Routes of Man

Routes of Man: How Roads are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today
By Ted Conover
Alfred A. Knopf. 2010. 333 pgs.

Routes of Man is a collection of essays describing the author’s adventures on highways in Peru, East Africa, the West Bank, the Himalayas (a frozen river is the local highway), China and Nigeria. Conover is an adventurous and amiable guide, venturing where most of us would never dare. Every where he goes he makes connections and travels the roads with people who use them daily: truckers, ambulance drivers, commuters and (in China) a driving club. He describes and discovers but never prescribes or pontificates. Conover is an interesting and ironic host.

The subtitle might lead you to think the book is a cohesive commentary on roads and their impact, but it is not. Some of the essays previously appeared in National Geographic and their only connection is that Conover was the traveler with the audacity to make the road trips happen. But the places he chose are all fascinating and very, very far from the interstate highways we travel. Previous road trips have also yielded books by Conover: Rolling Nowhere and Coyotes. SH