The Hitchhiker’s Guide to contemporary USA
- Book: Interstate
- Location: United States (USA)
- Author: Julian Sayarer
Julian “Emre” Sayarer leads us on a bewildering jaunt across the USA, as he hitchhikes from New York to San Francisco near the end of the Obama years, to fill a void left by a thwarted film-making gig in the Big Apple.
He is an entertaining and insightful guide, using vivid prose to bring the landscapes, people and wider social environment to life.
“New Jersey passes: the debris at its roadside no longer exists, everything invisible, only the road and all else lost to the speed from inside the tin. There are no more charred books, no more dolls, only the falling yellow leaves, the road cutting through trees with bark stained by exhaust fumes”.
As the journey evolves, Julian becomes more and more disillusioned by the state of the US nation. Everything is measured in dollars. If you have no conspicuous sign of wealth, you are an invisible person, part of the vast underclass of society he meets along the way.
In Missouri, he sees a sign on the Interstate: “Hit a worker – $10,000 dollar fine and lose your licence”. The priorities are clear.
The only source of optimism comes from a couple of individuals brave enough to offer him a lift, when most fear even a superficial engagement with a hitchhiker in contemporary America.
The author’s main connection is with Pala, a Punjabi truck driver working crazy hours to pay off the loan for his vehicle, and to eke out a living for himself and his distant family.
Otherwise Julian lays bare the sense of despair and loss of self-esteem being endured by American people, away from the liberal elite on east and west coasts. This is a vivid portrait of a broken society, describing the sense of loss for an industrious and industrial past. No wonder Trump’s message of hope and change resonated so loudly with these rust-belt blue-collar workers, who have seen their jobs exported to China or taken by immigrants.
Weeks of frustration and mounting hatred for the country explode in this damning indictment of the Californian enclave of Modesto:
“Two more hours I walk Modesto, this nowheresville, small town of nothing that still stretches ten meaningless miles. No bars, cafes or public spaces, Cars and shops and shops and cars. I’m the only human being left, an on-foot transport pervert. Drifts of leaves line the gutters of cracked concrete. Overhead are pepper trees, dropping peppercorns of bright green and pink to grind beneath the burrs of my boots, crumbling in a storm of colour, spice, scent. Blow me, but Nature created pink and green peppercorns while Mankind was creating Modesto.”
You may not agree with Sayarer’s politics, or with his observations. But a short while later, Donald Trump is living in the White House and spewing out Executive Orders. I wonder what Julian would see if he repeated his journey in 4 years time….
Please wait...
