The Man Who Walked Backward: An American Dreamer's Search for Meaning in the Great Depression

by Ben Montgomery

From Pulitzer Prize finalist Ben Montgomery, the story of a Texas man who, during the Great Depression, walked around the world -- backwards.

Like most Americans at the time, Plennie Wingo was hit hard by the effects of the Great Depression. When the bank foreclosed on his small restaurant in Abilene, he found himself suddenly penniless with nowhere left to turn. After months of struggling to feed his family on wages he earned digging ditches in the Texas sun, Plennie decided it was time to do something extraordinary -- something to resurrect the spirit of adventure and optimism he felt he'd lost. He decided to walk around the world -- backwards.

In The Man Who Walked Backward , Pulitzer Prize finalist Ben Montgomery charts Plennie's backwards trek across the America that gave rise to Woody Guthrie, John Steinbeck, and the New Deal. With the Dust Bowl and Great Depression as a backdrop, Montgomery follows Plennie across the Atlantic through Germany, Turkey, and beyond, and details the daring physical feats, grueling hardships, comical misadventures, and hostile foreign police he encountered along the way. A remarkable and quirky slice of Americana, The Man Who Walked Backward paints a rich and vibrant portrait of a jaw-dropping period of history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Biography Memoir, Historical, Audiobook, Travel

304 pages, Hardcover

First published September 18, 2018

About the author

Ben grew up in Oklahoma and wanted to be a farmer before he got into journalism at Arkansas Tech University, where he played defensive back for the football team, the Wonder Boys. He worked for the Courier in Russellville, Ark., the Standard-Times in San Angelo, Texas, the Times Herald-Record in New York's Hudson River Valley and the Tampa Tribune before joining the Tampa Bay Times, Florida's biggest and best newspaper, in 2006.

In 2010, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in local reporting and won the Dart Award and Casey Medal for a series called "For Their Own Good," about abuse at Florida's oldest reform school. He lives in Tampa with his wife, Jennifer, and three children.

Reviews

[Miranda Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Which way are you going around the world?" Farmer asked.
"Going east," Plennie said. "You keep watching west and I'll be back."

Plennie Wingo and his family are about to hit one of the roughest patches of America's History.

"What came next, on the morning of Thursday, October 24th, 1929, was liquidation. Prices dropped. Dropped fast. Dropped hard. Dropped vertically. Dropped with an unprecedented and riveting violence."

Most people coped as well as they could - scrimping and saving what they could, bartering for the rest. And yet Plennie, thirty years old, had a decidedly...odd reaction.

"In his mind, his singular hope against hope: to gain fame and fortune by walking backward around the great world."

And so, he began his claim to fame.

He trained in secret under the tutelage of the local doctor for a few months, bought himself a set of mirrored glasses and a walking cane...and then he set off, leaving behind his wife and teenage daughter.

"One hundred twenty-five million Americans on the planet, and only one walking around it backward."

He hiked through cities and towns, across prairies and over rivers and, a few months into his journey, he came to a startling realization.

"He had not really thought about it until then, but he wondered now how far it really was around the world."

And on he plunged. He sold postcards of himself to fans and folks always made a hullabaloo whenever he came into town.

He ran into a plethora of unusual folks throughout his journey.

"The man said he was a representative of a prosthetics company, and if PLennie should lose a leg on the trip, well, he'd be glad to help find a new one."

Newspapers were beside themselves - quoting facts and figures about his adventure.

"His rate of progress is about three miles an hour when he's going full steam ahead in reverse."

and the papers conducted interviews a plenty - with the central question being, why??

"It's an ambition I've had for many years," he said. "There's no competition in it, either, and that's something in this day and age."

Overall - I really liked this one and I think Plennie Wingo would be absolutely chuffed.

This book was a fun take on a dismal time. So many books centered around that time focus on the sad and horrendous events that people begin to forget that there was something more going on.

The author was meticulous in his research - all events and quotes came from the various local newspapers as Plennie passed through their town.

"How many of you would be here now, watching me, if I were walking forward?"

Also, above all, I love this book because Plennie would too.

"Much of the time Plennie dealt silently with the burden of having never completed a book. It has been said that there are but two kinds of plots in great literature: a man leaves home, and a man returns. He had done both, backward."

Plennie took such pride in his accomplishments - almost driving his friends and family mad with stories of what he had done .

I imagine that this book would have tickled him pink.

"Mathematically, he had started with nothing...And he made four dollars.
You could do worse."

With thanks to little brown for a free copy in exchange for an honest review

All quotes come from an uncorrected proof and are subject to change upon publication.

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[Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 interesting stars!

I’m drawn to stories about the Great Depression. My grandparents were young then, and that time period had a huge effect on their lives (at least our family has rationalized it that way).

