In the summer of 2002, Brendan Tibbet, a filmmaker whose luck has run
low, takes his ten-year-old son Brenlyn on a raucous road trip across
America. Following a 1930s travel guide Brendan purchased at a yard
sale, the two-week trek from LA to New Hampshire covers 16 states,
hitting the iconic stops along the way, Yosemite, the Great Salt Lake,
Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, replete
with wild exploits both hilarious and perilous, but it's the interior
journey that is enlightening, deeply poignant and life-changing.
Brendan assures the boy that each state will be an adventure, and on the
second day proves it, seeing the kid washed away in fast-moving rapids,
then foolishly putting them both in danger by refusing to back down to
the massive black bear invading their campsite. That's Brendan,
impetuous and foolhardy, inciting trouble wherever he goes, a man with
demons and bubbling angst. But neither of those missteps, or the many
and scarier ones to follow, can begin to compare to the threatening
storm cloud hanging over the expedition: the father's struggle to find
the perfect, worst time to reveal to his son the news that will break
his heart and affect everything to follow.
Ernest Thompson's debut novel is a skillful, magical piece of
20th-century fin de siècle writing depicting a United States that, even
in the aftermath of 9-11, seems almost innocent contrasted to the
horrors and divisions, racism and rage challenging us now. The Book of
Maps, with its powerful father-son relationship and one man's
relentless albeit unintentional quest to evolve into the better angel we
all aspire to be, will capture the imagination of readers and leave them
wanting to relive this mad, irresistibly moving, ridiculously funny,
reflective and inspiring cross-country odyssey again and again.
