Billy Connolly's Tracks Across America

Billy Connolly has spent over half his life in America, but apart from seeing the inside of a few airports and a fair number of cities, he hasn’t seen much of the country. In this journey, he is letting the train take the strain. This mammoth journey from Chicago to New York, via Seattle, south the California and heads east through Texas is really the long way round; but it is a journey aiming to discover more of its backyard and people. He meets and greets the real people of America, visits a tent city caring for homeless people, tastes the Juicy Lucy, meets some genuine hobos, goes to a cannabis farm and learns the secrets behind a murder scene.

Connolly is an irrepressible wanderer, and this book is no different to his others. Not show more only is he quite philosophical now, he is a great people person too, talking and befriending the people he meets along his route is second nature to him. It is written in his whimsical chatty style and makes for fairly easy reading. Good companion to the TV series, which I am now going to watch. show less

Scottish actor-comedian Billy Connolly takes a trip across America on The Sunset Express. He makes quick work of big cities like Chicago, Minneapolis, and Baltimore but lingers in in the more out-of-the-way, quirky locations, relishing his time with the unusual people and places that he runs across. One example: Rayne, Louisiana, the Frog Capital of the World. They used to supply frog legs for worldwide consumption; now the industry supplies specimens for biology classes. Connolly was made an honorary citizen, given the keys to Rayne, judges the Frog Queen competition (based on the most originally and best dressed frog), and participates in a frog jumping race. Whether talking to the woman who held the key to the nuclear red button in show more the 1960s, visiting a pop art museum where the creations appear on toilet seats, or getting fitted for custom design cowboy boots, the personable Connolly manages to to wheedle great personal stories and local histories out of his companions. A light and entertaining read. show less

Entertaining recount of train journey from Chicago to New york via the west coast with an introduction to some interesting towns and people with unusual hobbies. As a non American there was a missed opportunity for more photos of the countryside through which they travelled. Lots of photos of Billy though.