I read Jay and Lauren’s story in the NewYork Times in 2018, shortly after it happened. I was intrigued. Not so much bythe horrifying way they died, but the crashing together of different cultures on adeserted mountain highway in Tajikistan. I was also intrigued by what motivatedJay and Lauren to leave well-paying Washington jobs and take the road lesstraveled.After writing a proposal for the publisher and digging into some research, Ifound Jay’s declaration that “he didn’t want to waste his years in front of a smallrectangular screen at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, retireat sixty-five, and then die ten years later.”1This resonated with me; it fit in withAmericans who have thrown a conventional life aside to pursue a life less certain.Jay and Lauren’s desire for adventure or a different American dream fits thepantheon of people looking for something beyond the safe confines of a worldwithout risk. American history is littered with adventurers, from Amelia Earhart’sdaring aerial exploration to Teddy Roosevelt heading West to the Badlands, toJack London’s famous trek into the Yukon, to Mark Twain lighting out for theterritories, to Thomas Stevens, who in 1887 biked around the world on a bigwheel bicycle, all the way back to Thoreau, and up to the present day of ChrisMcCandless’s journey into the wilds of Alaska. "Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man." Chicago Sun Times"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning