American Journeys (Don Watson, Random House, $49.95 hb, ISBN 9781740513166, March) *****

American Journeys is not only a thoroughly enjoyable travel narrative, but more ambitiously a kind of 21st-century postscript to Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, first published in 1831. Like the French philosopher over 170 years earlier, Don Watson spent months travelling around America, observing not only the country but examining its beliefs and values. In common with fellow travel writer Paul Theroux, Watson prefers train travel where you can simultaneously watch the landscape and listen to its inhabitants. Watson is an acute observer, highly critical, often very funny and always prepared to accept, if not understand, the contradictions of everyday America. He wisely avoids soft targets, preferring to castigate big business—particularly the media—rather than the hapless George Bush. The highlight comes early in the book when he witnesses New Orleans shortly after hurricane Katrina and casually notes that corporate America (Wal-mart, McDonald’s et al) had cleaned up faster than the government agencies. This is a thought-provoking book sure to infuriate neo-conservatives, give academics plenty to chew over, and yet entertain and amuse the general reader. Uncomfortable yet stimulating armchair travel, and also thoroughly deserving shelf space in current affairs.

Graeme Moore is a freelance writer and online bookseller

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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