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| Author: Dave Gorman
Publisher: Ebury Press
Category: Book
List Price: £11.99
Buy New: £7.22
You Save: £4.77 (40%)
New (29) Used (14) Collectible (2) from £2.88
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 1828
Media: Paperback
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0091899338
EAN: 9780091899332
ASIN: 0091899338
Publication Date: April 3, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
A recommended read June 5, 2008
I have been to the USA five times on holiday and I have had the best holidays of my life there. Therefore, I have an interest travel writing in the states.
Rich Smith's 'You can get arrested for that' is a good book on his tavels accross the USA.
Dave Gorman's idea of chain free travel is a genuine heart-felt idea of giving hope to family run businesses still trying to beat away the corporate big gun companies trying to take over. You have to admire Dave taking on this task as he went through troubled times on virtually the whole trip.
Dave's book is very well written, his use of English is easy on the eye and his emotional feelings throughout the trip are evident because of his honesty. He decribes scenery, people and towns etc in great detail and you do feel your on the trip with him.
I felt, however, that Dave gives a lot of irrelevant info during the book. For example the Mormons business goes way over the top on detail and only a few other times I was left slightly frustrated at the lengty detail given on some history topics.
Overall though I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.
Raod Trip!! June 5, 2008
A truly amazing read which kept me wanting more throughout. I would have to recommend this to anyone with a sense of humor! This being the first book of Dave Gorman's I have read I approached it reluctantly, after in all honesty, not finding myself interested with the ideas behind his previous books. How wrong could I be? The book takes us on a trip through an unchained America, and asking "can you really travel from one coast of the US to the other without giving money to "the man". You really can't manufacture the situations that this trip finds itself in. At times I found it quite hard to grasp the landscape and the scenario's within which the book was placed, this being to the description being too over complicated and annoying at times. Also felt the book was cut short at the end, leaving me wanting more, but I guess that's a good trait to have as a writer. Just ordered the DVD to see the words in motion. Overall well written book, which I'm sure I will be reading again, very enjoyable.
Almost makes America sound nice... May 8, 2008
Like many people I encountered Dave Gorman's comedy/documentary through his quest to find 54 other Dave Gorman's (to win a bet), and was further won over by his 'googlewhack adventure' which is a very funny, and structurally very fine piece of work.
At first America Unchained lacks the comic angle, and sure there are fewer laugh out loud moments than the earlier books, but this book grew on me. There's less of a wacky conceit to the journey here (so not the type so derided recently by Mitchell & Webb in one of their sketches- unnecessarily attacking fellow comedians) with a reasonable logic to try and find the non-corporate America, and it's successful in finding a mostly friendly and helpful America (apart from Mississippi) so removed from stereotypes (some coming from their own media).
It's not a great piece of travel writing either, if you're a reader of such books, in terms of describing places and spaces, but as ever this is really about taking another journey with Dave. He's very good at a particularly English kind of blend of whimsy, intellect, and self-deprecation, with an added does of a relatively untypical (for an Englishman) degree of unabashed passion over things he experiences and values.
The only downside is this is only his third book, and I'v now read them all. I hope whatever journey he takes next, he writes it down
if there was no film i'd give it 5 May 1, 2008
i realy liked this book and i loved the concept of traveling withought relying on chains. the only thing i was dissapointed about is that the filming seems to of had a severe effect on dave gormans trip. i feel that if there wasnt a film around this the story would be alot more entertaining and probably have a deeper meaning.
i think that if you buy this thinking its going to be similar to his other books you probably wont enjoy it.
Not Dave Gorman's best but a well-told journey May 1, 2008
This is Dave Gorman's third "I bet you can't..." book. This time round it's "I wonder if I can..." rather than a drunken bet but the principle's the same- Dave Gorman is set a challenge, with an arbitrary but rigid set of rules, and in order to complete it he finds himself travelling around the world and meeting all manner of strange people in all sorts of strange places.
This time around the subject is America. By his own admission he's not a big fan of America thanks to his experiences touring there and he blames this on the sameyness of all the American venues, so he goes in search of the "real" America. He meets some very likeable people, and some much less likeable, but only a handful of them are really unusual.
The story is well-told with some great dramatic flourishes- skipping ahead to Moab as a teaser towards the beginning of the book, for example. Once you're into the last few chapters of the book though there is a certain inevitably, as the fact Dave hasn't set himself a time limit for this challenge means the story tails off rather than reaching a last-minute climax.
Not Dave Gorman's best adventure but a worthy one and a good read.
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