Road Fever

Tim Cahill's writing and humor really make this tale of his trip from Ushuaia to Prudhoe Bay a great story. His sense of humor is great–I found myself laughing out loud over and over though the book. The writing is clever and insightful. In a book that is composed almost entirely of descriptions, it never feels forced or boring. Cahill masterfully weaves in insightful and compelling mini-tours through the socio-political situation in the various countries that really add to the story. They were some of my favorite parts of the book.

There were a few times where the collision of world events and their arrival on the scene seem to happen, very improbably, at just the right moment. They were probably exaggerated for the sake of the story, but it was fine. It worked. Their trip wasn't extremely eventful but it had enough excitement to be really enjoyable.

The only downer for me was that while there were a few very real human moments in the story, Tim and his professional driving companion Garry Sowerby seemed to be at odds with each other more than not. Garry is, or at least is portrayed as, a very good driver, but moody, stressed out and generally not someone that you'd want to spend every hour of 24 days with socially. They lacked ‘chemistry.' Even so, the story was wonderful and makes me want to hop in a new FJ Cruiser (not the GMC Sierra they drove) and give it a go myself.

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Page 127 - The drive begins. The first 126 pages describe preparations for the trip.
Page 261 - They cross the Mexican border into the US.
Page 267 - They cross into Canada.
Page 277 - End of book.