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Rolling Nowhere | 
 enlarge | Creator: Ted Conover
Publisher: Brilliance Audio on MP3-CD
Category: Book
Buy New: $24.95
New (3) Used (1) from $24.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 4971658
Format: Audiobook, Mp3 Audio, Unabridged
Media: MP3 CD
Edition: MP3 Una
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 159600603X
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9781596006034
ASIN: 159600603X
Publication Date: October 25, 2005
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
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Product Description
"I crouched quietly in the patch of tall weeds. Around me fell the shadow of the viaduct that carried a highway over the railroad yards. From the edge of the yards, I squinted as I watched the railroad cars being switched from track to track. Cars and trucks were rolling over the viaduct, but what occupied my attention was the dark, cool corridor underneath it, where I hoped to intercept my train."
Riding the rails, Ted Conover tasted the life of a tramp with companions like Pistol Pete, BB, and Sheba Sheila Sheils. From them he learned survival skills - how to "read" a freight train, scavenge for food and clothing, avoid the railroad "bulls." He was initiated into the customs of their unique, shadowy society - men and women bound together by a mutual bond of failure, camaraderie, and distrust.
Sixty-five freight trains, 12,000 miles, and fifteen states later, Conover chronicles his impressions of their lives in this fascinating piece of first-hand reporting that becomes a thoughtful story of self-discovery.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Outstanding Ethnographic Debut June 4, 2008
There's a certain kind of journalism/travel writing/ethnography that greatly appeals to me, in which the author immerses themselves in a culture or subculture that I find fascinating but have no desire to visit myself. This book is exactly in that vein, as Conover took a break in 1980 from attending Amherst College to ride freight trains as a hobo. I found his experience compelling enough to later check to see if he had written anything else, and only then realized that the naive 20-year-old who rode the rails grew up and spent a year as a prison guard as research for his critically acclaimed book Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing.
As a product of a nice upper middle-class family and a student at a prestigious liberal arts college, he had to undergo a physical and psychological transformation to embark on his trip. And he began his hobo journey with the vague sense that riding the rails would both tell him something about America and bring meaning to his anthropology classes. One of the common pitfalls of such experience journalism is that the author has a somewhat silly romantic notion as to what awaits him. Fortunately, while Conover was somewhat naive, he did enough background reading to have realistic expectations about what he'd encounter.
It's fascinating to watch him dive into the hobo way of life, picking up the tips and tricks that sustain the mostly male subculture. He runs the gamut, from literally jumping on and off moving trains, to spending nights in missions, dumpster-diving food, working welfare systems for food stamps, giving blood for money, calculating the cheapest way to get drunk, setting up camp in hobo "jungles," working in the fields as a day laborer, and much much more. Along the way, his simple and clear writing conveys how he shed his notions of what to expect along the way.
While he's generally sympathetic to the hardships endured by many of the people he meets, he's also honest enough to let their stories speak for themselves. And while some are certainly driven to the nomadic life by their economic circumstances, the hobo life seems to attract a certain type of man who has trouble living within the norms of society and feels the need for freedom from these norms. This psychological aspect of the hobo life is one area where Conover left me wishing for a little deeper insight into the people he meets. He does, however, spend a good amount of time grappling with other aspects of their psychology, especially the instinctual distrust they have of anyone, even those they get to know well.
At the time of his trip, many people were surprised to know that freight-riding hobos still existed and had assumed the practice was long dead. Some 25+ years after his trip, that assumption seems likely to be more on target, if for no other reason than the post-9/11 tightening of all forms transportation security.
Livin' with Hobos, I liked it. August 1, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Recently I developed an interest in freight hoppin' and the Hobo lifestyle and I began to look around for books to read. Out of the few I found here on amazon I'm glad I choose Conover's adventure.
The meat of the book consist of a young Conover traveling across the west by freight meeting tramps (as they like to refer to themselves as, rather than "Hobo") He meets a variety of different individuals, and quickly learns tramp etiquette. He also learns how to survive off the system by using "Sally's" (Salvation Army) and "Willy's" (GoodWill) along with the missions and the availability of food stamps (Which most of the other tramps use to buy alcohol with)
On one occasion he finds himself in an awkward position and is unfairly jailed because of his unruly hobo appearance. He remarks had he been neatly dressed he would of never encountered this problem. This really starts to give him an insight into the disadvantages hobos have with the law.
I used to think of the rails as a romantic place to be. The sights from the trains, the freedom, and the adventure, but Conover's journey suggest slightly otherwise. Romantic as they may seem, the rails are a dangerous place to be...other tramps, bulls, kids throwing rocks, etc. After you've been riding them for a while you're hardened and the romanticism slowly dissolves away when you're fighting to survive.
He wrote this in the late 80s as well. I imagine to hop a train these days, in 2007, would be close to suicide with the abundance of terrorism laws. It'd be interesting to see how the Hobo population has changed since then though.
An adventure on the rails February 20, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Ted Conover is good at immersing himself in the subject on which he is writing, whether it be the world of illegal immigration in Coyotes, or that of prison guards in Newjack. In this work he immerses himself in the world of hobos. It's one of his earlier works, and it's obvious that his style had not yet matured as it did in later works such as Newjack. He takes the reader along as he goes from being a college student, to being a hobo. Along the way he both shares the stories of other hobos he encounters as well as some of the inernal struggles he experiences. This book is a worthwhile and enjoyable read.
 An eye-opener February 26, 2003
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Although twenty years isnce it was first published, the book has a timeless aspect that is quite moving; essentially, Rolling Nowhere is an indictment of how the most wealthy, powerful and materialistic nation in the history of human civilization treats those who have fallen through the cracks. As taken in and enthralled as I was by the author's experiences, I was in the end more saddened than anything alse.
 Interesting, yet.... September 12, 2002
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
This book is part of the "Vintage Departures" series, a group of travel books from unusual angles. Some examples are a book about gamblers and the gambling world, "back country" travel in the most remote parts of the world, inexperienced mountain climbers, and near poetry. This book tries to take a different look at our own country, as as seen through the eyes of a constant traveler, the railroad tramp. While it does indeed describe some of America, the author quickly loses focus on the aspect of seeing American through the eyes of the hobo to looking at hobo society itself. For the most part, he does this latter quite well, except where he finally intrudes and makes a bald statement of his opinion, and what he deems to be the reader's opinion, in the last page. Conover is refreshingly naive, in some ways, and not afraid to place his naiveté in what could be considered a work of autobiography. While I doubt someone could use this book as a manual for catching a ride on a rail, it does allow for enough detail to catch some understanding of the complexity and difficulties accompanied thereto. As a travel book, it's interesting and worth the time.
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