Plennie Wingo’s story takes place in this hard-hitting time. Living in Texas, the bank foreclosed on the restaurant he owned, and Plennie is forced to dig ditches to feed his family.

An adventurous soul, Plennie decides he needs to leave his mark in a different way; by walking around the world backwards. I wish I could ask my grandparents if they remembered his story. It was all over the newspapers at the time.

Plennie could not take on this adventure without training, so for six months he practices walking backwards. His sunglasses have mirrors so he can see behind him. His plan- to sell picture postcards for himself, and all the while, he is looking for a sponsor. His first trek has him taking off towards Dallas.

Through Plennie’s travels we get a bird’s eye view of the cold, dark, devoid times of the depression. He is met with the utmost generosity and likewise a victim of scammers.

Ben Montgomery’s impeccable research follows Plennie through the United States and includes famous events of the time (Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde, the Dust Bowl, Charles Lindberg, etc.), and traveling on to Germany where Hitler is on the rise, across European countries to Turkey.

Plennie walks backward for thousands of miles, but you’ll have to read the book to find out if he is successful. He is an entertaining character on the search for fortune and fame, but will he find it? And at what cost?

Thanks to Little, Brown for the copy of the book. All opinions are my own.

My reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plennie Lawrence Wingo is not a household name, although he went to great lengths endeavoring to achieve fame.

A string of bad luck had hit Plennie, thanks to the Depression. Nearly penniless, he hit on an idea. People were doing all kinds of crazy things to break records in a quest for fame. With fame comes money. It seemed as if everything that could be done had been done. Except...no one had walked around the world backward.

Plennie became obsessed. Every day for six months he practiced walking backward. He bought a map and sunglasses with mirrors to see behind him. He was given a cane. He put on his steel heeled shoes and a suit and ticked a notebook in his pocket, and in 1931 he left Texas, walking backward down Main Street on his way toward Dallas. He had picture postcards of himself to sell for income and hoped to find a commercial sponsor.

The Man Who Walked Backward by Ben Montgomery is Plennie's story, which is entertaining and interesting. He meets with great generosity and falls victim to scammers. He is a dreamer and a go-getter, fated to hit brick walls. He is harassed by cops and jailed in a foreign land. An affable man, he made friends who offered him shelter and meals and sometimes cash.

As readers travel with Plennie, we experience the misery and poverty of the Depression. We learn the story of America's growth through the history of the places he passed through, and how we used up and destroyed our vast riches.

Famous events and people are mentioned: the destruction of the buffalo as part of Native American genocide; the destruction of the prairie; towns that boom and bust; lynching and the Klan; Bonnie and Clyde and Al Capone; the kidnapping of Charles Lindberg's baby; the rise of Hoovervilles and the Dust Bowl; the growth of the beer industry and Prohibition.

And we travel with Plennie to Germany to experience the rise of Hitler, and across Europe to Turkey. It is unsettling how 1931 America is so familiar: ecological disaster, the destruction of the working class, the rise of a man who knew how to work the crowd, "tailoring his speeches to his audiences" and promising to make Germany great again. "People loved him. those who didn't were scared of those who did."

I found the book fascinating.

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

[wade · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of Plennie Wingo, a man ho walked backward over eight thousand miles. During the dust bowl living in Texas he and his family fall on hard times. This is the era of flag pole sitting, marathon dancing and Charles Lindbergh. Plennie decides he will make a name for himself and money walking backward around the world. He plans to make money through sponsorship and selling postcards with his photograph on them. His walk takes several years in the teeth of the great depression. At 81 he is on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. An interesting look at a one of a kind character.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

BIOGRAPHY/ ADVENTURE
Ben Montgomery
The Man Who Walked Backward: An American Dreamer’s Search for Meaning in the Great Depression
Little, Brown Spark
Hardcover, 978-0-3164-3806-3 (also available as an e-book and an audio-book), 304 pgs., $28.00
September 18, 2018

“Don’t worry. Do something.”

On April 15, 1931, Plennie Wingo, 36, of Abilene, Texas, donned a pin-striped suit, a tie, a fedora, and a pair of sunglasses specially fitted with side rear-view mirrors and set out to traverse the world walking backward. Wingo’s café, which fed and housed him and his wife and daughter during the Roaring Twenties, went belly-up as the country plunged into the darkness of what would become known as the Great Depression. Wingo’s arrest for serving alcohol during the folly of Prohibition didn’t help, either.

Wingo claimed to be trying to earn some money to provide for his family and maybe that was originally the impetus, but Wingo carried on with his stunt after none of his attempts to be sponsored — preferably by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce in return for global advertising in the form of a sandwich board, then maybe by a shoe manufacturer, then hopefully by a company that made rubber soles for footwear — panned out. Wingo financed his Grand Tour by selling postcards of himself facing backward (but who could discern that from a photograph?). Surprisingly, the postcard sales worked pretty well.

