Blue Highways A Journey into America (Audiobook)

"Blue Highways: A Journey Into America, 84190 (11 cassettes/16.5 hours). Copyright 1982 by William Least Heat Moon. P 1985 Recorded Books, Inc. Unabridged. Narrated by Frank Muller. "William Least Heat Moon, of Sioux and Caucasian Lineage, could be the Jack Kerouac of the 1980s. Laid off from his college teaching position, he traversed the United States and wrote this journal. He traveled mainly on lesser highways, which are shown in blue on older road maps. Relating a chain of encounters with Americans in their natural elements, he invokes a highway-as-wisdom continuum, similar to the thread in Huckleberry Finn.

Reviews of the book alternately praised it for not being "Disneyfied and sentimentalized." The cassette version–-an excellent recording–-takes on a hypnotic quality. Narrator Frank Muller's subtle talents of oral interpretation lend an extra dimension to the characters. Least Heat Moon's personality and his reactions to the unfamiliar are very entertaining. This would to well in any library collection." -Library Journal "The secondary roadways of America, marked by cartographeers with the color blue, are the highways along which an unemployed English teacher rolls in his customized van. This reading of his months-long wandering blends travelogue and monologue, spicing the two with oddments of local history, geologic lore, etymological excursions, and personal asides. Context and continuity its expanse, while the author's faithful ear for dialogue peoples the small-town landscape with the memorable and the melancholy. What results from all this is a truly companionable book, one that welcomes the listener at any point. Resonantly interpreted by Frank Muller, the text flows like the road itself, a fascinating journey for narrator and listener alike. This title will be welcomed in public libraries." -Booklist (from back case)