Publication
Amsterdam Atlas Contact 2012
ISBN
9789045021614
Language
Collections
Description
In 1960 John Steinbeck and his dog Charley set out in their green pickup truck to rediscover the soul of America, visiting small towns and cities from New York to New Orleans.The trip became Travels With Charley, one of his best-loved books. Half a century on, Geert Mak sets off from Steinbeck's home. Mile after mile, as he retraces Steinbeck's footsteps through the potato fields of Maine to the endless prairies of the Midwest and stumbles across glistening suburbs and boarded-up stores, Mak searches for the roots of America and what remains of the world Steinbeck describes. How has America changed in the last fifty years; what remains of the American dream; and what do Europe and America now have in common?
User reviews
LibraryThing member petterw
For a Steinbeck enthusiast and one who has a keen interest in the US, this book is gefundenes fressen. If you have read Mak's Europe, you also have a lot to look forward to. For me it was grand slam. My Travels with Charley is one of my favourite books, and I loved the idea of someone,
It is sad, but a sign of the times, that this book is not translated into English yet, and not available to Americans.
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particularly, Geert Mak, doing the trip Steinbeck did in 1960 all over again. I wasn't prepared, however, for the authors comprehensive and disturbing description of contemporary US, which was a delight, an eye-opener and more of a page turner than the travelogue itself. In fact, my only disappointment was that Mak deviated from Steinbeck's route more often than not. It would have added to the authenticity if he had been truer to the events fifty years ago. He also did the trip in a modern Jeep - stayed in hotels mostl, and travelled with his wife as his companion. Now I have learned that Steinbeck often did the same, but that's another story... I loved the fact that Mak writes about the US in a non-ideological way, from a non-US perspective, and with as much love for as scepticism against America and Americans. It is sad, but a sign of the times, that this book is not translated into English yet, and not available to Americans.
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LibraryThing member jcbrunner
Geert Mak has written a stellar (travel) history of Europe in the 20th century. This book is his attempt to repeat this with a history of the United States. In contrast to Mak’s deep knowledge about Europe’s history and literature of the 20th century, a good part of which constitutes Mak’s
John Steinbeck was feeling old and outdated when he undertook his journey. His route took him into the decaying, depopulated agricultural America not the vibrant emerging consumer society of the 1960s and 1970s. Mak, himself not the youngest, thus presents an America that was outdated even in the 1960s. Apart from the Civil Rights events in Louisiana, Steinbeck’s route is far from the locations that transformed America.
This is further complicated by Mak’s reliance upon the shallow knowledge (one could also call it disinformation) of US newspaper columnists. If you have to rely on David Brooks and Tom Friedman for your facts, you are building your story on extremely shaky ground. Did nobody inform Mak that David Brooks’ Applebee’s salad bar and Friedman’s taxi drivers do not actually exist? The bibliography of “In Europe” alone is worth the price of the book, the bibliography about the United States lacks depth: Almost all the books were written since 2000 or are classics quoted in those books. Caro’s The Passage of Power is listed, The Power Broker isn’t.
Overall, a big disappointment and not up to Mak’s usual level of writing. While not truly bad, it is a pessimistic account of an old man following in the footsteps of a dead old man and his sick dog. The United States may currently not be at its most beautiful, it still deserves better treatment.
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own life, his knowledge about the United States is rather shallow and lacks the deep connections he so wonderfully enmeshed into “In Europe”. This is further complicated by Mak’s choice of following in the footsteps of John Steinbeck’s journey across America.John Steinbeck was feeling old and outdated when he undertook his journey. His route took him into the decaying, depopulated agricultural America not the vibrant emerging consumer society of the 1960s and 1970s. Mak, himself not the youngest, thus presents an America that was outdated even in the 1960s. Apart from the Civil Rights events in Louisiana, Steinbeck’s route is far from the locations that transformed America.
This is further complicated by Mak’s reliance upon the shallow knowledge (one could also call it disinformation) of US newspaper columnists. If you have to rely on David Brooks and Tom Friedman for your facts, you are building your story on extremely shaky ground. Did nobody inform Mak that David Brooks’ Applebee’s salad bar and Friedman’s taxi drivers do not actually exist? The bibliography of “In Europe” alone is worth the price of the book, the bibliography about the United States lacks depth: Almost all the books were written since 2000 or are classics quoted in those books. Caro’s The Passage of Power is listed, The Power Broker isn’t.
Overall, a big disappointment and not up to Mak’s usual level of writing. While not truly bad, it is a pessimistic account of an old man following in the footsteps of a dead old man and his sick dog. The United States may currently not be at its most beautiful, it still deserves better treatment.
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Awards
Libris Geschiedenis Prijs (Longlist — 2013)
Original publication date
2012