Long Way Home

Bill Barich decides to replicate the famous trip of John Steinbeck across America, a trip Steinbeck wrote about in one of his last books, Travels with Charley. He sets off to get a feeling for the heart of America. Like Steinbeck, he finds a world that is less optimistic, more bleak, more influenced by the media, a less compassionate America, a world that is driven by the dollar. Like Steinbeck, Barich runs across few individuals who seem to read and think deeply about our country and that, to me, is the saddest part of this book.