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ROAD TRIPS
THE bestselling author suggests key novels to help you through the trickier times in life. ‘HE CHANTED as he flew, and the car responded with sonorous drone; the miles were eaten up under him as he sped he knew not whither, fulfilling his instincts, living his hour, reckless of what might come to him.’
That’s Mr Toad, living his open-road dream, and he makes it sound very tempting — if you like that sort of thing. As my own most recent, and reluctant, road-trip experience was memorable only for a two-day sojourn on a garage floor watching a mangy Alsatian scratch its fleas while a Frenchman tinkered under a new bonnet, I’m less convinced.
But others do have a love of cars and preference of journey over destination. I don’t get it, but I accept it. And if you’re one of them, then Jack Kerouac is your man.
His On The Road came out of his own trips across the States, his journey to find the good in America, and the good in the American man. The result is the post-Mr Toad classic of the genre.
The teenage characters in Paper Towns are also on the road, searching the same landscape, but for something different. Paper towns are marked on maps as a device to protect copyright, but they don’t really exist.
Margo has disappeared and left what appears to be a trail of clues and Q believes she wants him to find her. When he does, he discovers that she is as fake as the towns. John Green is always marketed as a young adult author, but don’t let that put you off — he’s always thrilling and moving in equal measure.
Road-trip novels tend to be American — they have more space for adventure. But in The Remains Of The Day, the wealthy master lends his big, smart motor to Stevens the butler and off he sets through the English lanes and a mental journey through his past life.
He is musing — rather grandly — on the requisite qualities for a truly great butler when he hears a strange noise from the engine and is forced to stop and seek help. For in literature, as in life, there is always something going wrong under that bonnet.