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Tripmaster Monkey: |
by Maxine Hong Kingston |
"Will one of these listening passengers please write to the Board of Supes and suggest that there always be a reader on this route? Wittman has begun a someday tradition that may lead to job as a reader riding the railroads throughout the West. On the train through Fresno�Saroyan; through the Salinas Valley�Steinbeck; through Monterey�Cannery Row; along the Big Sur ocean�Jack Kerouac; on the way to Weed�Of Mice and Men; in the Mother Lode—Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson, who went on a honeymoon in The Silverado Squatters; Roughing It through Calaveras County and the Sacramento Valley; through the redwoods�John Muir; up into the Rockies�The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner. Hollywood and San Elmo with John Fante. And all of the Central Valley on the Southern Pacific with migrant Carlos Bulosan, America is in the Heart. What a repertoire. A lifetime reading job." (Page 9)
