Drive Thru America (ISBN 0864425066)

Amazon.com Review:
When Sean Condon and his laconic pal David decide to take a drive, they mean serious business. In their first book, Sean & David's Long Drive, the two Aussies drove across their native land, with Condon recording the experience in a hip, irreverent riff that was both perceptive and downright hilarious. In Sean & David's Drive Thru America, they give the U.S. the same treatment. Starting with Sean's impersonation of a blind man on the flight from Australia to Montreal--just in case he got stuck with a boring seatmate (he didn't)--and ending with Sean's agreement to deliver a letter to Seattle for a mysterious blind man claiming to have sold his corneas, this automobile odyssey is packed full of the strange and the unexpected. As they travel from East Coast to West, Sean and David test out the perimeters of the American popular culture they ingested through imported television shows, films, and music. Imagined encounters with beat poets, real encounters with Texas good ole boys, and a chronicle of the journey framed as a series of scenes in a movie script all contribute to this loopy, entertaining account of how two Australian guys spent their summer vacation.

Cliché Thru America:
I loved Condon's third book (My 'Dam Life), so it seemed natural to pick up a copy of his account of a US cross-country road trip to read while I embarked on the same trip in reverse. Unfortunately, this earlier effort from Condon t is much more labored and stale than his account of three years living in Amsterdam. After quitting his advertising job, he and an artist friend fly from their native Australia to Canada and cross from Montreal into the US to embark on that most mythic of journeys: the cross-country road trip. Passing through places like NYC, DC, Virginia, Nashville, Mississippi, New Orleans, Texas, Santa Fe, Vegas, LA, SF, and finally flying up to Seattle, they attempt to imbibe a campy version of the American experience. The observations on America are only very occasionally insightful-most of the time Condon is too busy reworking cliché into punch line to do any real observing. The reason My 'Dam Life was so good is that Condon's scattershot one-liners are mixed into a real narrative about trying to make a new life in a foreign city. Here there is simply a choppy travel journal with joke after joke, many of which aren't that funny. There are so many aspects of America that deserve sending up, it's a shame Condon doesn't reach beyond the obvious targets. Which is not to say there aren't some really funny moments or episodes, just that they are few and far between. It also doesn't help that he draws no distinction between events that really happened on his trip, and events that he makes up partially or entirely. For the true American road experience, rent Monte Hellman's classic film Two Lane Blacktop.

It's funny, because it's true?:
This book was recommended to me with the notion that it was about two Australians who loved American pop culture so much that they decided to drive through the United States themselves and see what it was all about. Well, that's exactly what "Drive Through America" is... a long "Simpsons" episode in which much wackiness ensues and in which, surprisingly, there are a couple of unexpectedly emotional encounters. Author Condon claims to have quit his advertising job in early 1996, and to have used the ensuing free time to drive from New York to San Francisco the long way around. Along for the ride is friend O'Brien, who provides the illustrations and plays the laconic sidekick. Weird things happen to the pair: their rental car is struck by lightning, they travel to the deep South to return a lost bible found on a New York City subway train, and they have a gun-toting encounter on a Hollywood movie shoot. How much of this actually happened is, of course, debatable. For a hint of what the drive through America was really like, check out the acknowledgements, which paint a different picture as to where they stayed and what they saw. So, fine, this is not a straight travelogue but mostly an extended riff on what it's like to walk into the land of all those TV sitcoms and classic movies. The pop culture jokes are all over the place, some of them quite subtle: the "Clockwork Orange" gag (relating to the serial theft of hotel TV remote controls) may have been the best part of the book for me. There's also just a smidgen of social commentary (why does Condon, in the USA, feel he has to buy a gun?). For the most part, the jokes and the exaggerated episodes are enough to make "Drive Through America" a fast, fun read. Perhaps after this you'll want to rent your own car, find your own wise, quiet sidekick, and do it all again on your own.

Sorry, where? Galveston. Oh, Galveston.:
I first read an excerpt from this book in the magazine Trips, which I can't seem to find anywhere these days. The excerpt was of the drive through northern Arizona, and I laughed and laughed. I'd remember lines from the article throughout the following days and laugh while driving to work, sitting in meetings, etc. People thought I was crazy. Then I moved from my apartment into a house, and lost the Trips magazine. I was crushed to lose what was arguably the funniest piece of literature (?) I ever read. Then, from the deepest recesses of my brain, I remembered the author's name - Sean Condon. I searched amazon.com and discovered Drive Thru America, the book my beloved Trips magazine excerpt came from. I bought it immediately - I paid for overnight shipping - stayed home from work the next day to receive the book as early as possible, and read it straight through in a few hours. I've read it probably 30 times since then, and every time it remains as hilarious, insightful and weird as the first read. Buy it - you'll like it.

Seanie at his best!:
Or maybe it is because the subject area is so close to my heart. Condon disproves the myth that the second book you write is the 'difficult' one. We meet Sean and David on the plane from Australia and leave them there at the end. In between we travel through 2 countries and umpteen states with the gagster Sean and quiet, thoughtful David. I loved this book; I loved the fractured writing style and I loved the offbeat overly-descriptive descriptions of whatever caugt Condon's eye.

I love this book!:
I happened upon this book five years ago when I was working at a major bookstore. I was unfortunately in the middle of a "pulldown," where I had to scan all of the books, and if my handheld scanner directed me to do so, I had to rip the cover off the book and throw it in a cardboard box. Ouch. Well, this book was slated to be pulled down, but something made me rescue it from its faceless fate. Am I ever glad I did! Chock-full of sarcasm, self-deprication, and sinus problems, this book proved to be a hilarious read. The author's sense of humor sometimes makes me laugh the same way J.D. Salinger's Holden Caufield makes me laugh: in an awkward, slightly hysterical way. Yes, for those who have read the book, I know the book contains _Catcher in the Rye_ references. At any rate, I'm not going to pretend I "get" it all... my generalized summary is that it's the story of two Australian men (firmly entrenched in generation-X and loving it) who take a drive through America, comparing and contrasting it with the pre-conceived notions their beloved pop culture has bestowed on them. But really, I don't worry too much about it. I suspend my disbelief of the goofy events and just enjoy Condon's sense of humor. I guess one analytical point I can make is this: even though Condon is saracastic and critical in some ways, you can feel his affection for America coming through. Compared to the works of the latest batch of snide young hipsters, _Drive Thru America_ is refreshing. A little bit of naughty fun without being nasty. Kudos to you, Sean!