Volume 28, Number 18 · November 19, 1981
The Heart of the Heart of the Country
By Diane Johnson
Old Glory: An American Voyage
by Jonathan Raban
Simon and Schuster, 409 pp., $16.95
Explorers, like metaphysicians, have always liked a river, straight route to the heart of things. Englishmen in particular have their tradition of great river explorations—it follows that it would be an Englishman who explores the Mississippi and gets at the heart of the American middle, unexplored darkness deep in the flyover. What doesn't follow is what has happened, that Jonathan Raban's book has proved to have interest, beyond the usual appeal of a well-written travel book, for other Americans. Following Raban, like an art dealer discovering the new market in primitives, America turns a speculative eye on downstate Illinois.
Review, 2849 words
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