Aging redneck, anarchist, individualist, and desert rat Henry Lightcap leaves his home in Tucson, AZ to travel back home to the hills of West Virginia when his third wife leaves him. On the way he reminsces about the life he has lead and waxes philosophical and poetic about life in the 20th Century. Henry hates "progress," but loves women, the desert, guns, and good, American-made trucks. This book is funny, poetic, profane, and moving. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to buy your own copy.

BUT. This book is not for everyone, and it breaks my heart to lend it to people who decide they hate it because they find the character of Henry unlikable. So here is my disclaimer:

I am very biassed about this book. I love it. I love almost everything by Edward Abbey. I plan to start a bookray with this second copy. If you are easily offended by a character whose viewpoint is unaplogetically profane and misanthropic, and occasionally sexist and racist, then this is not the book for you. But if you decide you'd like to read about a real character, PM me and I'll put you on the bookray list!

Hmmmm, my caveat must have been very strong indeed! This book will travel to a small, select group of readers. Here are the recipients:

Rubyblue, The Netherlands (read and journalled)
sgscarcliff, San Francisco, CA (read and journelled)
moogytee, Sacramento, CA (read and journalled)
luckaye in Australia (read and journalled)
LeighBCD in the UK (currently with Leigh)

If anyone else wants to join, let me know!

Well, Curlita--at last!! I'm sure you had given up hope of ever hearing from this book again. It finally arrived today--announced by a huge thud as it the floor below the mail slot in the front door. There is nothing on the envelope that would indicate why it took from March 19 until May 14 to get here. The address is correct, although somebody-- probably a postal clerk--did place a bar code sticker over my name and the street name (can't tell at which end that happened, although the letters "SEA" do appear on the sticker). In any event, the way the zip codes work here in the Netherlands, mail can be delivered with only the house number (which is not covered by said sticker) and the zip code, which is also visible. So I don't know... Especially in light of the messages posted recently on the Chit-Chat forum (http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/5/89659) telling about books taking 3 days to go surface mail from Finland to Portugal or 2 days from England to New Zealand, or 4 days surface mail from England to the US. Hmmm..... I'm not much with logic, but all those books have been mailed outside the US....what, if anything, would this say about the US postal system?
Anyway, I'm excited to have received this book. The cover illustration alone tells me I'm going to like this book. At the moment I'm on page 500-something of a 700-800 page book by John Irving, "Son of the Circus," and then have two other bookring books to read (I am NOT complaining), so I don't expect to be able to begin this book for at least 2, maybe 3 weeks--depending on how much life gets in the way of my reading. As a matter of fact, I'll be flying to the States on June 25--about 6 weeks from now. If I won't be finished with the book for 4-5 weeks, I may just bring it with me and mail it in the States, since the next stop is SF. Thanks again, Curlita. I shall keep you posted.

Well, at last ready to send this book on to the next reader. Contrary to my last entry, I didn't even start reading it until after reaching the States. As Lightcap was travelling east, I (with my sister and daughter) was travelling west; at one point at least my path and Li9ghtcap's touched when we stayed in a motorcourt in Green River, Utah. I'm still on the road, leaving California today to head east for the flight home from Washington, DC, so won't take time now for detailed notes (and don't promise to get back to them later either). Abbey reminded me a tad of Henry Miller ("The Air-Conditioned Nightmare"), and Tom Robbins, but for me lacked the strength of the former and the wit of the latter. I enjoyed the book, but felt he sounded most of the time like a watered-down Miller. I do have some favorite quotes from the book, but don't have them to hand right now. Thanks, Curlita, for turning me on to a new author. I intend to read more of his books when I come across them.

just received in the mail. will post when read and sending on to the next person.

Thanks for starting the bookray

Just received from sgscarcliff - thanks! I love the cover art. I'll read it ASAP and send it along to luckaye in Australia. Thanks, Curlita, for the bookray!

I am about 150 pages into this book, and I'm really enjoying it. But, as you can see, it's taking me a while to read it. I think I've picked up the pace a bit now, though. Should be another couple weeks before I send it along. I hope that's OK...

passed page 400 ... still enjoying ... please bear with me; should be done soon.

I had a lot of thoughts on the book while reading it, and I probably should have recorded them here at the time because now I find them kind of hard to recall. I guess I sort of simulaneously disliked Henry (like I wouldn't probably have wanted to be in a relationship with someone like that) and could relate to him as well. I have trouble buying into "society" as it were. Being a park ranger sounds pretty nice. I thought he had some major issues with women -- even when he claimed to be in love, the love was never described as anything more than a physical attraction. That's not so inspiring.

Will send the book along as soon as I hear from luckaye. Sorry to have kept it so long ... thanks for sharing, Curlita!

February 8th 2004 - I just finished reading this amazing book. I was torn between dislike of Henry and empathy for him and his situation. I really enjoyed the writing once I got started, though it took me a while before I really into the book. Several times I started and put it down, but then decided to make an honest effort to read the whole book. I am glad I did.

Released on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 at postal release in Kingston, Queensland, Australia Controlled Releases.

Thanks so much - what a great surprise, I had even forgotten that I had signed up for this bookray! I will read this at some point in the future and will keep it travelling thereafter. Watch this space!