Hunting Mister Heartbreak: A Discovery of America (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780375701016)

NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK - An exhilarating, often deliciously funny and "beautifully written voyage of discovery" (Chicago Tribune) that is at once a travelogue, a social history, and a love letter to America. - From the bestselling, award-winning author of Bad Land

In 1782 an immigrant with the high-toned name J. Hector St. John de Cr钁ecoeur--"Heartbreak" in English--wrote a pioneering account of one European's transformation into an American. Some two hundred years later Jonathan Raban, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, arrived in Cr钁ecoeur's wake to see how America has paid off for succeeding generations of newcomers.

In the course of Hunting Mr. Heartbreak, Raban passes for homeless in New York and tries to pass for a good ol' boy in Alabama (which entails "renting" an elderly black lab). He sees the Protestant work ethic perfected by Korean immigrants in Seattle--one of whom celebrates her new home as "So big! So green! So wide-wide-wide!"--and repudiated by the lowlife of Key West. And on every page of this peerlessly observant work, Raban makes us experience America with wonder, humor, and an unblinking eye for its contradictions.

Author: Jonathan Raban
ISBN-10: 037570101X
ISBN-13: 9780375701016
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Language: English
Published: 11/03/1998
Pages: 384
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.20w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
New York Times 11/15/1998 pg. 68