The Walk West: A Walk Across America 2 | Peter Jenkins, Barbara Jenkins

The Walk West: A Walk Across America 2 | Peter Jenkins, Barbara Jenkins | good, not as good, but good

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The Walk West: A W...

	The Walk West: A Walk Across America 2 Peter Jenkins, Barbara Jenkins William Morrow & Company, 1981 - 349 pages average customer review:based on 15 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Beginning in New Orleans, Peter Jenkins continues his walk across America--with his bride Barbara. Lavishly illustrated with 48 pages of full-color and black-and-white photos, here is the story of the journey that captured a nation's heart, now available for the first time in trade paperback.

Great adventure

I read 'A Walk Across America' and 'The Walk West' a number of years ago. Both proved to be exciting. I liked 'The Walk West' best since it covered areas I have visited. I began staying at Vickers Ranch at Lake City Colorado due to this book. I took my book with me my first visit and had Perk Vickers and his wife autograph it for me. Perk is getting up in age but was still alive the last time I heard. Sad thing is the ranch is up for sale. Time changes things I guess.

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good, not as good, but good

I love the first one,(walk accross America) this is the sequel. not as good - but if you read the first one - you have to read this one!! dontcha wanna see how it all comes out?!! how he makes it to the coast? you MUST!!

the second leg of the journey, Peter is not alone. he met and married Barbara, and she goes with him on this part of the trip.

ssshhhhhh, i'll tell you a secret - Peter was my hero (right next to Robin Graham) until i wrote a letter to him and Barbara, right after i read this. she wrote me back and - low and behold - they split up. so, being a woman, i have to side with her - that rat!! men!! plus she sent me a book that she just wrote. how cool is that?!!!

my man, Norman, once again, is laughing at me - he thinks i'm a nut! lol

ok, good read. good adventure. you must own it!!! why not buy it from one of the nice sellers that sell used copies, save some money and get the book!! OK? thank you.

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A Walk Northwest

I read this book almost 30 years after the original walk. I read it because I had read the first book by Jenkins, A Walk Across America, and wanted to see how his walk across the rest of the country with a new wife turned out.

No doubt this was a good book, but it was good because Jenkins had a lot of help from his wife and friends writing this. He is a better photographer than he is a writer. Half of this book was about his painful miles across Louisiana and Texas and I couldn't wait for the rest of the country, especially Colorado, to begin. What he witnessed in Louisiana and Texas 30 years ago are things (minus any voodoo ladies) I have experienced in those two states 30 years later. Some things just don't change and this book is proof of that.

Had Jenkins done this walk 30 years later he would have had the internet, cable TV, cell phones and laptops to help him better plan his route. Some of the experiences along the route West are fine examples of what happens when you don't plan properly. Part of the enjoyment was experiencing this book vicariously back to the mid 1970s when such communicaton amenities like cell phone, internet and cable TV weren't available. I can only chuckle now.

I don't want to bash Jenkins, though. He broke through the stereotype rich Yankee hippie kid from Connecticutt and made something of himself: he wrote a book about 1970s Americans and their feelings in the post-Vietnam Era. And except for driving everywhere, something most writers prefer to do, he went there on foot, usually leaving his wife behind because she didn't walk as fast as she and he didn't care.

What did disturb me about this book is how little Peter wrote about his wife Barbara (unless something bad happened to her). This adventure across the country was, afterall, all about HIM and not THEM and when things didn't go his way, he'd lash at his wife. I will give him credit for at least admitting he has a temper and will push women around.

Sometimes Jenkin's egotism bothered me. He'd write about his winter in Lake City, CO and what he did with his friends there, but he rarely mentioned his wife. He did the same in Dallas when he stayed there for several months waiting tables at El Chico; he wrote about the people of Dallas but never mentioned what Barbara did in that time. Did she just stay home and keep his bed warm for him?

The book is easy to read because of Jenkin's simplistic writing style and sometimes overused cliches ("Rivers of sweat ran down my forehead!") Some of the better chapters are the ones written by Barbara, when she descibes peoples' souls rather than just describe peoples' physical features.

Still, despite its flaws, because this was the first book about a white man who walked across this country at a time when this country was trying to re-establish an identity post-Vietnam, it's a good read.

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I am glad it is over

I think I gave the first volume (A Walk Across America) a pretty generous review (I gave it 4 stars). I would really gave both 3.5 stars, so to balance, I will give this second volume 3 stars.

I think Peter Jenkins generally did a good, even excellent job at describing the people they met on their journey, he captured the conversations quite well. But the book is a bit unbalanced, with half of it devoted to one state (Texas), while toward the end it feels more hurried. Also it is obvious the Jenkinses have much less affection about the natural environment than they do about the people, their description of the landscape and scenery is usually a one-liner (the bluest sky I have ever seen! one step below heaven!) or as an afterthought, that is, if it is mentioned at all. But what really makes the book feel very dated and one-dimensional is the repeated mentioning of God, Bible and even direct quotations of the scripture (even the title of one chapter is taken from scripture), etc. I have nothing against people's beliefs and spirituality, but to reach a wider audience I think such mentioning should be used sparingly and judiciously. In the end, what could have been great books from an amazing journey that spanned some 5 years and 5,000 miles amounted to a lot of repetitions and tedium. I felt like I was reading a book from the 1870s, not the 1970s. I am glad I finished the book so I can move on to something more fresh.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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