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Car Camping: The Book of Desert Adventures
A riotous, beautiful, totally original road novel masquerading as a travel book. Sundeen's America, comprised of equal parts Gorgeous and Awful, absolutely shimmers with life. The prose is pure, wild, naïve, and poetic; the characters leap off the page in the dunderheadedness and sincerity. A brilliant an auspicious debut. -George Saunders A stunningly wonderful writer. Sundeen's prose is sparse but the images he creates are alive and infinite. This is a book to be savored and remembered. -Hubert Selby Jr.
- GenresTravelNonfictionNature
254 pages, Paperback
First published May 2, 2000
3 people are currently reading
225 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
November 6, 2012
Such a fun read that leaves my head spinning with a cheeky western landscape both beautiful and mundane. I think I want to go Nowhere. Or go fix up a pig farm. There was that one part so hilarious I can't stop thinking about it but I don't want to ruin it for anyone. So cavalier, so feckless, so bold. I love Mark Sundeen and he is everything I wanted in a boyfriend in 1994.
March 18, 2025
Funny, quirky, adventurous and unpretentious. Found this treasure at Goodwill for like $2 and it was a great read. Feeling wanderlust.
March 24, 2017
"The lake was wide and flat and there was a lot of it to go."
This is the last line of the book and by then it pretty much is a metaphor for the author's approach to life. His prose is plain and straight forward, and if I'd read that line at the beginning it would have just been a description of motor boating. But by the end of the book, you like mark, respect him, and this line tells you everything is going to be okay.
I really enjoyed this book. At first it seems like a typical drinking, derelict adventure seeking saga. But...Mark is a good guy who works when he needs money, never tells anyone what to do, and tries to live from adventure to adventure. He doesn't seem to have a plan but picks up and sets off when things get too complicated.
Some people might not like the book, it certainly doesn't glorify the accepted way of life...work hard, save your money, have a plan, but..he does work (when he needs money) he spends it all, and has no plan...but he is kind, has fun, and accepts the people he meets as he finds them.
This is the last line of the book and by then it pretty much is a metaphor for the author's approach to life. His prose is plain and straight forward, and if I'd read that line at the beginning it would have just been a description of motor boating. But by the end of the book, you like mark, respect him, and this line tells you everything is going to be okay.
I really enjoyed this book. At first it seems like a typical drinking, derelict adventure seeking saga. But...Mark is a good guy who works when he needs money, never tells anyone what to do, and tries to live from adventure to adventure. He doesn't seem to have a plan but picks up and sets off when things get too complicated.
Some people might not like the book, it certainly doesn't glorify the accepted way of life...work hard, save your money, have a plan, but..he does work (when he needs money) he spends it all, and has no plan...but he is kind, has fun, and accepts the people he meets as he finds them.
April 16, 2011
I picked this up on a whim, by reading some random recommendation based on similar road books. Its title is misleading, sounding like a guidebook. Don't be fooled. This is a semiautobiographical novel, based in the southwest, centered around young Mark Sundeen, a painter who is aimless and usually up for heading to wherever his beatup Subaru can take him so long as it's free and there's a road. Sundeen builds up many characters, most notably Beach Philips and September, and you'll laugh at his cynicism, his take on open spaces, the desert as "nowhere," and the kind of trouble people find themselves in.
Read this. Especially if you're familiar with Utah (Moab particularly) and the southwest. It's a quick read with some downright philosophical elements and the right balance of questioning and happiness.
This book and author could use some more attention! (I'm definitely going to pick up The Making of Toro
, another of Sundeen's.)
"I wanted ... life to rush through me as fast as it arrived, not caught up on thoughts or thinking." (13)
"You only get a certain amount of space in this life, ... and most people just fill it up with fancy junk and clever ideas" (23)
"Everyone thinks they want to be free. ... But they don't know what freedom is, and if they had it, they'd be terrified. They just want everyone else to think they're free." (41)
"I wanted to get back to the desert. Then it would all be all right." (150)
"You can never be nowhere. No matter how hard you try. Not even in the middle of the desert. The further you get from one place the closer you are to someplace else, and when you try to drop out of the world altogether you'll find that wherever you land is still a part of it. There will be people there who make things just as complicated as the things you were trying to get away from." (205)
Read this. Especially if you're familiar with Utah (Moab particularly) and the southwest. It's a quick read with some downright philosophical elements and the right balance of questioning and happiness.
This book and author could use some more attention! (I'm definitely going to pick up The Making of Toro
, another of Sundeen's.)"I wanted ... life to rush through me as fast as it arrived, not caught up on thoughts or thinking." (13)
"You only get a certain amount of space in this life, ... and most people just fill it up with fancy junk and clever ideas" (23)
"Everyone thinks they want to be free. ... But they don't know what freedom is, and if they had it, they'd be terrified. They just want everyone else to think they're free." (41)
"I wanted to get back to the desert. Then it would all be all right." (150)
"You can never be nowhere. No matter how hard you try. Not even in the middle of the desert. The further you get from one place the closer you are to someplace else, and when you try to drop out of the world altogether you'll find that wherever you land is still a part of it. There will be people there who make things just as complicated as the things you were trying to get away from." (205)
September 4, 2007
I found this book free at the local post office, and picked it up because I thought it was a guidebook to car camping, My first thought was, that's odd. What would you write about? (I guess: "Remember to close the doors at night or your dome light will drain the battery.")
