Volkswagon Blues by Jacques Poulin
Volkswagon Blues is a francophone version of an updated On the Road and I found the story itself a bit lacking in character. The tale follows a man and woman (La Grande Sauterelle) across the Canadian and US landscape to San Francisco in search of the man's possibly criminal brother Théo. The book describes some of the French and Native American history along the way. The historical aspect of the book was quite interesting, but the personal story - the awkward almost dysfunctional relationship between the man and woman and their search for long lost family - was more than a little far fetched. The writing style, while attempting to be mysterious, made the characters one dimensional, distant, and cold. I won't give away the ending, but it was a bit of a disappointment. The story of North American history was interesting, but the dialogue and focus of the novel simply wasn't enough to hold my interest. If you like to read good travel stories I would recommend On the Road (J. Kerouac), The Stand (for a horror slant, S. King), the poetry of Allen Ginsberg (especially Sunflower Sutra), and music by Bob Dylan or Woody Gutherie.
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