Rating: 
Summary: Herodotus On the Road
Review: American Nomads was part of my summer reading list, a little lighter reading than my usual fare I thought. While Grant's book delivered as an enjoyable and swift read that was not too heavy, it also surprised me with its grasp of Western history and valuable insights.
Richard Grant is a Brit with an inclination to ramble. He fell in love with the wide-open spaces and endless road of the American West, and began a life of rambling all over the West at will. When he ran out of money, he returned to England and sold articles about his adventures until he raise another stake to come back and repeat the process. This book, his first, is the logical outcome of that process.
Grant artfully blends his own adventures on the road with historical examples illustrating the nomadic instinct that the open spaces of the West seem to draw out from those who live there. His chapters on conquistador Cabeza de Vaca, mountain man Joe Walker, and the Comanche tribe are particularly well researched and written. (His writing on the conquistador has inspired me to read Cabeza de Vaca's own Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America.)These subjects are well chosen, both as dynamic interesting stories, and for their instructiveness to Grant's theme.
Along side of these historical set-pieces, Grant tells of his own adventures on the road with psychotic hitchhikers, old school hobos, the drunken dregs of the Rainbow family, and methed-out crazy rodeo bull riders, among others. He ponders on how so many of the nomads that he meets in the West tend to be societies walking wounded , and notes the hardships and misunderstandings of being a nomad in a largely sedentary culture. But this is no whining treatise. Grant's joy in and love for a wandering life in the beautiful empty spaces of the West is palpable, and if you feel any inclination in that direction, possibly contagious.
If you love road books and well-done history, consider American Nomads a must read.
Rating:
Summary: hit the road for a wild and fascinating ride
Review: I loved this book. If you've ever hit the road or had the urge to do it. If you've ever stuck out your thumb to discover the dizzying range of people and places in the great American West or had the urge to do it. If you liked Krakauer's "Into The Wild," GET THIS BOOK. It kicks ass. With an outsider's perceptive eye, Grant weaves his personal Western travels together with fascinating historical accounts and introduces us to a gritty, crazy patchwork of unique American characters that bring the complexity, inspiration, and delusion of America's Western dreams to life. Like Merle Haggard sings: White Line Fever. Catch it.
Rating:
Summary: hit the road for a wild and fascinating ride
Review: I loved this book. If you've ever hit the road or had the urge to do it. If you've ever stuck out your thumb to discover the dizzying range of people and places in the great American West or had the urge to do it. If you liked Krakauer's "Into The Wild," GET THIS BOOK. It kicks ass. With an outsider's perceptive eye, Grant weaves his personal Western travels together with fascinating historical accounts and introduces us to a gritty, crazy patchwork of unique American characters that bring the complexity, inspiration, and delusion of America's Western dreams to life. Like Merle Haggard sings: White Line Fever. Catch it.
Rating:
Summary: I Enjoyed This Book
Review: I picked this book up at a Waterstone's in Sheffield, under its U.K. title of Ghost Riders, and it brought me back to my hitch-hiking days in America. Grant, a Brit., gets "travel fever" and lights out on the same open road that Whitman, Twain, Jack London, Steinbeck, Kerouac, and scores of others celebrate in American lit. and popular culture. Grant gives us an up-dated version of what the American open road is all about c. 1990 to 2003, with truckers, Native Americans, Vietnam Vets, the utopian Rainbow Family, the Elephant-like migrations of the SUV crowd and all the nameless, homeless, motel drifters and doorway leaners that we usually pass by in a blaze of chrome and a tinkle of "Route 66." Grant gives these people names and shows a bit of their desperation as well as their triumph in living a life of freedom in the post-modern USA. Grant also gives us hints of his own unhappy life and how all the loose ends are finally tied together by the return of his roving lady love. For anyone who has spent a day with their thumb out and a night camped under the desert stars, this book will be a reminder, and for those who haven't, this book might tempt them to give it a shot. This was a great read. Not as light as it first appeared, especially in the section on the history of the Native Americans, America's first nomads.
Rating:
Summary: Road Trip
Review: Inspired by Kerouac et al, and their tales of the open road, Richard Grant left rain-blighted London in the mid-eighties to travel around the Ameican west. In American Nomads he describes his fellow travellers; hoboes, retirees in winnebagos, the rainbow tribe, as well as the travellers who preceeded them; the cowboys, mountain men, and conquistadors. While never failing to tell a good tale he comes to examine his own restlessness, and the restlessness at the core of the American pysche. Part-travelogue, part-history, Grant's book reads like an adventure.
