August 8, 2016
In 2011, at 23, after his Watson fellowship proposal to study the ways indigenous communities “guided their young people into adulthood” was rejected, and after he lost his job on a fishing boat, Forsthoefel packed his bags, brought books by Whitman and Rilke, and walked down the train tracks near his mother’s Philadelphia home. Then, he kept walking, all the way to the Pacific. In this moving and deeply introspective memoir, Forsthoefel writes about the uncertainties, melodramas, ambiguities, and loneliness of youth while describing his trip, reaching out to strangers as he walks south toward Selma, and then west across Navajo lands, Death Valley, and the Sierras. Along the way, he meets widowers, waitresses, ranchers, veterans, reverends, mystics, glass blowers, delusional walkers, firefighters, Navajo drummers, artists, new fathers, and families who take him into their homes, sharing their rich and varied perspectives—and advice on living. Each conversation offers a glimpse into the vast range of American life. Forsthoefel’s walk becomes a meditation on vulnerability, trust, and the tragedy of suburban and rural alienation. His radical openness to the variety of American experience includes unflinching encounters with lingering racism in Alabama, for instance. Forsthoefel’s conversation with America is fascinating, terrifying, mundane, and at times heartbreaking, but ultimately transformative and wise. Agent: Daniel Greenberg, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary.
March 1, 2017
There are many different types of walking. Bliss-walking. Fury-walking. Swamp-walking. In his trek across America, Forsthoefel experienced these and many more, as he shares in this soulful book. A 23-year-old college graduate still smarting from the pain of his parents' divorce, Forsthoefel set out to grapple with his questions about coming-of-age by listening his way across the country. And listen he does, to an impressive variety of people, such as an alligator farmer looking toward the apocalypse, a nudist grandmother, and a sharecropper descended from a slave. Some open their homes and lives to him, sharing profound lessons in the unlikeliest places. Forsthoefel is disarmingly, almost painfully earnest, prone to quoting Whitman and Rilke and indulging in extended ruminations on the nature of life. But his openness provides a window into the extraordinary lessons to be learned from ordinary people. This is a memorable and heartfelt exploration of what it takes to hike 4,000 miles across the country and how one young man learned to walk without fear into his future.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)
February 1, 2017
A college graduate's 11-month walking tour of America.Following graduation from Middlebury College, 23-year-old Forsthoefel hatched a plan to leave his mother's home in suburban Philadelphia and walk until he spent all his money or hit the Pacific Ocean, whichever came first. Guided by his literary heroes Rainer Maria Rilke, Khalil Gibran, and Walt Whitman (whose democratic spirit is a major influence here), Forsthoefel began traveling west with the bare minimum for shelter, a sign reading "Walking to Listen," and the vague idea that his trip would be "like a graduate program in the human experience." For the author, the impetus to walk was indefinable but urgent: "I woke up the next morning anxious to get walking again, toward what, I didn't quite know." Along the way, Forsthoefel confronted the "others" of society, and he remarks on race, class, and privilege. He also explains that while a student at Middlebury, he researched the concept of "coming of age" and how other cultures prepare their young to become adults. It's not hard to see how this concept informs Forsthoefel's trek, which was his own attempt to define his adulthood in the post-collegiate existentialist void experienced by so many millennials. However, the author's sincerity and earnestness are tempered by his urge to "learn something" from his encounters. He refers to the people he met as his "teachers," and he was consciously aware of his use of their experiences for his gain. (This also cost Forsthoefel his job on a fishing boat prior to his cross-country journey, when he revealed to the captain that he'd begun a blog about the experience.) The author recorded his conversations for future logging and transcribing, all a sign of his intention to use his trip for some other end, not merely the empathic experience of meeting citizens. However, Forsthoefel offers moments of genuine kinship and transcendence that buoy the narrative and make the adventure an uplifting, somewhat labored exercise in outreach. Millennial ennui turns into a search for meaning in an intriguing portrait of America.
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Starred review from February 15, 2017
Unsure of what to do after graduating from college, Forsthoefel decided to walk across America, from Pennsylvania to the Pacific coast, and listen to the fascinating stories of ordinary people. Forsthoefel includes chunks of many of these tales verbatim. But what is even more fascinating, and unexpected, is the journey he goes through himself. Guided by Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass and Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet--both of which he quotes from copiously--he discovers what he can endure, what he is capable of, and finds his place in the world. For the author, what started out as an attempt to understand our connections to other people ends in a greater understanding of a connection with himself. VERDICT A remarkable book that calls to mind William Least-Heat Moon's Blue Highways. (Memoir, 1/13/17; ow.ly/D1mr308cbNW)--DS
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
October 1, 2017
At 23, with a bachelor's degree in philosophy, Forsthoefel was uncertain about his future. To find some answers, he decided to walk from his suburban home in Pennsylvania to the California coastline. Taking minimal possessions (including a tent and some Snickers bars) and wearing a sign reading "Walking To Listen," Forsthoefel sought to clarify his own sense of self through the act of walking. By listening to others, he hoped to discover what it means to come of age. Featured throughout this lyrical adventure memoir are transcripts of conversations between the author and those he met on the road. Passages from his favorite writers (Walt Whitman, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Kahlil Gibran) enhance the text. Each state Forsthoefel traversed receives some time in the descriptive spotlight. He considers weighty issues, such as race, privilege, religion, and family, and offers a fresh spin on familiar themes as he ponders how to approach the world and all its beauty and pain and how to listen to others. VERDICT This title will appeal to thoughtful teens and may serve as a tie-in to history, literature, and philosophy discussions.-Tara Kehoe, formerly at the New Jersey State Library Talking Book and Braille Center, Trenton
Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.