preoccupy the Americans he encounters along the way..
Tag: Travel
The Aran Islands
Speed Tribes
Journalist Greenfeld exposes elements of Japanese culture that most Westerners never knew existed–the gangsters who control Japan’s drug trade, a lucrative porn industry, and more. Greenfeld uncovers a Japan out of kilter with the orderly society of popular conception, and teaches how Japan’s once miraculous economy has given rise to a predatory subculture..
The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America
Bill Bryson’s unsparing and hilarious account of his travels across America in search of the perfect small town. At the end of his journey, Bryson finds not the idyllic town of his dream, but a ture understanding of America–and a certainty that despite the poverty and ignorance, there is much good in the island..