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Finding Signs
Crisscrossing the United States on her way to meet her boyfriend Al, Brenda discovers that love isn't always where and what we expect it to be. (Nancy Pearl)
Paperback
First published April 21, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 21, 2013
Sharlene Baker, Finding Signs (Warner, 1990)
[originally posted 21Mar2000]
I didn't expect to like this book much, mostly because all the cover blurbs compare it to the annoying and overrated Beat novel On the Road ”...from a woman's perspective." "A feminist version of..." You know the drill. And, as usual, it pays to ignore blurb writers, 'cause this is actually a pretty fun book that bears about as much resemblance to Kerouac as the film version of Naked Lunch does to the Burroughs novel.
Yes, it has to do with riding your thumb around the country, and yes, its protagonist is a (mostly) strong female character, but I think you'd be equally wrong to characterize this either as a "feminist" novel or as an On the Road spinoff. For one thing, Kerouac never really has any idea where he's going to end up, and he's happiest that way; our protagonist here has every idea where she's going to end up, even if she does go six thousand plus miles out of her way getting there (Spokane from San Diego via New Mexico, Boston, and Cheyenne). But, despite the premise, there's none of the rootlessness of Kerouac here; we always have a sense of being grounded, of having a destination in mind—a goal. And maybe that's what separates this book from the morass of On the Road spinoffs that do exist, that sense of destination.
Finding Signs was Baker's debut novel, and it looks as if (after a little online searching) it's the only one she's written. Depressing, as there's some talent here, and this one's worth looking for. It shouldn't be as hard to find as Spokane. ***
[originally posted 21Mar2000]
I didn't expect to like this book much, mostly because all the cover blurbs compare it to the annoying and overrated Beat novel On the Road ”...from a woman's perspective." "A feminist version of..." You know the drill. And, as usual, it pays to ignore blurb writers, 'cause this is actually a pretty fun book that bears about as much resemblance to Kerouac as the film version of Naked Lunch does to the Burroughs novel.
Yes, it has to do with riding your thumb around the country, and yes, its protagonist is a (mostly) strong female character, but I think you'd be equally wrong to characterize this either as a "feminist" novel or as an On the Road spinoff. For one thing, Kerouac never really has any idea where he's going to end up, and he's happiest that way; our protagonist here has every idea where she's going to end up, even if she does go six thousand plus miles out of her way getting there (Spokane from San Diego via New Mexico, Boston, and Cheyenne). But, despite the premise, there's none of the rootlessness of Kerouac here; we always have a sense of being grounded, of having a destination in mind—a goal. And maybe that's what separates this book from the morass of On the Road spinoffs that do exist, that sense of destination.
Finding Signs was Baker's debut novel, and it looks as if (after a little online searching) it's the only one she's written. Depressing, as there's some talent here, and this one's worth looking for. It shouldn't be as hard to find as Spokane. ***
May 31, 2020
I read this book in high school and it inspired me very deeply. I used a section of it as a monologue in drama class, where the narrator talks about a game she played with her brother as a child, where they would move around acting as though they were staying still and pulling things towards them, and how she imagines the road that way, as a long ribbon she's using to gradually pull her destination closer to her. I've thought of that concept often since then and it delights me. I remember this book feeling empowering, vulnerably adventurous, thoughtful. I'm curious to read it again, 25 years later, post-english degree and having children, and see if it delights me as much now as it did then.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews