I'm Gilbert Cruz, editor of the New York Times book review, and this is the book review podcast.

It is peak days of summer here.

It's great for those of you who love the heat.

It's great for those of you who love the feel of sun on your skin, the grit

of sand between your toes, the buzz of power boats on the lake. However, it's also great for

those of us who love to take a road trip. I have Dwight Garner, Alexandra Jacobs, and Jenzelai,

staff critics for the book review, here today with me to talk about their latest project,

looking at books across multiple decades. This one focused on the great road trip books since

Jack Kerouac's on the road. As they write in their intro, summer is the season for road trips

for tapping into that broad and baked-in American narrative of adventure and

individualism.

Dwight Garner, welcome back.

Hey, Gilbert.

Glad to be here.

Alexandra, hello once again.

Hi, Gilbert.

Jen, it's always a pleasure.

Thank you, Gilbert.

Let us start with briefly on the road. Let's get out of the way. There's a book I read once in college, never again, though when I was an idiot in my 20s, I thought the quote, the only people for me are the mad ones, et cetera, et cetera. I thought that was the most romantic and best quote ever. I didn't know anything about life. Dwight, tell me about on the road. Oh, Gilbert, I'm such an old cliche. The Gen X, Dwight Gardner. This book changed my life and it changed my life to the extent that, A, it sent me out there into the world myself, hitchhiking, traveling, trying to find a different place. I was a suburban kid who wanted it out in this book helped get me out. But it also turned me into a reader in a way, A, because I loved it, B, because it sent me in search of all these beat writers,

who then sent me in search of all these 60s characters, the Jim Carrels and the Velvet Underground and this whole world that this book cracked open for me. I'm so glad I found it when I did. Jen, not a fan. I have to say, Dwight, when hearing you talk about it, now I'm like,

oh, I should try again to read it. I've never actually finished it. I feel like it's one of those

experiences for me that I just felt pretty early on in the book that I can't get into the voice,

...