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Wanderlost
Wanderlost was written on the go, during a month-long train trip Ben Olson took around America. It centers on the experiences of Max Manchester, a 25 year-old anti-hero laguishing in poverty, struggling to make it as a writer and suffering from the disenchantment that characterizes post-collegiate life; searching for the soul and substance he feels lacking in his generation.
Surrounded by alcoholic pseudo-intellectuals and other members of the "Non-Generation," Max's life is spinning out of control. His nights are spent in a drunken blur of barroom philosophy, half-felt sexual encounters and stunted attempts at art. His days consist of butting against rampant crass pop culture and the world defined by catch-phrase ideology and morally bankrupt politicians waging pointless wars.
Finally, one desolate north Idaho winter, as Max's mailbox slowly fills with rejection slips and he nurses yet another hangover, he's overcome by a feeling of entrapment. Haunted by fears that his life is wasting away, he decides to break with the comfort of his home and re-discover a sense of meaning. He escapes. With an Amtrak USA Rail Pass and a pack on his back, Max sets out to find America again.
Wanderlost captures the essence of the strange period of life after college and before looming adulthood; when idealism is still a good thing, when one must choose to embrace the often mediocre task of mundane existence, or burn free and live according to the principles of our hearts. It is a coming-of-age tale, a humorous travel narrative and an acerbically accurate portrayal of modern American Life.
Surrounded by alcoholic pseudo-intellectuals and other members of the "Non-Generation," Max's life is spinning out of control. His nights are spent in a drunken blur of barroom philosophy, half-felt sexual encounters and stunted attempts at art. His days consist of butting against rampant crass pop culture and the world defined by catch-phrase ideology and morally bankrupt politicians waging pointless wars.
Finally, one desolate north Idaho winter, as Max's mailbox slowly fills with rejection slips and he nurses yet another hangover, he's overcome by a feeling of entrapment. Haunted by fears that his life is wasting away, he decides to break with the comfort of his home and re-discover a sense of meaning. He escapes. With an Amtrak USA Rail Pass and a pack on his back, Max sets out to find America again.
Wanderlost captures the essence of the strange period of life after college and before looming adulthood; when idealism is still a good thing, when one must choose to embrace the often mediocre task of mundane existence, or burn free and live according to the principles of our hearts. It is a coming-of-age tale, a humorous travel narrative and an acerbically accurate portrayal of modern American Life.
220 pages, Hardcover
First published November 29, 2006
17 people want to read
About the author
Ben Olson
15 books2 followersBen Olson was born and raised in north Idaho, in a small mountain town of hillbillies, realtors and hippies. He wrote "Wanderlost" in 37 days, when he was 25 years old.
He has worked as a dishwasher, busboy, bar tender, department store clerk, gas station clerk, golf pro, photographer, journalist, reclaimed lumber specialist, handyman, house painter, researcher, production assistant, producer, location scout, boat captain, propane filler, and finally, author.
After dropping out of Colorado State University after his third semester, Olson fled to Los Angeles to search for fame and fortune. He found neither. For three years he lived in disrepute, working as a low-level production assistant on television commercials and eventually documentary films. He recently worked as a research assistant on the Academy Award winning "An Inconvenient Truth." In 2004, Olson was hired to produce a fine art photography book by photographer Mark Story. The book is called "Living in Three Centuries," and is a book of portraits of the oldest people living in the world. For more than a year, Olson wandered around America searching for "super centenarians" (people over 110 years old). During this scouting period, Olson took constant notes on the American People, as well as his evolving self, and began formulating the idea to write a novel.
Ben Olson is mostly a bum. He is also an inveterate traveler, a sailor of Caribbean Seas, a tsunami relief volunteer in Thailand (where he was nearly killed in a motorcycle / water buffalo accident), a hitchhiker in the dying West, a backpacker and escape artists, and an advocate of roman candle shooting at drunks in downtown Seattle.
He writes occasionally for several small newspapers and magazines that nobody reads. He has been rejected by some of the best publications around. He has no money, no agent, no publicist and no hope.
Currently, Olson is homeless and couch-crashing around America, trying to find a place to finish his next novel.
