In the year preceding the World Trade Center terrorist attack, Aaron James hit the road in a 37-year-old Ford pickup to shed his hometown blues and search for his better self. With a somewhat nebulous itinerary, and a self-made promise to journal his thoughts, James describes the endeavor as, "... little more than the self-righteous ramblings of a delusional egoist, whose main justification in life is to seek drama and adventure where none exists."
But drama in the form of a dysfunctional family that serves as his greatest motivation for heeding the highway call keeps tugging him back, albeit grudgingly. Upon his initial departure he bids what he suspects will be a final farewell to his stepmother and grandmother, both of whom suffer poor health, yet the only two only positive influences from his family life. He says goodbye to his abusive birth mother, an alcoholic brother, an inattentive father and a brother, although unbeknownst to James at the time, would turn out to be hiding a serious crack cocaine addiction.
I found myself envious of the adventure James had planned, reminiscing about Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a philosophical travelogue that intrigued me decades ago. James would park his pickup under a tree, work on it a little and fall asleep in the cab after expounding on the greater mysteries of life, higher powers, politics of the day and consumerist society. Who hasn't dreamed of ditching one's day to day drudgery and crisscrossing the country in search of adventure, romance and a contemplative life?
James isn't just handy with a wrench, his marketable skills land him various jobs in locales from Springfield, Missouri to Padre Island, Texas. Times aren't so great in Orlando, however, where he plans to settle for awhile and grow a relationship with his young adult daughter from a past failed marriage.
After the 911 tragedy calls him to New York. A licensed architect, James patents a design for a 2100 ft. tall "Millennium Tower" skyscraper to replace the fallen World Trade Center structures. Also in his plans, is an idea he’s carried throughout the text for a "MegaCity," something he describes as a ... self-contained and self-sufficient cube designed to provide living and work space for one million people." James is not just a designer of structures, he envisions a more functional society.
Those ideas I will leave for the reader to explore, but I will attest to finding little on which to disagree with the author on mankind yielding to a higher calling. In his "Unification Theory" he offers hope and writes, "The one fact which has remained constant over the millennia is that on the inside we are all the same. We all crave peace and the freedom to pursue a passionate and meaningful existence."
The book's finale brings things up to date in the age of Trump. James reveals the fate of the surviving family members, and alludes to the adventures he embarked upon after the two-decade-old narrative, including finally making it to the Grand Canyon and an Amtrak trip to Winslow, Arizona (where we can only presume he stood on a corner.) Even an update on his beloved !962 Ford pickup is included. I can only hope that I'll have the opportunity to enjoy those tales as well some day.
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