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| Plot Summary of Blue Highways: A Journey Into America |
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"William Least Heat-Moon drove the back roads of America in a beat up old van in the early 1980's after the breakup of his marriage and the loss of his job as a professor. He decided he needed to find something that was missing while it was still there to be found and the result was his classic travel novel Blue Highways. He strictly avoids the major roads and big cities as he tours 38 states and travels roughly 13,000 miles. Setting out from his home in Missouri he ventures alone to places as obscure as Nameless, TN, Globe, AZ, Fort Stockton, TX and Brooklyn Bridge, KY on his round the country trip winding up back where he started.
Once in the small and the forgotten places he finds on the map (the book is named for the blue highways that are the small state and county roads on his map) it may be an out of the way diner or café, a little college community, even a monastery, he retells histories and tales that make these places significant in their own way. Best about the book is the author's way of talking so easily to the people he encounters and getting them to reveal the intimacies and nuances of their lives. While at times the book can be very serious in dealing with social issues, overall the book has a less than serious air about itself due to the continual rating and critiquing of the restaurants he frequents throughout. A nice book that only twenty years after it's writing seems to capture a country decades more removed from today."
David Fletcher, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Blue Highways: A Journey Into America |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Period of greatest activity?
- 1950+
Road trip
Yes
Subject of Biography
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- unemployed
Age:
- 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Ethnicity
- American Indian
Nationality
- American (!)
How sensitive is this person?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other people
Physique
- average physique
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 10 ()
United States
Yes
Small town?
Yes
Small town people:
- nice, like Andy/Opie/Aunt Bee
Century:
- 1980's-Present
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
Book makes you feel?
- thoughtful
Is book humorous?
Yes
Lot of foul language?
Yes
Commentary on society?
Yes
Commentary on
- race
- decency
- capitalism
- justice system
- wicked white people
Writer's slant towards subject:
- very favorable
Story of entire life, or part?
- story of set of events during life
If this is a kid's book:
- Age 16-Adult
Autobiography?
Yes
Pictures/Illustrations?
- A ton 16-20 B&W
How much dialogue in bio?
- significantly more descript than dialog
How much is philosophy rather than life story?
- 0-25% of book
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Click here for more information about this book
William Least Heat-Moon Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR:
 David Fletcher
SCHOLARS:
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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