Having recently finished a dense, serious-themed novel, I'm relieved to have come across Not Tonight, Josephine: A Road Trip Through Small-Town America. It's a breezy, sleep-in-the-minivan travelogue by George Mahood, the same 20-something (?) bloke who'd traveled the length of Britain by bicycle, borrowing everything except his Union Jack shorts from kind strangers. In this adventure from sea to shining sea, and back, he and a mate, and later he and his girlfriend have to learn to drive on the right, ignore the squalor of shoestring-budget travel, and avoid getting worked over (or PG-13 words to that effect) by small-town mechanics who can spot their desperation a mile away. Both Mahood and his reader are rewarded with a cracked-windshield view of the quirks and foibles of the back roads, rest stops, and kitschy tourist attractions of America, through the fresh eyes of a raconteur who is mostly glad to be here.
8 years ago
