Lyrical and pleasing reflections on machinery, midlife crisis, and
sundry other matters. Not long ago Paulsen, a Newbury Honor author
of books for children, as well as books for adults (Eastern Sun,
Western Moon, 1993, etc.), turned 57 and discovered he had a heart
ailment. He also discovered, he writes, that he is a man, in a time
when it has become anachronistic to be masculine. To avert the
horror of growing old, cuddly, and debilitated, Paulsen went out
and bought a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, shopping for which turned
out to be a challenge - for a new bike, he learned, he'd have to
pay a small fortune and then wait three years for delivery. Arming
himself with a used machine, he took to the road, making his way
from New Mexico to Alaska and back again, celebrating the freedom
afforded him by the Harley-as-extension-of-self. The book that
resulted from his trip is really a series of loosely connected
essays. One treats the curious career of George Armstrong Custer,
whom Paulsen seems intent on rehabilitating. Writing in a
Hemingwayesque turn, he takes the line that, while it is
politically incorrect to express respect for the doomed general, it
is difficult not to admire his courage, and in the end it could be
said that he was given his measure of fame - which is more than
most men are given. Another essay explores the American worship of
know-how, the almost religious aspect of being a mechanic that does
not seem to exist in other countries. Still another deals with the
myriad ways there are to meet one's maker on the back of a
motorcycle, crushed by an errant piece of livestock or splattered
by a road-hogging RV. These meditations don't quite add up to a
full-tilt memoir, but they make a nice entertainment all the same.
(Kirkus Reviews)
This work is about the things that save a man's life, beginning
with a motorcycle. At the age of 57, looking over his shoulder at
heart disease, Gary Paulsen acquires his first Harley-Davidson. He
decides to ride from his home in New Mexico to Alaska, and its
turns out to be a trip in time as well as space. Through Minnesota
and the Rockies to the Alaska highway, Paulsen travels through the
landmarks of his life. There were people who wouldn't let him give
in, from the tough cop who kept him from being a juvenile
delinquent to the whore who told him not to leave the army. There
were the challenges that pushed him to the limit, such as
high-stakes poker, wrangling a dogsled through the Alaskan
wilderness, and packing horses into the foothills of Montana. And
there were the days of pure sweat and muscle on the farms in
Minnesota and the bottom of septic tank pits in Colorado. Amid the
silence of running the road on his Harley, Paulson celebrates hard
work, constant challenge and ultimately the process rather that the
product - not the destination but the ride.
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