num_pages: 288
description: Vollmann is a relentlessly curious, endlessly sensitive &amp; unequivocally adventurous examiner of human existence. He's investigated the causes &amp; symptoms of humanity's obsession with violence (Rising Up &amp; Rising Down), taken a personal look into the hearts &amp; minds of the world's poorest inhabitants (Poor People), &amp; now turns his attentions to America itself, to our romanticizing of freedom &amp; the ways in which we restrict the very freedoms we profess to admire. For "Riding Toward Everywhere," Vollmann himself takes to the rails. His main accomplice is Steve, a captivating fellow trainhopper who expertly accompanies him thru the secretive waters of this particular way of life. Vollmann describes the thrill &amp; terror of lying in a trainyard in the dark, avoiding the flickering flashlights of railroad bulls; the gorgeously wild scenery of the American West as seen from a grainer platform; the complicated considerations involved in trying to hop a moving train. It's a dangerous, thrilling, evocative examination of this underground lifestyle, &amp; it's one of Vollmann's most hauntingly beautiful narratives. Questioning anything &amp; everything, subjecting both our national romance &amp; our skepticism about hobo life to his finely tuned, analytical eye &amp; the reality of what he actually sees, he carries on in the tradition of Huckleberry Finn, providing a moving portrait of this strikingly modern vision of the American dream.
language: English
title: Riding Toward Everywhere
titlecomplete: Riding Toward Everywhere
genres: Biography Memoir, Memoir, Travel, Nonfiction, Westerns, Sociology, Trains, The United States Of America, American, Journalism
ratings_count: 731
places: The United States of America
publisher: Ecco