William Least Heat-Moon is the author of the bestselling classics Blue Highways, River Horse, and PrairyErth. He lives in Columbia, Missouri.
Here's another road trip from the author of Blue Highways, who says we've got to travel slowly and deliberately if we want to eat well along the way. No fast-track tour, of course. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
Altogether wonderful . . . Heat-Moon loves the funky byways of America. . . . His destinations matter less than the infectious curiosity he brings to every journey - - Entertainment Weekly Mr. Heat-Moon's enthusiasm for wherever he happens to be carries the day. If Roads to 'Quoz bears a message, it is that beyond- Wall Street Journal 'This is a call to get out a map and explore rural America the beautiful. If urban life makes you feel like you're losing your mind and your way, set out to your own blue highway to quoz - - Fort Worth Star-Telegram 'Mr. Heat-Moon demonstrates such a sharp intelligence, relentless curiosity and fine phrasing that nothing more could be- Dallas Morning News 'A Great American Gothic....Despite his vision of a society that has depleted far too much (forests, aquifers, coastlines) through its excesses, Heat-Moon's sense of humor remains intact - Los Angeles TIMES
It was almost a decade ago that Least Heat-Moon (Blue Highways) followed the trail of Lewis and Clark in River Horse; in the first section of his latest peripatetic writings, he and his wife, Q, trace the lesser-known Dunbar-Hunter Expedition of 1804 through the southern half of the Louisiana Purchase, searching out the head of the Ouachita River in Arkansas. Least Heat-Moon's fans will find this territory, and that covered in the five other "journeys to places a goodly portion of the American populace would call 'nowhere,'" instantly familiar, as he and various companions take digressive paths from one small opolis ("where anything metro was clearly missing") to the next in search of "quoz" (an 18th-century word meaning "anything out of the ordinary"). Among his many adventures, Least Heat-Moon rides a bicycle along an abandoned railroad track, discovers a "road to nowhere" built by a Florida county so local drug smugglers would have a landing strip, and comes up with what he believes is the real story behind the murder of his great-grandfather. Or maybe the highlights of these journeys are the people he meets along the way and their stories, like the man who tried to fund a school for disadvantaged children by providing lonely widows with special massages, or the artist who's turned his cabin into a walk-in kaleidoscope. Either way, few readers will be able to resist tagging along. (Oct. 29) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
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