Synopses & Reviews
What begins as a road trip through America soon becomes a journey of discovery into themselves and into the heart of the next-door neighbour they thought they knew. For
Wayne Grady, the thrill of landscape and history is tempered by memories of racism and his own family roots.
Merilyn Simonds, her ear tuned for the offbeat, finds curious echoes of the ex-pat promised land she grew up with. Together they travel against the tide of American history, following in the literary tire tracks of John Steinbeck, William Least Heat Moon, and Francis Trollope.
Grady and Simonds experience the splendors of the Mojave Desert, the Grand Canyon, the Mississippi River, and the bayous of Louisiana and the Outer Banks and contemplate the impact of geography on culture and of culture on landscape. They observe America from the outside, yet feel strangely at home.
Part travelogue, part exploration, part mid-winter love story told with wit and acuity by one of Canadas most engaging literary couples, Breakfast at the Exit Cafe is a journey into the reality behind the cultural myth that is America.
Review
"Like the great travel writers before them, Grady and Simonds entertain and enlighten in a foreign yet familiar worlda brilliant road trip I didnt want to end."Joseph Boyden, author of
Three Day Road"Grady and Simonds bring their well-honed cultural and literary sensibilities to bear on a revealing road trip"Ronald Wright, author of What is America?
the narrative in Breakfast at the Exit Cafe flows as easily as a new car on an empty highway”Globe and Mail Top 100 for 2010
Synopsis
Breakfast at the Exit Café begins as a personal story, told in alternating voices by two veteran writer/travelers, of a road trip from British Columbia around the rim of the United States. For Grady, whose forebears were slaves who came to Canada in the 1870s, it becomes a journey through fear of racism and violence into his own family roots in the American Deep South. For Simonds, who grew up a lonely Canadian in the American School of Campinas, Brizil, it becomes a journey into the heart of the ex-pat promised land, the nation of the American Dream.
As Grady and Simonds travel against the tide of American History, they experience the splendors of the Mojave Desert, the Grand Canyon, the Mississippi River, and the bayous of Louisiana and the Outer Banks and contemplate the impact of geography on culture and of culture on landscape. They observe America from the outside, yet feel strangely at home.
As serendipitous as the trip itself, Breakfast at the Exit Café is part travelogue, part exploration, part mid-winter love story, told with wit and acuity and frequent side trips into fascinating nooks of history, geography, and literature.
About the Author
Wayne Grady is one of Canada's finest science writers and a Governor General's Award-winning translator. He has authored eleven books of nonfiction, translated fourteen novels, and edited more than a dozen anthologies of short stories and creative nonfiction.
Merilyn Simonds is the author of fourteen books, including the novel The Holding, named a New York Times Editor's Choice, as well as the acclaimed works of literary nonfiction The Lion in the Room Next Door and The Convict Lover, a finalist for the Governor General's Award.
Table of Contents
Preface 1
1 / Megalopolis, usa 3
2 / Astoria 28
3 / Highway 101 50
4 / Eureka! California 68
5 / Route 66 85
6 / Grand Canyon, Arizona 105
7 / The Marriage Road 130
8 / Escalante, Utah 153
9 / El Camino Real 177
10 / Jefferson, Texas 207
11 / Selmalabama 233
12 / Athens, Georgia 260
13 / The Outer Banks 282
14 / The Exit Cafe 307
Acknowledgements 317