http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-0708resourcefuljul08,1,7005601.story
"Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate: An Economist's Travelogue"
(Monthly Review Press, $15.95)
It isn't often that you come across a travel guide whose main theme is
inequality. But, then again, it isn't too often that travel guides are
written by economists. Thus, author Michael D. Yates visits some of the
most beautiful spots in the United States—Estes Park, Colo.; Jackson,
Wyo.; Moab, Utah—but with a different perspective in mind. His book is a
commentary on work and inequality, race and class in both small towns
and big cities. In 2001, Yates took early retirement from his teaching
position and, along with his wife, moved around the country on what
became a five-year journey, working at Yellowstone one summer as a hotel
desk clerk, before moving to Manhattan, then on to Miami Beach,
Portland, Ore., and then embarking on a four-month road trip that took
them to California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming,
Montana, Idaho, Washington and back to Oregon. On their road trips, they
stayed at cheap motels and cooked their own meals on a hot plate (hence
the title). Another theme is what Yates calls the destruction of the
natural world. "Two of the most noticeable features of the American
landscape," he writes, "are its growing uniformity and our disregard for
beauty. With few exceptions, one small or medium-sized town could be
substituted for another: highways leading into and out of town clogged
with traffic and crawling with strip malls, the same fast-food
restaurants and stores everywhere." This is an endlessly fascinating and
provocative book—certainly a unique one—that is passionate and often
quite angry. You will learn things here that you didn't know and
probably don't want to know, as Yates, filtered through his own
experiences, describes a country of paupers and millionaires living side
by side and yet complete strangers to one another. A veritable eye
opener. (ISBN: 978-1-58367-143-6)
