Going His Way
From the first sentence on, John Waters shares his excitement as well as the pitch for 'Carsick.' You know it well before reading this review. At the age of 66, John Waters decided he would hitchhike from his doorstep in Baltimore to his doorstep in San Francisco, and share his adventures with readers. That alone is reason enopugh to makie this book worth reading.
There's more than a bit of non-fiction. Before he tells us what really happened on his journey, Waters offers us two fictional versions; a best-case scenario and a worst-case scenario. Some readers may have trouble distinguishing between the two, though both are markedly different from reality. What remains the same is Waters' lust or life, his joyful celebration of everything that is human. This is a fun, funny book that offers a potent, often-poignant glimpse of America. It's quite irreverent but never irrelevant.
Waters is known for his over-the-top work, and he certainly lives up to his reputation in 'Carsick,' particularly in the first two sections, where his imagination runs free. Given all the wild content, it's easy to miss his superbly skilled prose. Waters knows how to turn a sentence and how to expertly layer image and action to take readers to the bizarre corners of his inner mind. Portions of the book border on prose poetry as you might hope to find on the bathroom walls for a surreal funhouse.
All this wordplay and extreme exploration is very funny, but Waters also excels at storytelling and plot. He can craft a vivid character, and in a few short pages tell a whole story that feels real, or at least surreal. In the non-fiction section, things are considerably calmer, but the absence of Waters' imaginative powers is compensated for by his charm. He clearly charms his rides and everyone charms the reader. Waters seems to like everyone he meets, imagined or real, or at least he's able to sympathize with them. We like Waters. We like his rides, real and imagined. It's a grand time.
'Carsick' is so much so simply itself that it defies all genres and all attempts to contain it. Waters nails contagious fun. He'll make you want to hitchhike. You could only hope that it would be Waters himself to give you that ride. In this book he manages to do so.
New to the Agony Column
09-18-15: Commentary : William T. Vollman Amidst 'The Dying Grass' : An Epic Exploration of Simultaneity
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with William T. Vollman : "...a lot of long words that in our language are sentences..."
09-05-15: Commentary : Susan Casey Listens to 'Voices in the Ocean' : Science, Empathy and Self
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Susan Casey : "...the reporting for this book was emotionally difficult at times..."
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
