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Breaking the Limit: One Woman's Motorcycle Journey Through North America
Breaking the Limit is one woman's account of riding her motorcycle from New Jersey to Alaska and back. Realizing that years of work and travel in other people's countries made her a stranger in her own, and with an invitation to meet her biological father for the first time, Karen Larsen set out on a fifteen-thousand-mile trip with nothing but her motorcycle and the barest of essentials.
Larsen's journey tests the limits of her own endurance, challenges her long-held beliefs and values, and asks what it means to belong to a family. Through the the fields of Iowa and the deserts of the Southwest, over the Rockies and across Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, Larsen confronts questions of femininity, family, independence, and personal identity.
Her journey speaks to the immense space and over-whelming beauty of North America, as well as to the diversity and vitality of the people she meets along the way. Breaking the Limit invites you to join her as she braces against the wind, trades security for freedom, sacrifices stability for motion, and opens herself up to the vast canopy of a continent.
Larsen's journey tests the limits of her own endurance, challenges her long-held beliefs and values, and asks what it means to belong to a family. Through the the fields of Iowa and the deserts of the Southwest, over the Rockies and across Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, Larsen confronts questions of femininity, family, independence, and personal identity.
Her journey speaks to the immense space and over-whelming beauty of North America, as well as to the diversity and vitality of the people she meets along the way. Breaking the Limit invites you to join her as she braces against the wind, trades security for freedom, sacrifices stability for motion, and opens herself up to the vast canopy of a continent.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published July 7, 2004
13 people are currently reading
165 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
June 9, 2012
When my dad gave me this book, I was immediately interested. For several reasons, I fell in love with this book pretty quickly. First, I have seen and traveled little in my own country (particularly west), so to experience a little westward travel vicariously through Karen's journey was thrilling for me. I soaked it up thanks to great story-telling, description, and dialogue. Second, I'm a sucker for great quotes, and there are some gems within these pages. Third, I relate fairly well to Karen as a just-under-5-ft.-woman who wishes she were but is not quite as ambitious and courageous as this inspiring woman travelling cross-country on a small Harley sportster with little more than a couple changes of clothes and a tent.
August 30, 2020
Great writing! The scenery descriptions got redundant, but I suppose there's only so many ways you can portray beautiful landscape. It felt like two different stories mashed together (the moto ride one story and meeting her bio family the second), but it didn't bother me at all--- simply an observation.
June 24, 2008
This is an account of Karen Larsen's solo motorcycle ride around the US, from NJ to Alaska and back. Along the way, she meets her biological father for the first time, and her extended family. During her fifteen thousand miles of riding, she learns to be comfortable with only the essentials of life plus her motorcycle. Along the way, we get to peer into her thoughts on such issues as her beliefs and values (and challenges to them), notions of family, femininity, and independence. Another book that makes me want to get out on the road for an extended trip, and personally experience the challenges and freedoms and extended time for thinking that seems to come with such travel. Good reading!
December 8, 2010
While reading this book I decided to sit down at a computer so I could track her adventure and view some of the places she wrote about. It made it much more real that way. I would not ride across the US with a few t-shirts and a tent, but enjoyed her free spirit and the spirit of the other rides she came in contact with. As a female rider I found the book empowering and inspiring. One of these years I hope to do a ride like this with a group of my friends, but we'll stay in hotels!
July 22, 2018
well done even if language a bit flowery.
October 15, 2008
It's not a great travel read, but I did find value in the motorcycle info.
January 12, 2022
A wonderful review of her travels across North America with a mix of human and natural encounters. Author is a great writer and I wish she had kept riding on so I could keep living her travel adventures. I guess I will have to embark on my own journey!
February 16, 2018
I did not want this book to end.
November 16, 2020
Scary as it seems, I also think this would be fun. Most women wouldn't ever do what she did. And I'm probably one of them. But she did it and successfully. I thought it was a wonderful adventure.
