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Staff Pick
Fascinating, funny, surprising, and insightful, The Long Haul is filled with great characters and first-rate storytelling. My husband, who used to drive trucks, also loved it, and says, "Murphy knows the game and avoids the trappings of the trucking myth, accepting the reality that during months of sometimes tedious driving, you can catch glimpses of unfiltered universal honesty and beauty." Recommended By Jill O., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
More than thirty years ago, Finn Murphy dropped out of college to become a long-haul trucker. Since then he's covered more than a million miles packing, loading, and hauling people's belongings all over America. Known by his trucker handle as U-Turn, he spends his days (and many of his nights) in a 53-foot eighteen-wheeler he calls Cassidy.
In The Long Haul, Murphy offers a trucker's-eye view of America on the move. Going far beyond the myth of the American road trip, he whisks readers down the I-95 Powerlane, across the Florida Everglades, in and out of the truck stops of the Midwest, and through the steep grades of the Rocky Mountains. As he crisscrosses the country, Murphy recounts with wit, candor, and charm the America he has seen change over the decades, from the hollowing-out of small towns to changing tastes in culture and home furnishings.
Some 40 million Americans move each year, and very few have any idea what they're getting into or the kind of person to whom they are relinquishing their worldly goods. The Long Haul is also a behind-the-scenes look at the moving industry, revealing what really happens when we call in "the movers."
Through it all, Murphy tells poignant, funny, and often haunting stories of the people he encounters on the job: a feisty hoarder in New Hampshire; a Virginia homeowner raging when Murphy's truck accidentally runs down a stand of trees; an ex-banker in Colorado who treats Finn and his crew with undisguised contempt; a widow who needs Murphy to bring her archeologist husband's remains and relics to a Navajo burial ceremony in New Mexico. These experiences inspire Finn's memorable reflections on work, class, and the bonds we form with the things we own and the places we live.
Brimming with personality and filled with great characters, The Long Haul is a resonant portrait of the enduring appeal of manual labor in the dark underbelly of the American Dream.
Review
"It seems strange that American letters has not produced a trucker-writer — until now. If you ever wonder about these American nomads, their lore, their lives crisscrossing this land, pick up this book." Ted Conover, author of Newjack
Review
"Like the best works of sociology, The Long Haul illuminates a ubiquitous but curiously overlooked segment of American life. But this is no mere empirical survey: Finn Murphy invites you into the air-cushioned cab of his eighteen-wheeler and along for a coast-to-coast ride that is trenchantly observed, wryly funny, and filled with human drama." Tom Vanderbilt, author of Traffic
Review
"Why defy your parents, step out into the world of work, and risk being crushed by it? Read The Long Haul and you will know why: there is a deep belly laugh that comes when you prevail. The book is funny and sad and wise, and it shows us the lives of people we depend on." Matthew B. Crawford, author of Shop Class as Soulcraft
Review
"The Long Haul comes at a politically relevant moment, with a pleasing balance of humor, wisdom and unvarnished insights into a way of life that makes the American way of life possible." Mark Vanhoenacker, best-selling author of Skyfaring
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About the Author
Finn Murphy grew up in Connecticut and now lives in Colorado. He started working as a long-haul trucker in 1980. The Long Haul is his first book.
Finn Murphy on PowellsBooks.Blog
I’ve been a long-haul truck driver off and on since 1980. Music is essential for the two-day, 878.6-mile slog on The Dime (Interstate 10) through Texas or the 1,800-mile trip from New York to Denver. Below is a sliver from my Texas road trip playlist. I’ve intentionally left out standards like...
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