Rating:
Summary: Fun and thought-provoking
Review: Loved the book and looking forward to reading it again, after my wife finishes it. An easy, quick, fun read. But plenty to think about. Like The Course of Empire (Bernard DeVoto) this weaves together several ?wanderer? stories with a thesis that makes sense. In this case: some people just gotta keep movin? and the Western U.S. is a good place to do it. However, in our society there is a fine line between the nomadic life and self-destruction. Each person has to find his or her own balance. Some go over the line and stay there.For me this helps explain what makes "wanderer" and explorer stories intriguing: Undaunted Courage and the Lewis & Clark journals, mountain men stories (A Life Wild and Perilous ? Utley; Rendezvous Reader ? Maguire, Wild and Barclay; John Colter ? Harris), stories of lone guys against the Alaska wilderness (One Man?s Wilderness ? Keith, Proenneke; Reading the River ? Hildebrand; Reader?s Companion to Alaska ? Ryan, ed.), and RVing adventures (all of Sharlene Minshall?s very fun books). Also ?on the road? stories like Blue Highways (William Least Heat Moon), Travels with Charlie (Steinbeck), Out West (Duncan) and One Year Off (Elliot Cohen, about traveling around the world with his wife and little kids). And last, but not least, Laura Ingalls Wilder?s Little House series (read aloud to my niece ? Pa is my hero!). They appeal to the nomad in us. I found the author?s personal story interesting and not distracting. The ending is a very important part of the book, tying the personal story and the various vignettes together. With that said, Mr. Grant does worry too much about being cool. Maybe this reflects his Esquire magazine readership. Or just his age. There is much more to tell about RV nomads that he wants to tell. When he says that full-time RVers are the dominant nomadic tribe in the U.S. now, he squirms and has a certified ?cool? guy scoff at the idea. He can?t talk about retirees without focusing on Viagra. I hope that at some point he will mellow and be able to explore the dominant nomadic tribe with a more sympathetic eye and ear. But whatever he chooses to write next, I will look forward to reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Fun and thought-provoking
Review: Loved the book and looking forward to reading it again, after my wife finishes it. An easy, quick, fun read. But plenty to think about. Like The Course of Empire (Bernard DeVoto) this weaves together several "wanderer" stories with a thesis that makes sense. In this case: some people just gotta keep movin' and the Western U.S. is a good place to do it. However, in our society there is a fine line between the nomadic life and self-destruction. Each person has to find his or her own balance. Some go over the line and stay there. For me this helps explain what makes "wanderer" and explorer stories intriguing: Undaunted Courage and the Lewis & Clark journals, mountain men stories (A Life Wild and Perilous - Utley; Rendezvous Reader - Maguire, Wild and Barclay; John Colter - Harris), stories of lone guys against the Alaska wilderness (One Man's Wilderness - Keith, Proenneke; Reading the River - Hildebrand; Reader's Companion to Alaska - Ryan, ed.), and RVing adventures (all of Sharlene Minshall's very fun books). Also "on the road" stories like Blue Highways (William Least Heat Moon), Travels with Charlie (Steinbeck), Out West (Duncan) and One Year Off (Elliot Cohen, about traveling around the world with his wife and little kids). And last, but not least, Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series (read aloud to my niece - Pa is my hero!). They appeal to the nomad in us. I found the author's personal story interesting and not distracting. The ending is a very important part of the book, tying the personal story and the various vignettes together. With that said, Mr. Grant does worry too much about being cool. Maybe this reflects his Esquire magazine readership. Or just his age. There is much more to tell about RV nomads that he wants to tell. When he says that full-time RVers are the dominant nomadic tribe in the U.S. now, he squirms and has a certified "cool" guy scoff at the idea. He can't talk about retirees without focusing on Viagra. I hope that at some point he will mellow and be able to explore the dominant nomadic tribe with a more sympathetic eye and ear. But whatever he chooses to write next, I will look forward to reading it.
Rating:
Summary: a great writer and a entertaining read
Review: Richard Grant has an ear for the west and my husband and I both enjoyed this entertaining road story....lots of fun characters.
Rating:
Summary: One hell of a ride...the adventures we all want and need.
Review: The beginning of this book sucked me right in. Grant, at the time a recent escapee of dreary London life, tells of his first awestruck days in the American West. As a lifelong resident of the West, I loved hearing the author's outsider appreciation for this land. Grant's tales kept me up late into the nights, unwilling to get off the road with him. His amazing command of language makes the stories come to life in the most vibrant possible way. I particularly like the way he weaves American history in with his travels, and includes fascinating characters, historical and contemporary. There's also a love story with interesting twists. Have a seat on the passenger's side, roll down the window, and enjoy the ride. I sure did.
Rating: 
Summary: From the East End to the Southwest
Review: The best parts of American Nomads are the prologue and the final chapter. In between is an uneven collection of historical pieces and contemporary character profiles. In the prologue, Richard Grant, an Englishman who grew up in London, tells how he traveled as a child and as an adult to sunny spots all over the world. Consequently, when he found himself spending yet another depressing winter in dreary, damp London, he scraped together enough money for a ticket to the U.S. He hooked up with east coast friends and they made a road trip to Los Angeles, but Grant wasn't through with the road yet. He traveled up the California coast, then to New Orleans, and when he ran out of money, he lived in his car in a parking lot at a motel and spent his days by the motel pool, writing letters home. The recipients of these letters encouraged him to write for publication and he did. When he had enough money, he'd return to the U.S., then home to London when the money ran out, to write some more stories and articles. Then back to America. Finally he was making enough from writing that he didn't have to return to London. Grant writes of the American Southwest, its history, people he meets, things he sees. A lot of his narrative is gritty, because the desert is like that, as are the people who settle there. He winds up these travel essays with a chapter on the RVers who congregate in Quartzsite, Arizona every year. Thousands of mostly retired people in their motor homes and trailers gather in a gigantic ghetto in the middle of nowhere. Grant observes and comments.
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