Riding Toward Everywhere

By William T. Vollmann

Vollmann is a relentlessly curious, endlessly sensitive, and unequivocally adventurous examiner of human existence. He has investigated the causes and symptoms of humanity's obsession with violence (Rising Up and Rising Down), taken a personal look into the hearts and minds of the world's poorest inhabitants (Poor People), and now turns his attentions to America itself, to our romanticizing of "freedom" and the ways in which we restrict the very freedoms we profess to admire.

For Riding Toward Everywhere, Vollmann himself takes to the rails. His main accomplice is Steve, a captivating fellow trainhopper who expertly accompanies him through the secretive waters of this particular way of life. Vollmann describes the thrill and terror of lying in a trainyard in the dark, avoiding the flickering flashlights of the railroad bulls; the shockingly, gorgeously wild scenery of the American West as seen from a grainer platform; the complicated considerations involved in trying to hop on and off a moving train. It's a dangerous, thrilling, evocative examination of this underground lifestyle, and it is, without a doubt, one of Vollmann's most hauntingly beautiful narratives.

Questioning anything and everything, subjecting both our national romance and our skepticism about hobo life to his finely tuned, analytical eye and the reality of what he actually sees, Vollmann carries on in the tradition of Huckleberry Finn, providing a moving portrait of this strikingly modern vision of the American dream.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Oct 13, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061847042

William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann is the author of seven novels, three collections of stories, and a seven-volume critique of violence, Rising Up and Rising Down. He is also the author of Poor People, a worldwide examination of poverty through the eyes of the impoverished themselves; Riding Toward Everywhere, an examination of the train-hopping hobo lifestyle; and Imperial, a panoramic look at one of the poorest areas in America. He has won the PEN Center USA West Award for Fiction, a Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize and a Whiting Writers' Award. His journalism and fiction have been published in The New Yorker, Esquire, Spin and Granta. Vollmann lives in Sacramento, California.

Reviews for Riding Toward Everywhere

[jonfaith · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Then through a vaginal cut in the red rock, our freight train pulled us up into the sky, with small pines on either side of the tracks, and the entire world was red like Bryce Canyon or Zion.

I am nearly sure I saw WTV and his family, a short while back in Atlanta, as we were preparing to fly to London. I didn't approach him but now I wonder if he was struggling with an interior urgency: I need to get out of here.

Not what I expected. Riding Toward Everywhere is less sociology than travel. Well, it is actually less travel than a memoir. The use of that term has to be inflated in this context, for this is really a long article for a periodical allowed to drift from its own momentum. Despite that, I found and allow what some may regard as padding. it is quite good at times. This isn't a history of riding the rails, but a few snapshots of its contemporary configuration larded with oral history a few dozen photographs.

[athurman-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5 stars would be closer, but I'll round up because we need more books like this that value freedom in America over "homeland security." Vollmann's elegy to trainhopping has plenty of sharp commentary and poetic self-reflection--with more meat, either facts or story or sustained characters, this could have been really great. But you won't find too many other middleaged literary geniuses doggedly pursuing the tedium and terror of catching freight trains these days, so my hat's off to him.

[slickdpdx · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Snapshots of a vanishing culture, written in a companionable Vollmann style. No writer is better at observing the world and conveying a perspective that is uniquely his own. But, the rants about airport security are silly and they read like any number of cranky letters to the local newspaper. The freedom Vollmann enjoys going everywhere doesn't have much to do with these impositions at the airport. I get his point, I suppose, but its certainly not the best contrast for the kind of freedom he is writing about. Furthermore, he confuses freedom and transgression. The problem-solving required to catch out, the uncertainty of success and the frisson provided by evading railroad bulls are the most substantial parts of his thrill and they are what heighten the rest of the experience. Otherwise, its just riding and looking at scenery. You could do that on the bus. Freedom and transgression are related, but they are also at odds. I'm pretty sure Vollmann wouldn't like a world without bulls any more than he'd like a world without poor people.

[phillund · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Vollmann is forever colorful and entertaining. He has a tremendous imagination. I have had a great time engaging in the contemporary artists of our time.

[iatethecloudsforyou · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

While certainly not the best read and certainly not a good insight into hobo culture or railroad culture or underground culture it still isnt boring. i read it. i didnt love it. wasnt moved by it, but wasnt upset i read it.borrow. dont buy though.

[alllgood · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I heard about this book from an interview with Vollmann. His description of the view framed by a boxcar opening reminded me of Jack London and Kerouac. I guess I had more expectations for the book because I was left unsatisfied. The romanticism of trainhopping was replaced by the reality of the hard lives of the people who don't do in voluntarily.What saved the book from getting 2 stars is the collection of photos at the end of it. It was worth waiting for. I recommend that you try to resist the urge to jump forward.

[chazzw_2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

As much as the reader may sense how glorious riding the rails, catching out on a freight train may be to William T. Vollmann, somehow he fails to really ignite the same awe and wonder in us. In me, at any rate. Frankly, the book is a rather ornery mess, sort of like a…..well, like a train wreck. It’s all over the lot, er, yard. Many of the times that Vollmann and his pal Steve hop a train, they don’t know where they’re going - except to the mythical “everywhere”. His writing resembles that lack of destination.Vollmann is really at his best here, when he’s quoting Kerouac, or Jack London, or Thoreau. That’s not enough to keep a good level of interest. Even the sixty or so black and white photographs that are placed at the rear of the book are mostly mediocre. What a disappointment.It’s clear that Vollmann is deeply troubled about the state and status of personal freedom in America. But we knew that. This book, sadly, adds nothing to our understanding.