Blue Highways

One of the things that I liked about this book is Least Heat-Moon’s way of contextualizing Walt Whitman’s poetry. As Least Heat-Moon travels from town to town, he begins to relate the “America” that he is observing to the “America” that Whitman wanted his readers to embrace and celebrate. Traveling along, Heat-Moon resurrects Whitman’s poetry during moments when he finds himself in a place which makes him reflect on the surprising beauty of the land that he is exploring. Having said that, I think for Least-Heat Moon, Whitman’s poetry becomes his travel buddy. In a way it becomes Least Heat-Moon’s “Charley”. And it seems that the lonelier Heat-Moon becomes as he stays longer and longer out on the road, the more he begins to quote Whitman. Another reason I liked Blue Highways were for the pictures that showed the people who he met. I found myself consistently looking for the pictures of some of the more interesting characters he met. I almost wish that he had taken a picture of everyone he met so that I can compare his description of their various mannerisms and personality traits with their physical appearance. Least-Heat Moon talks a lot about eating. I think this book could have easily been named The Blue Highway "Calendar" Supper Club, or something to that effect. He made me hungry reading about all of the food he was eating, especially Tee’s gumbo. Oh, and thirsty too. I guess that is what a man does when he’s on vacay by himself, eat, drink, and make fun of women’s faces (see below.) Okay, I have to be honest, the one thing that was extremely annoying to me (though kind of funny at times) about Least Heat-Moon was all of the metaphors he had for women’s skin. He went from “had her face been cut from cloth, it would have been made of tatters” (133) to “Tiffany…one of the most facially unfavored woman …her features would have been woeful on a man but on a woman…they were calamitous” (204). I mean really? I guess this how he showing the animosity he has towards his ex-wife. Another small complaint, which we already spoke about in class last week, is that this book is way too long. I began to read it with eagerness, and two weeks later I felt like I had embarked on a never-ending trip. And not the good kind where there are cool things to look at. But, the bad kind in which all I kept thinking by the middle of the book was “are we there yet?”