if you're goin' my way...

October 29, 2007 11:31 AM

I know about road movies. What about road books?

I'm looking for (really good!) books that follow a criteria similar to that of the road movie: an episodic journey in somewhat modern times, transportation based (though it doesn't need to be by car), character growth over the course of the journey, reaching or not reaching some destination. Convoluted itineraries, unique side characters and subplots. I'm not looking for fantasy quests, though sci-fi grounded in the near future might be kinda cool, as well as quality backpacker lit. Examples: On the Road (obviously), Lolita, Grapes of Wrath and Motorcycle Diaries, off the top of my head.

And while you're at it.... how about some good road songs?
Thanks!

posted by changeling to writing & language (50 comments total)

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance comes to mind.

The Stand kinda felt like a road trip.
posted by ian1977 at 11:33 AM on October 29, 2007 [1 favorite]

Blue Highways, by William Least Heat Moon, is very appealing. Ooh, and John Steinbeck's Travels With Charley.
posted by box at 11:40 AM on October 29, 2007

Yes, definitely Travels With Charley.
posted by popcassady at 11:48 AM on October 29, 2007

Cormac McCarthy's The Road is... pretty obvious.
posted by painquale at 11:48 AM on October 29, 2007

The quintessential road book: On The Road.
posted by Ms. Saint at 11:54 AM on October 29, 2007

How about Around the World in 80 Days?
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 11:55 AM on October 29, 2007

Perhaps it's not modern enough, but Faulkner's As I Lay Dying otherwise fits the bill.
posted by painquale at 11:57 AM on October 29, 2007 [1 favorite]

Hermann Hesse's Narcissus and Goldmund comes to mind, though only one of the characters is "on the road."
posted by vytae at 11:57 AM on October 29, 2007

If you're not exclusively looking for fiction, Henry Rollins' Get In the Van is a series of journal entries from Rollins' Black Flag days in the early to mid 1980s. It includes a lot of narration about touring, both in the US and in Europe.

Somewhat more surreal is Hermann Hesse's Journey to the East. It gets fairly strange, so if you're looking for something firmly grounded in reality, then you might give that one a pass.
posted by Cassilda at 12:02 PM on October 29, 2007

Non-fiction fits too (Motorcycle Diaries was one of my examples), as long as it's great reading. Fairly strange also fits -- I just don't want to venture into the realm of high fantasy, because the list of fantasy journey books is endless.
posted by changeling at 12:08 PM on October 29, 2007

Road Scholar by Andrei Codrescu. After many years of U.S. residence he finally gets a license and heads across the country. Much funnier and way more interesting than On the Road, which is pretty overrated IMO.
posted by jcruelty at 12:11 PM on October 29, 2007

For road songs, most of Modest Mouse's Interstate 8, This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About, Building Nothing Out of Something and Lonesome Crowded West are top notch.
posted by saladin at 12:11 PM on October 29, 2007

I've always thought of Lolita as the best road novel I've ever read. Humbert and Lo travel all over America in a winding path for much of the book, and Nabokov thoroughly relishes the beautiful contradictions of 20th century Americana along the way.
posted by hermitosis at 12:14 PM on October 29, 2007

Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It definitely qualifies as one of the most bizarre road trip books I have ever read.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance I didn't see as a road trip book, but I had to read it in a tech. lit. class, and wasn't thrilled about it.
posted by fox_terrier_guy at 12:28 PM on October 29, 2007 [2 favorites]

Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well on Ganymede by Bradley Denton; science fiction novel set in the near past about a journey to Buddy Holly's gravesite in Lubbock, Texas. A bit lighter than most of what's been mentioned thus far but worth an afternoon or two. Or worth reading aloud to your travel partner during a cross country trip while passing through Texas.
posted by JT at 12:33 PM on October 29, 2007

hermitosis, I completely agree -- Lolita is my favorite book, period, and much of it is because of its endlessly fascinating mid-century caper across the US. That's one of the reasons I'm looking for more.
posted by changeling at 12:34 PM on October 29, 2007

Not a happy ending, but Jon Krakauer's INTO THE WILD. (Now a major motion picture, as they say...)

