Prof pe drum

by Andrei Codrescu, Ioana Avădani (Translator)

Cu orizont de Cristofor Columb şi înaripat de Whitman, scriitorul Andrei Codrescu descoperă în Prof pe drum, într-o călătorie iniţiatică de la Est la Vest, o Americă mai puţin cunoscută, „o ţară căreia îi place să-şi şteargă trecutul tot atât de repede pe cât îşi construieşte viitorul“.

Pe „drumul“ lui Jack Kerouac şi al generaţiei Beat, autorul aduce în prim-planul condeiului său societăţi utopice cu sexualitate dirijată, templul Cadillacului şi muzeul Mc Donald’s, sfinţii pe role, antrenamentul de Rambo al turiştilor japonezi şcoliţi de o instructoare nudă, hipermarketul spiritual New Age, muzeul automic de la baza aeriană Kirtland, protocolul de însurătoare de la Litle White Chapel, cobaii umani din capsula ce pregăteşte viitoarea descindere în spaţiul cosmic.

Scrisă într-un stil de încântare, o alchimie marca Andrei Codrescu ce mixează un raisonneur transilvan cu un Woody Allen, cititorul român va avea privilegiul să parcurgă paginile unei cărţi elogiate de publicaţiile americane.

Genres: Travel, Essays, Nonfiction, American

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Andrei Codrescu is a poet, novelist, essayist, and NPR commentator. His many books include Whatever Gets You through the Night, The Postmodern Dada Guide, and The Poetry Lesson. He was Mac Curdy Distinguished Professor of English at Louisiana State University from 1984 until his retirement in 2009.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

DRIVING is dreaming. . . . Maybe everything around me is just the congealed dream of a million drivers . . . the Industrial Age, a dream . . . a dream, the rusting ruins of machines . . . the vast Midwest that once fed the world and now weeps to herself, a dream too . . . migrants, salesmen, con artists, heartbroken poets all dreaming their way West.

In the early nineties, NPR commentator and poet Andrei Codrescu learned to drive in order to take a road trip across America. He visited famous landmarks and local eyesores, conversing with park rangers, New Age gurus, cycle-riding pensioners, and card dealers. He checks out a drive-by wedding chapel in Vegas, and gets lessons on how to shoot a machine gun . . . from a topless female instructor, nonetheless.

You can't get much more American than that.

There's nothing groundbreaking here; indeed, it's hinted at that Henry Miller's The Air-Conditioned Nightmare is the real book to read when it comes to traveling the real U.S. All the same, Codrescu is an agreeable traveling companion, and I enjoyed the trip. The entire excursion was filmed as a documentary. It seems to be available on youtube, but I've had no luck viewing it.

Since immigration has become such a dividing issue lately, I thought I'd include Codrescu's thoughts on the Statue of Liberty.

I CRIED when I first saw her. The two hundred salami-chomping Yugoslavs aboard the jet bringing us to the New World saw her too, and broke into a Serbian rendition of "America the Beautiful." We were done with the old world, liberty was ours! We emerged like butterflies from the husks of abandoned salamis onto the tarmacs of the Promised Land.

On the ferry going to Liberty Island, I asked a number of people ---- mostly foreign tourists or recent immigrants ---- why they were going to visit her. A Portuguese man said that he had lived under the dictatorship of Salazar and the statue had always represented democracy to him. A Chinese woman said that she had been in Tiananmen Square when the students had erected a Chinese Miss Liberty. An Italian man said that he just wanted to get a picture. But it was a middle-aged man with a German accent who said the simplest and most moving thing:"I came to this country in 1939." That's all. He then looked me straight in the eye.

I could only imagine how Miss Liberty must have looked to a European Jew fleeing the Nazis in 1939.

[Mela Ruja Diaconu · Rating 4 out of 5]

O carte apărută la Curtea Veche, Bucuresti, 2008.

Nu este vorba de un roman ca atare. E produsul unei călătorii cu mașină, însoțit de camera de filmat, cartea fiind presărată cu poze cu oamenii deosebiți întâlniți în cale.
Codrescu are un stil plin de umor și ironii. Se declara un șofer ratat în condițiile în care a trăi în America presupune să ai o mașină.
Scriitorul se află în America de la 19 ani dar nu ai uitat România și ce reprezintă ea.
Cartea e foarte fluenta iar cititorul e acaparat în povestire, alături de un scriitor aflat în descoperirea unei Americi diferite, care se contrazice pe sine de atâtea ori de câte ori are singurul numitor comun: libertatea.
Întrăm în legătură cu grupuri de oameni ce trăiesc după reguli proprii, greu de înțeles pentru cei din orașele civilizate. Reprezentanții New Age au și ei rezervată o porțiune din carte. Ghicitorii și vindecatorii nu sunt ocoliți.
O carte document, o bucată din viața americana combinată cu experiență personală a autorului de-a lungul anilor în care a stat în State.
O experiență în sine e această carte. Merită făcută această călătorie în însăși inimă Americii.



Mela Ruja Diaconu.
9.11.2015

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I became familiar with Andrei Codrescu when he did NPR commentary in the mid 1990's; I picked up this book around that time & decided it was worth a re-read.

In the early 90's Codrescu was approached by a TV producer who was interested in having him drive around Florida, visit various roadside attractions and give his observations. The main problem? Andrei didn't drive. His interest was sparked, however, and the idea grew to a travel narrative across America - an On the Road for the 1990's, if you will, visiting former homes and other locals that strike his fancy.

