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In 1960 John Steinbeck and his dog Charley set out in their green GMC pickup truck to rediscover the soul of America, visiting small towns and cities from New York to New Orleans. The truck was named Rocinante after Don Quixote's horse, and Steinbeck was Cervantes' foolhardy knight. America was looking to the future, full of optimism and desperate to leave behind the troubles of past; Steinbeck, great chronicler of the ordinary working man, was starting to feel out of touch. As he said to a friend: 'I must see how the country looks and smells and sounds.' The trip became Travels With Charley , one of his best-loved books.
Half a century on, Geert Mak sets off from Steinbeck's home in his own Rocinante, with his wife and his sat-nav Sandy. Mile after mile, as he retraces Steinbeck's footsteps through the potato fields of Maine to the endless prairies of the Midwest, sits down to eat with farmers, workers, fisherman and teachers, stumbles across glistening suburbs and boarded-up stores, he searches for the roots of America and what remains of the restless, prosperous world Steinbeck describes.
Part biography, part cultural history, In America asks how America has changed in the last 50 years; what's happened to Main Street, USA, and the American dream; and what do we, Europe and America, still have in common in the twenty-first century?
About the author
Geert Mak, geboren 1946, war viele Jahre Redakteur des "NRC Handelsblad". Er ist einer der bekanntesten Publizisten der Niederlande und gehört nach mehreren Bestsellern zu den wichtigsten Sachbuchautoren des Landes. 2008 wurde Geert Mak mit dem "Leipziger Buchpreis" zur Europäischen Verständigung ausgezeichnet.
Summary
In 1960 John Steinbeck and his dog Charley set out in their green GMC pickup truck to rediscover the soul of America, visiting small towns and cities from New York to New Orleans. The truck was named Rocinante after Don Quixote’s horse, and Steinbeck was Cervantes’ foolhardy knight. America was looking to the future, full of optimism and desperate to leave behind the troubles of past; Steinbeck, great chronicler of the ordinary working man, was starting to feel out of touch. As he said to a friend: ‘I must see how the country looks and smells and sounds.’ The trip became Travels With Charley, one of his best-loved books.
Half a century on, Geert Mak sets off from Steinbeck’s home in his own Rocinante, with his wife and his sat-nav Sandy. Mile after mile, as he retraces Steinbeck’s footsteps through the potato fields of Maine to the endless prairies of the Midwest, sits down to eat with farmers, workers, fisherman and teachers, stumbles across glistening suburbs and boarded-up stores, he searches for the roots of America and what remains of the restless, prosperous world Steinbeck describes.
Part biography, part cultural history, In America asks how America has changed in the last 50 years; what’s happened to Main Street, USA, and the American dream; and what do we, Europe and America, still have in common in the twenty-first century?
Foreword
Following in Steinbeck's footsteps, half a century on from Travels With Charley
Report
"Where Steinbeck generally avoided the hubbub of big cities, Mak balances descriptions of the rural plains and towns that symbolize the country's early origins with fascinating sections on urban growth and decay... An ambitious and enjoyable take on America's story " Times Literary Supplement