That horrible "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo" is a road trip song, I guess. "I can still recall...the wheat fields of St. Paul."
posted by GaelFC at 12:35 PM on October 29, 2007

Two more non-fiction:
A Walk in the Woods
Driving Mr. Albert

Here's an askme about driving songs. The net is cast fairly wide, but you might find some character growth, convoluted itineraries, etc. And may I suggest Smog's "Driving" as the perfect antithesis of a road song.
posted by hydrophonic at 12:42 PM on October 29, 2007

For road music, Nathan has a bunch of great driving songs. "Gasoline", on the album Jimson Weed, particularly.
posted by painquale at 12:44 PM on October 29, 2007

Huckleberry Finn, except it's a river instead of a road.
posted by timeistight at 12:48 PM on October 29, 2007

The Long Walk (Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman)
posted by Jakey at 12:52 PM on October 29, 2007

Road trip music, previously

I'm currently reading Road Fever.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 12:59 PM on October 29, 2007

It may be stretching it a bit, but you can always try the Riverworld series by Phillip Jose Farmer. Multi-million mile long river, populated by everyone that had ever lived on Earth.

Episodic journey in somewhat modern times - check
Transportation based (though it doesn't need to be by car) - check
Character growth over the course of the journey - check
Reaching or not reaching some destination - double check
Convoluted itineraries - check
Unique side characters and subplots - check

Re-reading your post, it may be more fantasy than what you're after, however; its definitely Sci-Fi/takes place in the future kind of book.

Give it a shot, I loved it.
posted by enobeet at 1:15 PM on October 29, 2007

Seconding Blue Highways. It's incredible.
posted by notsnot at 1:26 PM on October 29, 2007

Hokkaido Highway Blues - Hitchhiking Japan. I'm currently reading this. Not sure if it qualifies on the character growth front, but it hits the other points.
posted by DarkForest at 1:29 PM on October 29, 2007 [1 favorite]

Jupiter's Travels
posted by jon1270 at 1:30 PM on October 29, 2007

Red Dust by Ma Jian
posted by Abiezer at 1:30 PM on October 29, 2007

For a great American non fiction road trip trilogy, read these three books in succession.

Start in the 40s with Woody Guthrie: A Life by Joe Klein. It's a great biography of the folk singer and he is always jumping on new train headed for somewhere else. He also serves as an inspiration for the beats and the Folk singers of Dylan's generation.

Of course, On the Road, for the 50s.

Then finish it off in the 60s with Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Neil Cassidy, (can't remember his real name off the top of my head) from on the road plays a big role in this book as well. The three books work great as set, and road trips are all central to their themes.
posted by afu at 1:32 PM on October 29, 2007

Travels of a Capitalist Lackey(link to a different account by the driver instead of the author) by Fred Basnett and Slow Boats to China by Gavin Young are non-fiction accounts that read like good novels with lots of weird characters and exotic locations. Basnett and a buddy drive through the Soviet Union in 1962 in a 1920's English sports car, and Young attempts to travel solely by boat (the smaller the better and a passenger boat only if absolutely necessary) from Greece to China in 1981.
posted by Ohdemah at 1:57 PM on October 29, 2007

afu, his real name was Neil Cassidy; Dean Moriarty was his counterpart in OTR.

If non-fiction is OK, I'd recommend some Colin Fletcher, notably The Thousand Mile Summer and he Man Who Walked Through Time. The former, especially, is just a wonderful book.
posted by mosk at 1:58 PM on October 29, 2007

Seconding Into The Wild and A Walk in the Woods.

You may also like American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

Not necessarily a road trip novel, Confederacy of Dunces has a very rich sense of place. It is set in 1960s New Orleans.
posted by Ostara at 1:59 PM on October 29, 2007

er...The Man Who Walked Through Time. He Man Who Walked Through Time being a different book altogether...
posted by mosk at 2:13 PM on October 29, 2007

"travels with charley"

"pillars of hercules" and "the great railway bazaar" by paul theroux
posted by thinkingwoman at 2:18 PM on October 29, 2007

Tod Conover's "Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails with America's Hobos" is outstanding. Following it with "Newjack: Guarding Sing-Sing" will show you how far participatory journalisn took him (in other words the development of his character), and Newjack is just an awesome book in its own right.

John McPhees "Uncommon Carriers" records his travels with an eighteen-wheeler driver, a coal-train, and a river tug.

Mark Helprin's "A Soldier in the Great War". Which has a trip within a trip as an old man tells the story of his travels in the war to a young man as they walk from Rome to another city.

There are of course many many science fiction examples since voyaging through space is a key trope, for instance from Heinlein: "Have Space Suit will Travel", "Starman Jones" and "The Rolling Stones." These were all set in HIS near future. I really like the first two, though can't reccomend the last since I haven't read it in ages. (We'd mention "Glory Road" here too, but that's more fantasy).

