Description
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Review Quotes: "Part history, part travelogue, part meditative yawp, American Rambler is a quest for Johnny Appleseed that becomes a contemporary, warts-and-all portrait of the land he seeded. Isaac Fitzgerald taps into our need to lean on legends--apocryphal or not--in order to understand and justify the way we live now. This book is an absolute joy to read." --Patrick Ryan, author of Buckeye "Told with loving tenderness and frank realness, American Rambler is a brilliant walking tour given by a sage party monk through the life of the man behind an American myth. A breath of fresh air that isn't always all that fresh, but when it isn't, it's a little bit intoxicating. Fitzgerald's voice is rare for its honesty and generosity, for how much you can feel his love in the writing." --Tommy Orange, author of Wandering Stars "What Fitzgerald learns about himself and the state of the nation is more compelling still, with all their triumphs and tragedies. Blue Highways with hiking boots, and a grand entertainment for travelers real and armchair." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Throughout, Fitzgerald's elegant prose, restless curiosity, and deep compassion leap off the page. The result is a stirring, singular entry in the American road trip genre." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) "[Fitzgerald] candidly exposes the tension between myth and reality, revealing how history is often transformed into myths, complete with heroes. . . . American Rambler ultimately becomes less about retracing one legendary man's footsteps and more about examining the ground beneath them." --Booklist "Fitzgerald is a most excellent tour guide, mixing history with anecdote, Chapman's tangled story with his own somewhat tortured but always fascinating tale." --BookPage Biographical Note: ISAAC FITZGERALD is the New York Times bestselling author of Dirtbag, Massachusetts (winner of the New England Book Award). He is also the author of the bestselling children's book How to Be a Pirate as well as the co-author of Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them and Knives & Ink: Chefs and the Stories Behind Their Tattoos (winner of an IACP Award). He appears frequently on The Today Show, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Esquire, GQ, The Guardian, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, and numerous other publications. He lives with his wife and their two dogs on the North Fork of Long Island. Publisher Marketing: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - New York Times bestselling author Isaac Fitzgerald sets off into the heart of America, following the path of the legendary Johnny Appleseed on an epic journey that both takes him far from home and brings him closer to it. "Rollicking, heartfelt. . . . Made me feel the kind of wonder and hope I've been longing for." --John Green, author of Everything Is Tuberculosis As a child, Isaac Fitzgerald was captivated by Johnny Appleseed, drawn to the legend by family ties, his father's larger-than-life stories, and a shared restlessness to leave home and discover what lay beyond. In American Rambler, he sets out on a year-long journey to follow Appleseed's path, walking (okay, sometimes driving, and at one point, even floating downstream) from Massachusetts to Indiana. On this journey, Fitzgerald turns a childhood fascination into a profound reckoning of loss and grief, ritual and faith, grimy gas station bathrooms and scenic apple picking. He is followed by a mysterious creature, camps in hostile environments, trespasses more than once, and is warmed by the generosity of strangers at every turn. A moving blend of memoir, history, and travelogue, American Rambler is at once an ode to the American heartland, a meditation on escaping the breakneck pace of modern life, and a clear-eyed look at the myths--often violent, sometimes hopeful, frequently romanticized--at the very core of American identity and history. Review Citations:
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American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed
$38.40