Full name: Hunting Mister Heartbreak: A Discovery of America

Author: Jonathan Raban Year: 1990 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Travel, Non Fiction Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9780375701016 037570101X

In 1782 an immigrant with the high-toned name J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur--"Heartbreak" in English--wrote a pioneering account of one European's transformation into an American. Some two hundred years later Jonathan Raban, arrived in Crevecoeur's wake to see how America has paid off for succeeding generations of newcomers. The result is a book that is at once a travelogue, a social history, and a love letter to the United States. In the course of Hunting Mr. Heartbreak, Raban passes for homeless in New York and tries to pass for a good ol' boy in Alabama (which entails "renting" an elderly black lab). He sees the Protestant work ethic perfected by Korean immigrants in Seattle--one of whom celebrates her new home as "So big! So green! So wide-wide-wide!"--and repudiated by the lowlife of Key West. And on every page of this peerlessly observant work, Raban makes us experience America with wonder, humor, and an unblinking eye for its contradictions. Similar books: New Roadside America by Doug Kirby The Most Scenic Drives in America by Reader's Digest Road Trip USA by Jamie Jensen Deep South by Paul Theroux The Tao of Travel by Paul Theroux A Woman's Passion for Travel by Marybeth Bond To the Ends of the Earth by Paul Theroux Weird U.S. by Mark Moran Pole To Pole by Michael Palin Full Circle by Michael Palin Roads to Quoz by William Least Heat-Moon Around the World in 80 Days by Michael Palin Equator by Thurston Clarke Falling Off the Map by Pico Iyer Slow Boats Home by Gavin Young The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook: Kauai Revealed by Andrew Doughty Around the World in 60 Seconds by Nuseir Yassin 1,000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Schultz Unfathomable City by Rebecca Solnit Hillerman Country by Tony Hillerman