He has worked as a dishwasher, busboy, bar tender, department store clerk, gas station clerk, golf pro, photographer, journalist, reclaimed lumber specialist, handyman, house painter, researcher, production assistant, producer, location scout, boat captain, propane filler, and finally, author.
After dropping out of Colorado State University after his third semester, Olson fled to Los Angeles to search for fame and fortune. He found neither. For three years he lived in disrepute, working as a low-level production assistant on television commercials and eventually documentary films. He recently worked as a research assistant on the Academy Award winning "An Inconvenient Truth." In 2004, Olson was hired to produce a fine art photography book by photographer Mark Story. The book is called "Living in Three Centuries," and is a book of portraits of the oldest people living in the world. For more than a year, Olson wandered around America searching for "super centenarians" (people over 110 years old). During this scouting period, Olson took constant notes on the American People, as well as his evolving self, and began formulating the idea to write a novel.
Ben Olson is mostly a bum. He is also an inveterate traveler, a sailor of Caribbean Seas, a tsunami relief volunteer in Thailand (where he was nearly killed in a motorcycle / water buffalo accident), a hitchhiker in the dying West, a backpacker and escape artists, and an advocate of roman candle shooting at drunks in downtown Seattle.
He writes occasionally for several small newspapers and magazines that nobody reads. He has been rejected by some of the best publications around. He has no money, no agent, no publicist and no hope.
Currently, Olson is homeless and couch-crashing around America, trying to find a place to finish his next novel.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 27, 2008
Two reasons to read this book:
1. Ben is a great writer
2. I'm a character in it
One reason to buy this book:
1. Ben's tired of eating gas station burritos
Here's my review from Amazon.com:
I cracked this open last night at 8:30 p.m. and didn't stop reading until I reached the end of the line at 3:30 in the morning. "Wanderlost" will grip your attention for a number of reasons...one: like the "corner booth" he writes about in the novel, where philosophical ponderings and beer and stories and poetic meanderings are traded amongst friends in his hometown of "Northsaint" at the local watering hole called the "The 419", the novel comes across as an adventure tale told amongst friends, the author unafraid to bare his soul to the reader like an old friend would do; two: as the protagonist "Max" rides the rails across America, the train becomes more than a fitting metaphor, it becomes the rhythm, tempo, and feel of the novel itself, with rushing scenes and strange interactions intertwined with pauses and stops, there is spontaneous prosody mixed with deliberate, punctual phrasing; three: there is an examination of the soul and an examination of America that is not the pining of a young man blaming everyone for the ills of society, but an honest beating of the chest and a search for meaning in a world that seems meaningless. This is an extraordinary effort for a first novel and I expect more from Mr. Olson, and eagerly so.
In the same vein of Jack Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson, here is a writer howling at the American landscape and destined to become an American writer of significance. The torch has been passed...
1. Ben is a great writer
2. I'm a character in it
One reason to buy this book:
1. Ben's tired of eating gas station burritos
Here's my review from Amazon.com:
I cracked this open last night at 8:30 p.m. and didn't stop reading until I reached the end of the line at 3:30 in the morning. "Wanderlost" will grip your attention for a number of reasons...one: like the "corner booth" he writes about in the novel, where philosophical ponderings and beer and stories and poetic meanderings are traded amongst friends in his hometown of "Northsaint" at the local watering hole called the "The 419", the novel comes across as an adventure tale told amongst friends, the author unafraid to bare his soul to the reader like an old friend would do; two: as the protagonist "Max" rides the rails across America, the train becomes more than a fitting metaphor, it becomes the rhythm, tempo, and feel of the novel itself, with rushing scenes and strange interactions intertwined with pauses and stops, there is spontaneous prosody mixed with deliberate, punctual phrasing; three: there is an examination of the soul and an examination of America that is not the pining of a young man blaming everyone for the ills of society, but an honest beating of the chest and a search for meaning in a world that seems meaningless. This is an extraordinary effort for a first novel and I expect more from Mr. Olson, and eagerly so.
In the same vein of Jack Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson, here is a writer howling at the American landscape and destined to become an American writer of significance. The torch has been passed...
Displaying 1 of 1 review