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A review by msjoanna
Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails with America's Hoboes by Ted Conover
4.0
This book was read by the author, but read approximately 20 years after the book was first published. I thought he did a very nice job with the reading.
The book itself is a wonderful combination of a memoir and a slice of history. As the author notes in the introduction that accompanies the re-release of the book, train-riding hoboes are pretty much gone now. Between a reduction in rail use, the conglomeration of rail companies into larger and more bureaucratic corporations, improved computer tracking across state lines of welfare benefits, and decreased availability of welfare, the type of free-traveling hobo that Conover encountered is probably hard to find today.
I enjoyed seeing the author's own development over the course of his few months and watching as his own experience and attitude shifted.
A fun read.
The book itself is a wonderful combination of a memoir and a slice of history. As the author notes in the introduction that accompanies the re-release of the book, train-riding hoboes are pretty much gone now. Between a reduction in rail use, the conglomeration of rail companies into larger and more bureaucratic corporations, improved computer tracking across state lines of welfare benefits, and decreased availability of welfare, the type of free-traveling hobo that Conover encountered is probably hard to find today.
I enjoyed seeing the author's own development over the course of his few months and watching as his own experience and attitude shifted.
A fun read.