by Clancy Sigal
First published 1984
The narrator pulls out of Los Angeles in 1956, his Hollywood career destroyed by the blacklist. At twenty-nine, he points his car toward New York City and begins a sprawling journey across America's back roads. He stops at dive bars and greasy diners, fills up at remote gas stations, and tracks down old lovers and political comrades scattered across the continent. Each encounter forces him to confront his past choices and examine his beliefs. The narrator collects their stories while dissecting his own motivations with brutal honesty. His thoughts flow in restless streams as he barrels down blue highways, wrestling with his identity as both an egotist and someone capable of real compassion. The cross-country trip becomes an excavation of American radical politics and personal relationships, revealing how individual lives intersect with larger historical forces during a turbulent decade.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century
Vibes: fast-paced, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: road-trip, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Los Angeles, New York City, America
Period: 1956
514 pages · Paperback · Carroll & Graf Publishers