Would you be interested in accounts of Sea Voyages? For instance Dana's "Two years before the mast" (non-fiction) is classic but I haven't read it in years. There's also "Dove" by Robin Graham, at the time the youngest person to sail around the world solo. Even Wouk's "The Caine Mutiny" in which Destroyer-Minesweeper sailors convoy hither and yon during the Second World War might fit the bill.

Other great travelogues include Peter Flemings "The News from Tartary" in which the older brother of James Bond creator Ian Fleming records his 1935 trip from Beijing to Kashmir (outside your "modern" criteria is the the Marquis de Custine's masterful "Letters From Russia", which is sort of a Russian de Tocquiville).

And for political journeys: Crouse's "The Boy's on the Bus" and Hunter Thompson's "Fear and Loathing on the campaign trail".
posted by Jahaza at 2:24 PM on October 29, 2007

Good Vibrations.

Googling for the title can be somewhat NSFW, hence the direct link.
posted by devbrain at 2:27 PM on October 29, 2007

*gah* clicked to post rather than preview....

Meant to say that Zen was good book, but not necessarily as road trip type - ah screw it, damage is done and continuity is lost.

Hokkaido Highway Blues was an excellent book also. Thanks for reminding me about it, DarkForest. I wouldn't have recalled it otherwise, and I only read it four or five months back - but it was excellent!

Road tunes; Bobby McGee (Janis Joplin version por favor!),
George Thorogoods Gear Jammer. Pure Prairie Leagues Two Lane Highway, Doors Roadhouse Blues, LA Woman or Riders on the Storm.

Many, many more are coming to light. (Is that you Elvis...?)
posted by fox_terrier_guy at 2:38 PM on October 29, 2007

A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water by Patrick Leigh Fermor.

They're the true account of Fermor's solo overland trip as a teenager from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople between 1933 and 1935, passing through, among other places, a frightening and very early Nazi Germany. FANTASTIC books with great social insight.
posted by The Michael The at 2:58 PM on October 29, 2007

I haven't read it in a while, but does anyone else think Jim Dodge's Stone Junction would count, or is it more of a picaresque? Come to think of it, maybe Not Fade Away, also by Dodge (I've not read it, but I think it's a road novel).

It violates your criteria, but I really want to throw out Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. I think it's more what you're looking for than American Gods, at least.
posted by Bigfoot Mandala at 3:38 PM on October 29, 2007

If you read Blue Highways and like it, make sure to check out Least Heat Moon's other two travel books. River Horse is about travelling across the US entirely by boat on rivers and lakes. It's a really fascinating look at American's attitudes towards rivers and waterways.

His other book, Prariyerth, is actually the exact opposite of a travel book. It's a very rich and detailed history of a single, small county in Kansas. It sounds boring, but I didn't find it so.
posted by thewittyname at 3:54 PM on October 29, 2007

Larry McMurtry's Roads: Driving America's Great Highways
posted by tangerine at 4:19 PM on October 29, 2007

Non-fiction, but Lost Continent is a great travelogue.
posted by Lucinda at 4:19 PM on October 29, 2007

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins
posted by lorenzism at 4:57 PM on October 29, 2007

David Brin's The Postman.
posted by concrete at 5:06 PM on October 29, 2007

Two fabulous journey books, both true:

The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz about a group of people escaping a Siberian labor camp by walking through the mountains and the Gobi Desert. (There is some question as to its veracity, but it's a thrilling story.)

Meditations from the Breakdown Lane: Running Across America by James Shapiro. An absolutely fabulous book about setting off from California with a small backpack and some grit and running to NYC. It's really quite stirring, and I highly recommend it.
posted by OmieWise at 5:39 PM on October 29, 2007

Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K Jerome.
posted by SPrintF at 7:15 PM on October 29, 2007

Oh, Omiewise's comment reminded me of Dave Eggers's What is the What, which is an amazing half-fiction-half-non-fiction account of a trek made by one of the lost boys of Sudan. I think Eggers's previous book, You Shall Know Our Velocity, also qualifies, but I haven't read that one.
posted by painquale at 7:41 PM on October 29, 2007

You shall know our velocity is a trek around the world.
It counts.
(also, seconding modest mouse as good road music. The best way to listen to the song "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes" is driving as fast as you can with the windows down. Lots of dust is a plus.
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 10:12 PM on October 29, 2007

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
posted by brujita at 11:06 PM on October 29, 2007

Long Way Round, Take Me With You, and Through Painted Deserts

And I echo those who said Travels With Charley. I read it this summer while driving across America. It was the perfect companion.
posted by vagabond at 3:43 AM on October 30, 2007

Seconding Road Fever...hilarious and well-written.
posted by radioamy at 8:45 AM on October 30, 2007