Publisher's Synopsis
In these intimate conversations, columnist Darrell Norman opens his heart and that of his readers. He takes us from a coal mining camp in Alabama to the Alcan Highway at 45 below and Boris Pasternak's grave in Russia. We huddle with him in the backend of an Air Force recon searching for a crew of his mates lost in the Bering Sea. We row with him across a lake in Finland on the day Elvis died. We sing with him as he celebrates the natural world parading outside his window. We dig with him through the remains of homes and lives left by deadly tornadoes and rejoice with him in his unabashed love affair with his vintage VW bus, Valentina. We share his reverence for the written word and his literary heroes, including E.B. White, Ernie Pyle, Joan Didion, William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway. We ramble with him among the ruins of gas stations and tourist courts along U.S. Highway 11, the road that once took a southern boy north to New York. The most consistent feature of this varied collection is the author's voice. His easy manner always conveys warmth, affection and respect for the intelligence of his readers, and we feel good in his company.