The story starts with Codrescu's driving lessons, and car buying adventures in New Orleans, his home at the time. He ends up with a vintage Cadillac and in the company of a photographer and TV crew, they start in New York and cross the country to San Francisco, stopping along the way in Niagara Falls, Detroit, Chicago, the Southwest and its various communes and spiritual places, and the antithesis of such: Las Vegas. His visits include the Bruderhof community of Oneida, Biosphere 2, the first McDonalds... and somehow ties this all together in a poetic tapestry. He is critical and sarcastic at times, but also appreciates the openness and freedom of the people and places he visits. Most of the stories are told in vignettes of a page or two; with photographs scattered throughout. It's inspired me to think once again about making a road trip Out West.

Recommended to fans of travel narratives with a touch of introspection - the associated documentary may be of interest as well. ::: off to see if Netflix has it::

[Robert Zverina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Romanian-born poet and brand-new driver Andrei Codrescu hops in a cherry red '68 Cadillac and journeys with film crew from Ellis Island to the Golden Gate, making stops in a ravaged and abandoned Detroit, a moving-and-shaking Chicago, the New Age and Survivalist supermarkets of the southwest, the neon kitsch of Vegas, and finally the relative peace and stability of San Francisco, where Codrescu notes, "From here on out there is nothing but ocean. You can't run any farther. You must turn around to face yourself." Perhaps because he himself is a bit eccentric, Codrescu never condescends to or disparages his subjects, remaining true to his observation that "what keeps us together is precisely the awed awareness of our differences...."

Towards the end of the book, Codrescu interviews City Lights founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti (an interview which didn't make it into the film version, by the way) who compares Henry Miller's and Kerouac's cross-country roadtrip accounts, The Air-Conditioned Nightmare and On the Road, respectively: "...Miller was more focused on the reality of America whereas Kerouac was off in his Catholic consciousness more. When you read On the Road closely, you see he really wasn't observing the reality in front of him." Other than occasional nostalgic flashbacks to the '60s, Codrescu is committed to the reality in front of him and surprised by what he finds at the well-lit fringes of American society at the end of the 20th century and describes it all with journalistic acuity and poetic flare. A must for anyone who's done or is dreaming of doing the transcontinental trip.

[Priscilla King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Snarky NPR master of the short essay, proudly car-free for many years, gets a car and takes a road trip. Like most legal immigrants, Andrei Codrescu loved America and was glad to be American. Why not see more of the country he loved? So in order to write this book Codrescu visited a quirky, Codrescu-type selection of places--the graves of famous writers, the Bruderhof and Oneida "intentional communities," eccentric artists in Detroit, a Christian roller skating club in Chicago, a gathering of cattle breeders, many more--bracketed by visits to Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and culminating with a naturalization ceremony in which other legal immigrants become US citizens, as Codrescu had done years before.

Some people resist acknowledging the times in history when the US has "been the bad guy." Some people wallow in them. But something is seriously wrong with any reader, regardless of other opinions, who doesn't feel love for the United States while reading this book. We're not perfect but we certainly are fun.

[Candorman · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Mr. Codrescu is the sort of writer who feels obliged to satirize and interplay with reality and not just catalogue impressions." I add to this book blurb 'heavy on the satire.' For anyone who enjoys travelogue books, this one is NOT for you. Bordering at times on silly and pretentious, Codrescu spends too much time covering his past and not the present subject. He goes out of his way to find the obscure and uninteresting to portray what he seems to consider satire. Philip Caputo this is NOT. Don't waste your time even during this pandemic.

[Nate Jordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A different sort of road novel; a brief examination of (then) modern America seen through the poetically inquisitive eyes of a Romanian immigrant. Though published in the 90s, Andrei Codrescu's observations still ring true twenty years later. Not just an outsider's view, Codrescu's is an outrider's view, which may be the perspective we need to see ourselves, as opposed to the mirror reflection we get accustomed to. I found this brief passage particularly poignant:

"The true American religion is speed. When you go fast you don’t notice much. In the Church of Speed, Inattention is God. If you go fast enough, you’ll take the approximate over the accurate . . . the copy over the original . . . the copy of the copy over the copy . . . the ideal cowboy over the bone-tired cowpoke . . . the mythic gunslinger over the petty criminal . . . the illusion over reality . . . the fast buck over the sweaty nickel."

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cordrescu learned to drive for the sake of taking this cross-country odyssey from Ellis Island to San Francisco in the early 90's. I'm a sucker for almost any kind of travel narrative. While there is no dearth of stories claiming to "find America," the range of religious cults, garbage artists and other oddballs on the fringe of Americana make this a gem among road books.

However, I'm not sure which came first, the book or the documentary, and since little is lost from the film's narrative and much is gained by the visuals, I will do the unthinkable and say that if one must choose, see the movie.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

the book of the movie of the trip. Romanian ex-pat surrealist poet, professor and NPR commentator learns to drive at long last and takes a big old caddilac and a film crew across America, visiting the places he's lived and other oddities along the way. Contains a photo of a topless woman weilding a machine gun if you're into that sort of thing, but it's mostly the sort of pithy highbrow stuff that the NPR crowd tends to enjoy.

[Juli · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the best nights I have ever had down here where the devil lives was getting piss drunk with Andrei and some friends and watching his copy of the documentary film he made of the same title. I had no idea that he had published the book as well, and plan on picking up a copy soon. If it translates half as well as the travel footage did, then i'm in for sure!

[Jennifer Rockwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Movie of the same name has music produced by my husband. I love Andrei

[Julie Bowman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny, eloquent, and introspective narration by NPR's Codrescu. Follows his travels across country and the characters he meets along the way.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A road story, from someone who prefers pedestrian life.
I enjoyed Andrei Codrescu's NPR commentaries in the 90's, so thought I'd pick up this book. He drives, with a film crew, from New York to San Francisco. He stops at places he previously lived. He talks to bystanders. He reflects, in his trademark Romanuan immigrant way.