Peter Jenkins (1) (1951–)

I can't recall when my budding obsession with taking long walks first took hold, but I'm sure Peter Jenkins' A Walk Across America had something to do with it.

In addition to normal recreational hikes, I used to plan odd outings like 20+ mile hikes around my town, and once, while living away for a while, I took a bus 13 miles to the end of its route just to walk back. My apartment while I was at college was two miles away and I would walk every day. For my first job I lived 10 miles away and show more I walked the first 4 miles and took the bus for the rest. My sister and I once planned to walk the entire Appalachian Trail, and while my own life got busy as life tends to, she actually went and did it. Yes, she hiked the 2,000+ mile trail and it took her 5 months.

Anyway, this is Peter Jenkins debut account of his many adventures across America and throughout the world. I haven't read his other books with the exception of The Walk West, which completes his literal walk across America. Forget that one though. This one is much better. It's a journey of a man, accompanied by his forever companion Cooper, seeking something more in this life, to expand his horizons and open his eyes. The people he meets and the lessons learned have undeniably defined him. show less

I couldn't continue the annual re-read of The Mists of Avalon, because I lent the book to Shannon. Feeling lost and aimless, reading-wise, I turned to my favorite genre: the Travel Book. During my Genre Fiction class I tried to figure out what my genre of choice would be...and I realized that I've almost never read a travel book that I didn't like. I absolutely adore them. Maps, cool people, the dreams I have about taking the trips they've taken...it's all good.

A Walk Across America is the show more story of disillusioned Peter Jenkins, just graduated with an Art Major from a small college in New York state in 1973. His marriage falls apart (wierd - the same thing that spurred William Least Heat-Moon's Blue Highways...apparently it's a powerful trigger to travel), he feels spiritually drained, and like much of his generation, he doesn't trust the mumbo-jumbo from The Man about the rest of the world...so he sets off to see it for himself. His compainion is his best buddy, his forever friend, his canine soul-mate Cooper Half-Malamute. This beautiful, happy dog follows him everywhere and gives him friendship while on his sometimes-lonely quest.

He keeps running out of money and needs to stop a few times to work. I think that's awesome - I've read a lot of travel books and I'm always envious that people can save up and then take the one big trip without having to worry (much) about how they'er going to finance it. He works as a farmer, a sharecropper, at a sawmill, and at a seminary. He lives with a black family in a racially-divided and volitile area of Tennessee, in a shack on top of a mountain in Virginia, on The Farm, a commune in Tennessee, and with other random nice people along the way. In that respect, his journey seemed less like a trip and more like a way of life. I liked that a lot.

He does have a few problems - nearly dying of influenza while stuck in a cave on the Appalacian trail in the middle of winter, being run out of town because the townspeople think he's a drug dealer (damn hippie!), and the saddest thing of all...It's no secret to the reader that Cooper somehow dies during the journey. It mentions it on the back of the book and there is a color picture of Peter lowering Cooper into his grave in the beginning of the book. I knew it was coming, I tried to prepare myself for it...but when it happened, I cried and cried. It's obvious that Peter loved Cooper so much and was so dependent on him: I knew that his heart must have just broken and it was hard for me to read about.

His writing style is casual and converastional. He's brave but not stupid, observant but not to the point of waxing poetic, very honest about his prejudices and very willing to make the efforts to challenge them and overcome them. I loved this book and will probably revisit it again in the future (but I might skip over the parts about the death of Cooper). show less

A writer known for a book about a post-college Walk Across America in the 1970s takes his family (2nd wife and 4 of six kids) to Seward AK to spend a year living there and experiencing The Last Frontier. This is a good book for the Outsider wanting to understand the 49th state and what Alaska is to Alaskans. Jenkins authorial reputation gets him into good places, and he writes with “first time eyes” and an experienced observer’s perceptions about what makes Alaskans different from the show more Americans to the south, and about the beauty and dangerous wildness of the place itself. Memorable insifghts into: Jeff King, the musher who is a multi-time winner of the Iditarod, “TheLast Great Race,” of dogsled teams from Anchorage to Nome; Eric the vet, who turned out not to be a psychopath after all, and who lives –well and with wise independence - deep in the interior, where on your own really is just that; about Eleanor Hornblower, Boston socialite and daughter of Harry Hornblower who founded Plimoth plantation – who gave that world up to become the postmaster of Unalakleet , married to a handsome Inupiat son of Unalakleet; of Hobo Jim, Alsaka’s legendary folk entertainer, who sang the life he also lived; of a fishing trip with Inupiat, Haida, and Yupik leaders, who measured him as much as the fishing lines; an Alaska Wildife Management officer in Seward who brings the dangers of bears in the woods and towns vividly to life; the people of Seward, writ large, and strange, and tough, and themselves, and daughter Rebekah,the beloved one, torn between finding herself and being her dad. The country –its size,beauty, dangers, moods, spaces, weathers, differences - is the star of this book. This book convinces me I will only bounce off Alaska on my first visit. But I will go as a better observer, understanding why I am necessary, but invisible. show less

I've a fondness for adventure books and Peter Jenkins always delivers. His sense of adventure is alive and well and his ability to introduce his readers to the people he encounters on his journeys is unique and refreshing.