Michael Karl Witzel

Strange 66 by Michael Karl Witzel
Myth, Mystery, Mayhem, and Other Weirdness on Route 66

As a child my mother would pack the suitcases. Dad would put the suitcases on the top of the car. A mattress was put into the back of the station wagon and then usually mom would start the long trek from Des Moines, Iowa to Glendale, California to see her parents. Dad would usually fly out to join us later and we often drove back to the Midwest as a family. Those trips were magical and most of the time show more Route 66 made up the greatest portion of the trip. We stopped at night and along the way of there were sites to see sometimes detouring to see a park someone thought was worth our young eyes seeing – one was the petrified forest.

Anyway, this book brought back many memories though the ones I have were not really found in the book – not many of them anyway. A couple that were happened to be the MacDonald’s Arch spanning the highway…I do believe we stopped to eat there at one time AND the Pasadena Suicide Bridge we used to cross when we lived in Eagle Rock and would head over to Pasadena. I enjoyed learning about the man who was instrumental in the building of Route 66 and why it was so very important as the automobile replaced horses for transportation. I learned of killers, mysterious happenings, haunted buildings, ghostly hauntings, monuments, artistic endeavors, historic eating establishments, interesting buildings, musical anecdotes…and so much more. I had fun looking at the beautiful photos and came away thinking that at some point in time I would love to travel Route 66 again and take this book along with me to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Voyageur Press for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars show less

The excellent contemporary and historic photographs are the highlight of this book that purports to tell us about the "creepy, seedy, and sometimes JUST PLAIN WEIRD" side of Route 66. While there are a few seedy parts - Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde, and some murders - much of the book is just another celebration of the things to be seen along the route, such as a few surviving classic restaurants and some old highway towns such as Winslow, Arizona. At times, the book has a bit of a random show more nature to it; the connection of some of what the author writes about to Route 66 is a bit tenuous. Something happens to be nearby, so that is good enough. Still, this is fun to read, despite a few passages of purple prose. And, to its credit, the book taught me at least one thing: the US Government seriously considered and spent 15 years testing out the idea of using nuclear bombs to make it easier to build roads though mountains! show less

Many nice photos of vintage soda pop advertising in this coffee-table book. The text, however, is marred by an aggravatingly triumphalist historical view when discussing the development of the soft drink industry, which denies the influence of advertising and corporations in shaping these common products we are surrounded by today.

Disappointing overall, sometimes even annoying to read. Copiously illustrated, but the pictures have no connection to the text on the pages where they appear (other than being diners). When the writer was discussing architectural and design details, it would have been useful to see examples, instead of just more pictures of diners. The final chapter, on "Diners Enter the New Millennium" actually made me start to dislike diners, it was so incredibly tacky.