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Book Reviews of 'A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow': An American Hitchhiking Odyssey

'A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow': An American Hitchhiking Odyssey
'A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow' An American Hitchhiking Odyssey
Author: Tim Brookes
ISBN-13: 9780792276838
ISBN-10: 0792276833
Publication Date: 7/1/2000
Pages: 304
Rating:
  • Currently 3.2/5 Stars.
 8

3.2 stars, based on 8 ratings
Publisher: National Geographic
Book Type: Hardcover
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

4 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

obsidianfire avatar reviewed 'A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow': An American Hitchhiking Odyssey on + 133 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 27
Great stories, and interesting philosophy. Made me want to go out and have my own hitchiking experience, but I'm too much a scaredy cat. But it was great fun living vicariously through his book.
reviewed 'A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow': An American Hitchhiking Odyssey on + 118 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
In 1973, Brookes, then a British student, spent three months hitchhiking across America, dazzled by a girl from Iowa he had met at Oxford. In 1998, Brookes, now a writer, teacher, and longtime Vermonter, decides to re-create that experience and hitchhike to the same places again. He's not crazy: he periodically takes trains or buses and carries a cell phone in his daughter's sock. He tracks a few of the people and most of the places he encountered the first time, but this is no self-referential wallowing. He's not interested in reliving the past but in illuminating the present, and he carries both a cheerful lack of anxiety and a disarming lack of pretense. In crisp, short chapters, he recounts conversations with the folks who pick him up and his responses to the places he goes: a gospel church in San Francisco; a previous wife in Seattle; a desolate reservation in South Dakota. He finds kindness and gratitude, and he clearly has those within himself as well.
nascargal avatar reviewed 'A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow': An American Hitchhiking Odyssey on + 352 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This is an interesting book about a man who hitches his way across the U.S. He meets fascinating people, old flames, and old friends. All and all a good book to read.
booklit avatar reviewed 'A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow': An American Hitchhiking Odyssey on + 473 more book reviews
The author tries to relook at a trip he took accoss America. Interesting read.