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Every Highway

by Dave Feschuk

Dave Feschuk was very intrigued by the plight of the “highway cowboy,” those drivers who pilot mammoth 18-wheelers down the highway, so much so that the Toronto Star sports reporter spent time riding shotgun in various big rigs travelling across North America. During his trips he interviewed truckers and truck company owners and learned everything he could about the industry. The result is a 200-odd-page ramble that is sometimes funny and frequently interesting, but just as often tedious.

Feschuk obviously did his research while not on the road as well. He has a journalist’s habit of throwing handfuls of facts and studies at the reader, often losing the thread of the story in the process. Given the freedom of an unlimited word count, he meanders through side stories (like Canada’s burgeoning diamond mining business) that, while interesting in their own right, are ultimately distracting, given that they tend to be wedged in the middle of profiles of the various drivers Feschuk shared a cab with.

Not surprisingly, the truckers are the best part of the story. There are women truckers, old truckers, teams of truckers who share rigs and drive in shifts. There are bigots and lechers; those who love the road and those who aren’t so sure anymore. And if Feschuk had just let them tell the story – the history, the problems, and the insatiable wanderlust that keeps them from hanging up their foam-fronted caps – the book would have been truly interesting, even for readers who could not care less about trucking. Instead, over-researched and bogged down by too many tangents, Every Highway reads like a magazine feature that could have used a slash-and-burn edit to make the read less of a long haul.

 

Reviewer: Dory Cerny

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart

DETAILS

Price: $24.95

Page Count: 262 pp

Format: Paper

ISBN: 0-7710-4750-9

Released: May

Issue Date: 2006-6

Categories: Reference