The great American bus ride

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

As the Greyhound ticket clerk in Memphis quickly discerns about the middle-aged woman with a British accent: ``Y'all travelin' fo' the adventure.'' To which this New Jersey-raised expat of 30 years responds: ``I like the bus.'' And indeed Kurtz does, as amply evidenced by her exuberant, knowing, witty, human-scaled journal of a recent meander through America's heartland. Comprising 65 bus changes and a span of three months, the fall trip took her across the northernmost reaches of the country to Seattle, down the West Coast, east along the Mexican border, then back to her Manhattan starting point. Among her fellow passengers, Kurtz observes ``varieties of pathology . . . as well as poverty, madness and exhaustion''; she overhears conversations about ``wonky ventricles'' and male complaints of women who ``know all about the bedroom but not a damn thing about the kitchen.'' The travel could be rough. One episode lands Kurtz in an isolated, frigid depot waiting for an already two-day-overdue bus to Duluth; another time, impulsively deciding to visit Dinosaur National Park (in Utah), she disembarks on a nighttime roadway only to discover she is alone in the back of beyond. But always she soldiers on, reveling in freedom ``with no strings attached,'' in the pleasure of a journey that has no purpose but itself. The ingratiating Kurtz, who writes the Cosmo ``Agony Column,'' even convinces one that touring America by Greyhound is akin to ``doing the Nile on a barge or joining a caravan across the Sahara.'' Photos not seen by PW . (Sept.)

Library Journal

Kurtz, an advice columnist for Cosmopolitan magazine and the author of several novels, left New York's Port Authority bus terminal one fall day and returned three months, ten days, and four hours later. In between, she traveled to Los Angeles on big Americruisers, taking a northern route there and a southern route back. Kurtz describes her adventures in serviceable prose, but she emphasizes the people she meets rather than the ground she covers. Her companions are an eccentric bunch, including a Russian grandmother traveling alone and a morose American Indian. This book will interest readers as intrigued by fellow travelers as they are by scenery; recommended for general collections.-- Caroline Mitchell, Washington, D.C.

Mary Ellen Sullivan

What a concept! Spend three months touring America . . . by Greyhound. That's what "Cosmopolitan" columnist Kurtz did . . . and lived to tell about. An expatriate in London, she decided to reconnect with her American roots, and if one can't be sure whether she saw the "real America," she certainly saw a slice of American life. Always amusing, her descriptions and stories are sharp, often touching. The characters she met--from the kind of people who believe Elvis is still alive to folks who opened their homes to her unquestioningly--come alive on the page, as does Kurtz's quirky, tough, but kind personality. As a woman in her 60s, Kurtz brings an interesting retrospective perspective (albeit a self-conscious one) to her story. It's an enjoyable read.