October 25, 2012
This book was okay, but it could have been about 100 pages shorter. It's about one woman's experience driving from NJ through parts of the continental US/Canada/Alaska on her own. As well as dealing with the drive, she's also stopping to meet her birth parents and then spend time with the adoptive parents who raised her near the end of her trip. The family issues were interesting, and I wish that had been more of a focus.
Instead, it was a lot of "Wow this scenery is beautiful, aw this little town is dying, man I'm sick of people being surprised that I'm doing this trip alone, oh they're not as hard-core/badass/as much of a true biker as I am." Which is fine, but it gets really old after 300 pages.
It seemed ironic to me that a rich white woman with an Ivy league education would pretend to be such an outlaw. She had a "holier than thou" attitude when it came to anyone who was a true "wanderer" or "biker" as she saw it, and had an unnecessary contempt for those who stated they were on a religious mission (even though there were several instances where she was "pleasantly surprised" or thankful that those people didn't preach at her- possibly because she didn't start off telling them how many problems she had with their way of life as she apparently wanted to). I get it, she did something few people do, but let's not pretend that she isn't a privileged person.
Instead, it was a lot of "Wow this scenery is beautiful, aw this little town is dying, man I'm sick of people being surprised that I'm doing this trip alone, oh they're not as hard-core/badass/as much of a true biker as I am." Which is fine, but it gets really old after 300 pages.
It seemed ironic to me that a rich white woman with an Ivy league education would pretend to be such an outlaw. She had a "holier than thou" attitude when it came to anyone who was a true "wanderer" or "biker" as she saw it, and had an unnecessary contempt for those who stated they were on a religious mission (even though there were several instances where she was "pleasantly surprised" or thankful that those people didn't preach at her- possibly because she didn't start off telling them how many problems she had with their way of life as she apparently wanted to). I get it, she did something few people do, but let's not pretend that she isn't a privileged person.
August 13, 2016
My husband read this book first, and really enjoyed it. Kept telling me I had to read it when he was finished as it brought back memories of rides we have taken together on his BMWs and rides he has gone on with his buddies. I really enjoyed it also. We especially remember our trip to Crater Lake and we shared her feelings as she saw the lake for the first time. We both wished there had been a map or maps included. My husband read with a large atlas nearby. Thanks Karen for the "road trip" you took us on!
February 4, 2016
The story of Karen Larsen's trip across parts of the US and Canada to Alaska was a great read. I enjoyed the discussions of problems she had with the weather, roads, and her fellow travelers. Her insight into the different areas she went through was well-written and easily understandable. Her interactions with those surprised or astonished that a woman would go cross country on a motorcycle were sometimes encouraging and at others infuriating. Good read.
January 31, 2016
I enjoyed this book. Karen was adopted as a baby and needs to find herself and meet her biological father due to a health scare. She rides her Harley, "Lucy" from New Jersey to Alaska and back. The book is about the people she meets on her journey, the places she stays, the beauty and brutality of nature and search for self. This is a book to be added to my keep shelf.
June 30, 2015
Great traveling book. A lot of very detailed scenic beauty is in this book and that made me have to take a break quite a bit to soak everything up. I love the reasoning behind jumping on her bike and deciding to travel across the United States.
April 27, 2016
As a newly licensed motorcyclist, I found this book extremely inspiring. The way she describes her journey made me feel as if I were riding on the back of her sportster. I had fun googling the different locations she visited with each chapter. Great read!
September 15, 2019
I absolutely loved this book. I have a longing to see Crater Lake for myself after having read this. I'm glad she cut the loser loose!
December 13, 2010
Really enjoyed the detailed explanations of each stop she made on her way to Alaska from New Jersey and to Canada.
May 9, 2013
Oh I wish I could have gone too. Reading this was almost as good.
June 27, 2016
Plain and simple, I Love this book.It is a I can do it, not just for anyone but for myself book. Well written for a easy read.
April 8, 2008
interviewed the author
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews