Rough Drift
No one travels light in two new road novels.
Books
Here’s how you make a myth: Describe how heart-stoppingly overwhelming a place is, then introduce somebody capable of controlling it. In antiquity, all manner of gods and galley ships were required to get that job done; by the end of the 19th century, Huck Finn launching a raft down the Mississippi was plenty. Ever since Jack Kerouac’s On the Road was published in 1957, the road story has been the preferred American myth, and Rudolph Wurlitzer knows road stories: Though he’s written five novels, he’s probably best known as the screenwriter of the 1971 cult film Two-Lane Blacktop, an inheritor to Easy Rider that revised the idea of Manifest Destiny to include two guys in a ’55 Chevy purring across the rural landscape.
Wurlitzer’s version of the road myth resembled a lot of Beat-era tales: You had no idea where you were going and weren’t always having a lot of fun, but at least you were moving—the movement itself a character-building exercise. James Taylor and Dennis Wilson, the stars of Two-Lane Blacktop, are so stone-faced and archetypal they don’t even have names; they’re the Driver and the Mechanic, and they passive-aggressively court a Girl. Wurlitzer had less success applying the Beat sensibility to his screenplay for the 1987 Walker, which starred Ed Harris as a would-be imperialist in 19th-century Nicaragua. Alex Cox’s film was too sloppy to work as a satire of Reagan-era military adventures in Central America, but it underlined Wurlitzer’s belief that the idea of humble American rugged individualism is hogwash—we do all this running around not for spiritual enlightenment but as a means to control.... Continued 
- Rough Drift
Books - Broncos 34, Angsty Bartenders 0
Book Reviews - A Galaxie of Complaints
Book Reviews - The World Over
Books - “Cities at Night: Detectives and Crime”
Arts & Events - Text Appeal
Book Reviews - Operation Enduring Free Verse
Artifacts - Writes of Initiation
Artifacts
Books Picks
- Laurie Lindeen
Monday, May 12, at Olsson's Dupont Circle
- Lucille Clifton
Tuesday, May 13, at Folger Shakespeare Library
Event Calendar: This Week in Books
Fri. May. 9, 2008 - Thu. May. 15, 2008
- MASSUD ALEMI,
reads from Interruptions.
Kensington Row Bookshop,, 3786 Howard Ave., Kensington. Thu., 5/8, at 7 p.m. Free. (301) 949-9416. - CHRIS MYERS ASCH,
reads from and signs copies of The Senator & the Sharecropper.
Politics and Prose,, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Mon., 5/12, at 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919. - BULENT ATALAY,
discusses and signs Math and the Mona Lisa: The Art and Science of Leonardo Da Vinci; sponsored by National Geographic.
Grosvenor Auditorium,, 1600 M St. NW. Tue., 5/13, at 7:30 p.m. Free. For reservations call (202) 857-7700. - DAVID BALDACCI,
discusses and signs copies of The Whole Truth.
Barnes & Noble,, 5871 Crossroads Center Way, Baileys Crossroads. Thu., 5/8, at 7:30 p.m. Free. (703) 998-0404. - ROBERT BARSKY
discusses and signs copies of The Chomsky Effect: A Radical Works Beyond the Ivory Tower.
Busboys and Poets,, 2021 14th St. NW. Thu., 5/8, at 6 p.m. Free. (202) 387-7638. - JOAN BAUER,
discusses and signs Peeled.
Politics and Prose,, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Tue., 5/13, at 10:30 a.m. Free. (202) 364-1919. - JARED BERNSTEIN,
discusses and signs copies of Crunch.
Politics and Prose,, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Sat., 5/10, at 6 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919. - JANAYA BLACK,
reads from and signs Beautiful Rage: The Break of Dawn.
Anacostia Library,, 1800 Good Hope Road SE. Sat., 5/10, at 1 p.m. Free. (202) 715-7707. - MICHAEL ERIC DYSON
discusses and signs copies of April 4, 1968.
Politics and Prose,, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Fri., 5/9, at 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919. - CHARLAINE HARRIS,
reads from and signs From Dead to Worse.
Borders,, 5871 Crossroads Center Way, Baileys Crossroads. Thu., 5/15, at 7:30 p.m. Free. (703) 998-0404. - TOM HAYDEN,
discusses and signs Writings for a Democratic Society: The Tom Hayden Reader.
Busboys and Poets,, 2021 14th St. NW. Thu., 5/15, at 6 p.m. Free. (202) 387-7638. - GENE HEALY,
discusses and signs copies of The Cult of the Presidency.
Politics and Prose,, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Sat., 5/10, at 1 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919. - STUART KAUFFMAN,
discusses and signs Reinventing the Sacred.
National Academy of Sciences,, 2103 Constitution Ave. NW. Tue., 5/13, at 7 p.m. Free. (202) 357-3030. - JENN LANCASTER,
reads from and signs Such a Pretty Fat.
Borders,, 5871 Crossroads Center Way, Baileys Crossroads. Mon., 5/12, at 7:30 p.m. Free. (703) 998-0404. - LAURIE LINDEEN,
discusses and signs Petal Pusher: A Rock & Roll Cinderella Story.
Olsson's Books & Records,, 1307 19th St. NW. Mon., 5/12, at 7 p.m. Free. (202) 785-1133. - GARRET OLIVER
discusses and signs copies of The Brewmaster's Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food.
National Geographic Society, Grosvenor Auditorium,, 1600 M St. NW. Thu., 5/8, at 7 p.m. $75. For reservations call (202) 857-7700. - TIM SHORROCK,
reads from and signs copies of Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing.
Olsson's Books & Records,, 418 7th St. NW. Thu., 5/15, at 7 p.m. Free. (202) 638-7610. - TED SORENEN,
discusses and signs Counselor.
Politics and Prose,, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Wed., 5/14, at 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919. - LEE STANDIFORD,
discusses and signs Washington Burning.
Politics and Prose,, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Tue., 5/13, at 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919. - MATT TAIBBI
discusses and signs copies of The Great Derangement.
Politics and Prose,, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Thu., 5/8, at 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919. - MARY TILLMAN,
discusses and signs copies of Boots on the Ground by Dusk: My Tribute to Pat Tillman.
Olsson's Books & Records,, 418 7th St. NW. Mon., 5/12, at 7 p.m. Free. (202) 638-7610. - FAREED ZAKARIA,
discusses and signs The Post-American World.
Politics and Prose,, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Thu., 5/15, at 7 p.m. Free. (202) 364-1919.
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