ROAD FEVER: A High-Speed Travelogue

by Tim Cahill ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 28, 1991

Ripsnorting, tire-screeching blacktop meltdown as Cahill (A Wolverine is Eating My Leg, 1989, etc.) and a professional endurance-driver barrel their way in a pickup truck from Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic Circle in 23 days. Cahill, who specializes in writing about razor's-edge adventures, begins by laying the groundwork, telling how he got GM to donate a Sierra truck and the Guinness Book of World Records people to certify the event. He whips down to Ushuaia, Argentina (home of the ""last road sign in the world""), to scout out the starting gate; to London to confer with Guinness bigwigs; to Canada to hatch plans with co-driver Garry Sower-by. On this last leg, a security expert puts the two adventurers through a quick course in travel survival. Wear a Kevlar vest, the team is told; watch out for ""drug-and-rob"" scares, and in a fight always ""go for the eyes."" Finally the real journey begins--a mad blur of border crossings (lots of bribes), high-speed bumps, temper tantrums, hysterical laughing fits. Although locked in a cab, Cahill nonetheless catches the flavor of the nations through which he zooms: Ecuador is the country where buses go over cliffs, Colombia has guerrillas galore, Panama is a ""document hell."" Twenty-three days, 22 hours, and 43 minutes after departure, an exhausted, exhilarated team rolls into their final stop and into the Guinness record book. A souped-up blend of danger and comedy, well-salted by Cahill's vivid, pun-strewn style (""a tight budget is the mother of adventure""). Great fun, and you can smell the rubber burning.

Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1991

ISBN: 0394758374

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1991

Categories: NONFICTION