But it's not a guidebook, more of a memoir of an aspiring drifter. The fun part is that's Sundeens's not a very good drifter, although he has some great adventures along the way. In his intro he admits he made stuff up, so that was a bit distracting while reading -- trying to figure out what was real and not. And his staccato style with layered descriptions (good eye!) makes for easy reading in short bursts, but hard over a long haul.
But it's not a guidebook, more of a memoir of an aspiring drifter. The fun part is that's Sundeens's not a very good drifter, although he has some great adventures along the way. In his intro he admits he made stuff up, so that was a bit distracting while reading -- trying to figure out what was real and not. And his staccato style with layered descriptions (good eye!) makes for easy reading in short bursts, but hard over a long haul.
June 3, 2021
It took me a while to get into the book (perhaps because I wasn't reading it consistently at the start), but once I did, I enjoyed it. Sundeen tells the story of himself as a young man trying to "get away", while simultaneously poking fun at that concept from the experiences he had. His journey isn't glamourous nor linear, but it is enthralling, with wild characters and descriptive, subtle, and wry writing. I'd definitely recommend it.
May 9, 2017
One of my favorites ever. Reads like J.D. Salinger took a road trip into the American desert and saw all the beauty of the landscape with the same painful clarity as the hypocrisy and racism of modern consumeristic white culture. Classic reading for folks disillusioned with America and in love with mother nature at her most minimalist.
January 2, 2018
Picked this up on impulse and enjoyed it a great deal. It is a charming, irreverent travel narrative that plays out across the American West. Mark Sundeen's writing is perceptive and observant and the book is stuffed with original, offbeat Americans who feel completely authentic and real. The book reads something like an updated version of Beat road trips, yet also feels very fresh and funny.
July 2, 2024
I wanted to love this because I love The Unsettlers and driving around exploring the west, but it just wasn’t interesting to me/ felt a little like a juvenile attempt at Hunter S Thompson. I gave it the first 30 pages or so.
May 22, 2019
A short book and an easy read. Not what I expected.
October 25, 2011
The back cover says "Imagine Huckleberry Finn. Sort of. If Hunter S Thompson had invented him."
My recommendation is to not read this book, if you are looking for an alternate Hunter S Thompson book. This is much slower in bits, and more dull.
It is written well, and is enjoyable. But ultimately, I will not remember it next year. I don't know what separates it from a good magazine article?
Also, Huck Finn?? Sure, its a traveling book, and it contains river(s) as well. No real social commentary though.
It was good enough to finish through to the end, but not good enough to give someone as a gift.
My recommendation is to not read this book, if you are looking for an alternate Hunter S Thompson book. This is much slower in bits, and more dull.
It is written well, and is enjoyable. But ultimately, I will not remember it next year. I don't know what separates it from a good magazine article?
Also, Huck Finn?? Sure, its a traveling book, and it contains river(s) as well. No real social commentary though.
It was good enough to finish through to the end, but not good enough to give someone as a gift.
August 6, 2007
This is a great summer read for those of us who love to travel or just dream of dropping everything and heading out on the open road. Sundeen's writing can be both simple and poignant, funny and sad. He's someone to keep an eye on; I heard him read from his newest novel and I'm guessing fame isn't too far behind.
July 18, 2011
I enjoyed this. I had also read The Making of Toro, which a friend picked as being "way" post modern. Way pomo can be my way too.
It is kind of a cute coming of age thing, but it kind of captures an essential problem with capitalism for me too. It does capture the dilemma I had when I finished college. I had a liberal arts degree I didn't know what to do with.
It is kind of a cute coming of age thing, but it kind of captures an essential problem with capitalism for me too. It does capture the dilemma I had when I finished college. I had a liberal arts degree I didn't know what to do with.
July 2, 2013
I'm currently camping and have been for the past 6 weeks so thought I would get a light read. Its light and its fluff. His accounts of his adventures and his obsession with a girl is ridiculous. Maybe if I was a little bit more lighthearted about it. It should read A White Man's Car Camping Adventure. Its the life and the perspective of a small subset of people. Don't waste your time.
October 24, 2007
This book was recommended by the brilliant surrealist/misanthropic/darkly funny contemporary short story writer, George Saunders when I went to see him read a few years ago. It's a rambling, ramshackle kind of slacker-y road trip. A most fun adventure.
May 15, 2013
Didn't finish this book, either. It started out pretty good and was giving me wanderlust and stuff, and I love love love the desert - I'm a desert-dweller myself - but it got to be too much of the same thing over and over, didn't seem to be getting anywhere, so I got bored.
September 1, 2007
A fun story of youthful travel through the Southwest US.
November 29, 2007
No one writes about aimless wandering better than Sundeen.
July 20, 2010
Just so good. Depressing, moving, entertaining, perfect.
April 26, 2012
A lovely, funny bildungsroman disguised as non-fiction travelogue. Highly recommended.
September 5, 2023
Meandering at times but a good coming-of-age read.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews