Charles Kuralt's America by Charles Kuralt
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Book Reviews of Charles Kuralt's America
Book Review: Third age vagabond
Summary: 4 Stars
Charles Kuralt reads his own work on the audiobook. It seems like he had a lot of fun traveling around the country. People knew him, and then offered to show him around, for example, fly over a glacier in Alaska or have a special interview with a noted saddle maker in New Mexico.
It's nice that he had the money and means to do these things, a kind of third age "On the Road" adventure, but of course without the drugs and revels of Kerouac. And no Cody.
Maybe this was more like Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley."
In fact, Charles is so discreet, he even rebuffs a woman of possible ill repute in Key West. Oh ye of great faith!
But he hardly ever mentions his wife, maybe once or twice at the end. Was she happy just sitting at home? Or maybe she was traveling elsewhere? Anyway, I think it's too bad they could not have traveled together.
It was sad, though, when his father died, even though his father was pretty old (late 80s I think).
Of all the places he visited, I think I did like Key West best, because that was really the place that was furthest away from the American mainstream, except maybe Alaska, and I would prefer to travel outside of the country than in. From Key West, of course, you can get to the Caribbean countries pretty easily. What if he had done that? Diximus.
Book Review: Makes you feel like you were there
Summary: 4 Stars
When Charles Kuralt retired from CBS he decided to do something enjoyable.... spend a year vacationing at his favorite places in the country. He selected twelve places, and spent one month in each place in it's peak season: January in New Orleans, October in Vermont, August in Maine, etc. Each chapter gives a 20-30 page account of his experiences in each individual location.Good: Kuralt is just an excellent writer. After reading each chapter you feel like you've visited each place yourself. In my opinion his most interesting visits were Twin Bridges, Montana; Ketchikan, Alaska; Key West, and New Orleans. He gives brilliant, flavorful descriptions of the sights, sounds, smells, and personalities he runs into in each part of the country.
Bad: Kansas wasn't included in his travels. Also, it would be interesting to see how someone from my generation would do a book like this. Kuralt's perspective seems more geared towards his own generation. But that certainly didn't keep a young buck like me from enjoying it.
Opinion: This book is a great retreat for those of us who would like to travel to the wonderful places this country has more often but have neither the time nor the resources to do so.
Book Review: A good but not great book
Summary: 4 Stars
I did enjoy this book, but there were parts where I lost interest. Kuralt gives a lot of detail about the people he meets, but sometimes I didn't get as many details as I would have liked about the actual place he visited. In all, it is a book worth reading-- especially if you like to hear stories about individual characters.