Oh, the places he went and the sights he saw! During his grand adventure, Wingo depended upon the kindness of strangers and was (usually) not disappointed. He walked 2,000 some-odd miles across sixteen states, from Fort Worth to Boston, where he got a berth, in return for his labor, on the Seattle Spirit (which would be torpedoed the very next year by a German submarine) headed for Hamburg, Germany. He ultimately made it as far as Istanbul, Turkey (where he had tea with Queen Maria of Yugoslavia), backward-walking.

Wingo encountered quarrelsome cops, jealous husbands, and “gypsies”; was thrown into not a few jail cells (“Things began to look bleak for Plennie around day seven in the Turkish jail”); and was deloused once. His return from Europe involved an Italian mystery man and a few suspicious trunks of he-claims-not-to-know-what.

Wingo also experienced the best of the species, people of all races and nationalities who became fast friends and provided a meal, a bed, fresh clothes, cash (a crowd of Romanians passed the hat), and, in one instance, an escort to the Czech border by a contingent of lumberjacks, to this peculiar American who inspired them against a backdrop of Al Capone’s soup kitchen, banks collapsing, dusty bowls, plagues of grasshoppers, MacArthur ordering the murder of the children of veterans camped out on the Potomac River, and the rise of something called the Nationalist Socialist Party in Germany.

The Man Who Walked Backward: An American Dreamer’s Search for Meaning in the Great Depression is Pulitzer Prize–nominated journalist Ben Montgomery’s third book of nonfiction and his second book about an unusual pedestrian. The Man Who Walked Backward is a richly textured, elegantly constructed cry against convention in a country which has battled between stultifying convention and “rugged individualism” since its earliest days.

Montgomery’s narrative is quick and even while incorporating asides into the flow. His personality permeates his writing and adds to the experience rather than distracting from it. Montgomery is fondly indulgent of Wingo though not adverse to gently but firmly calling him out on his self-serving justifications and disingenuous rationalizations with a sharp, clear-eyed wit — and a pun or two (no small feat) — when deemed necessary.

Fun fact: if you walk backward far enough, your legs appear as if your calves (“like ripe grapefruit”) have migrated to your shins. Imagine.

Another fun fact: “Walking backward around the world” in German is “Rückwärts rund um die welt.”

Montgomery has a gift for the well-turned phrase and for succinctly capturing the character of historical events and periods and how those events affect the character of individuals. Of the 1920s, Montgomery writes, “What followed [World War I] was optimism, and mass production, and the mass production of optimism.” The introduction of radio into homes birthed “a controversial new offense on family circles called a ‘commercial.’”

The author’s use of language is a joy. Environmental devastation caused by certain farming and mining practices leaves a debilitated landscape and human suffering as “a reminder of the toll of the taking.” That’s my new favorite phrase, the toll of the taking. Crossing the Atlantic, one of Wingo’s jobs was to squeegee the cabins but he was profoundly seasick and so his vomiting “erased considerably his squeegee productivity.” A disgusting image but a hilarious phrase followed by touching emotion: Wingo comes to a fork in the road in a Bavarian forest. The snowfall had finally stopped and sunlight was filtering through the dense branches causing the snow to sparkle. “[Wingo] stood for a long time, watching, listening, his breath visible, the full moon rising over the woods,” Montgomery writes. “[Wingo] had walked at least twelve miles in the wrong direction. He was happy to be lost.”

The epilogue is a neat compilation of updates on people and situations mentioned as context throughout The Man Who Walked Backward. Capone died from a heart attack in his mansion in Florida in 1947. Native Americans “refused to vanish, despite attempts to brainwash tens of thousands of Indian children in boot-camp boarding schools” and built casinos which finally recouped some of the money owed them by Anglos for stolen land. Americans raised a glass to the death of Prohibition. FDR refused to allow Charles Lindbergh to enlist in the army on account of Lindbergh being a Nazi.

And Plennie Wingo? It’s 1976 and he’s on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. Wingo’s world record for distance stands.

Narrative nonfiction is a form which allows for a broader picture of the subject, not just a portrait but a landscape showing where the subject fits in time and place, the influences of circumstances both large and small. An intriguing mix of biography and history, seasoned with dashes of science, sociology, and psychology, leavened with Montgomery’s sly wit, The Man Who Walked Backward is the best sort of narrative nonfiction, using the micro of Plennie Wingo’s journey to tell us something about the macro state of us in the 1930s. Indeed, in our love of spectacle and self-promotion, which has culminated in the election of a walking spectacle as president, we haven’t changed much.

“A man had come, and he would be remembered, and what more could he ask?”

Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is a true story about a man who lost his successful business in the worst of times and his attempt to do something unique and re-instate his status as a provider. But he fails to do either one. He still holds the record for the longest walk backward and other records, and if you try it, walking backward is not an easy feat, but he did not walk around the world and he did not provide for his family. More than a book about a flawed man, it takes you through small towns’ history. I was shocked by the violence and dark histories of, what seemed to me, all small towns! I was surprised to read some of the language that is similar to current events – the rise and apparent acceptability of the KKK, Adolf Hitler’s rhetoric and current white nationalist’s movement, mass murders of ethnic minorities, disputes over territory, drug deals, and meanness among human beings, etc. This dark, oppressing history shows there never were any good old days. It makes me wonder if we have the potential for peace and freedom for all. Before you think, what a downer, please know that the author writes in a no nonsense way that charms you into enjoying the character and the history. His investigative skills are front row when the man has conflicting stories about an incident in Europe. I read this book and listened to the audio – sometimes at the same time – it was a wonderful multimedia way to enjoy a good book. This was a book club selection for our book club for March 2019 and we had the honor of the author attending which made for an exciting, entertaining, and enlightening conversation.

[Abbey Phipps · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ben Montgomery is a brilliant writer. This is my second book of his, and he is gifted at weaving stories together.

That being said, if anyone else had written this book, I wouldn't have finished it. It's just a disappointing story. The subtitle is "An American Dreamer's Search For Meaning In The Great Depression," but I found none of that to be true for Plennie Wingo. Sure, it was an impressive physical feat that he walked so many miles backwards, but he didn't grow as a person. There was no character development. He left in his family in one of the darkest times in America's history, sent no support (even when he had the opportunity), and never made a difference in the world. This book just felt empty.

Also, there was so much world history that, at times, it felt more like a history book than a book about Plennie Wingo. Some of it tied into the story (Plennie was in Chicago around the time of Al Capone's trial), but most of it felt excessive.

[Guido Herrera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounded up from a 3.5. Good read, learned a lot of history, but felt more like a long Wikipedia article with one dudes life wrapped in it all. Unlike Forest Gump, this dude wasn’t directly involved in or present for the historical events described just kinda alive at the same time which is not as cool. Cool guy tho.

[Kyle Garner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not the best book I’ve ever read, but one of the most enjoyable.

[Joelle McNulty · Rating 3 out of 5]

A truly bizarre account of a guy who walked backwards across the USA and part of the world. I liked the human interest side of this story. It gave a little more history on obscure places that Plennie walked through, which was not really what I was looking for… that said, it gave a really good feel for some of the challenges in the 30s. Politically, racially, economically, etc. Overall a pretty good read.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ben Mongomery's new book was a must read for me. He's the author of Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail, a book that I rated as my #1 read in 2014. Mongomery was a finalist for the Pulitizer Prize in 2010. I'm a long distance backpacker, and I relish stories about long adventures powered by foot.

The book is about Plennie Wingo, who was crushed economically by the Great Depression of 1929. With no jobs available to him, and with a wife and daughter to support, Wingo came up with a crazy idea- walking around the world. When he realized that someone had follow up on that stunt, he really got creative and decided to walk it backwards. Through practice, determination, and a pair of glasses that had side mirrors on them that allowed him to periscope what was behind him, Wingo managed to get himself up to 3 m.p.h.

Wingo eventually made it across all the USA ( in two separate trips), but was stopped short in Europe, after he left Hamburg and found himself jailed in Instanbul.

The book depicts life in the USA after the Great Depression, where a quarter still bought a lot. yet a dollar was hard to find . Wingo struggled more than expected in getting through the USA, where he was stopped numerous times by the police who told him it was illegal to walk backwards. He was no stranger to jails, or to con men who put forth the veneer of wealth and friendship to extract what meager funds he did beg up through wearing advertising signs and selling 25 cent postcards of his walk. Many folks also did help him, offering beds, meals, and even some cash surprises.

I thought I ordered a copy of his book through my local library, but I received the 8CD audiobook instead. I have a " new" used car and had never even considered playing an audiobook through the stereo. I recommend this audiobook. It is unabridged, and very well read, included lively dialogue aided by differing voice patterns by the reader. A bonus CD has 17 pages of maps and photos that brought the book to life.

The book is a great reminder, along with Mongomery's excellent Grandma Gatewood's Walk, that major adventures are available to evereryman and everywoman. Taking that first step out of the door is the hardest thing anyone can do, and after that, you build up a momentum that who knows what can happen!

[David Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining way of sharing the history of the Great Depression. Read it front to back -- and back to front!

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book retells the journey of Plennie Wingo in his attempt to circle the globe walking backwards during the Great Depression. In addition to following Wingo’s trip, the story also paints a portrait of the world he’s walking through. A great little history book!

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

By walking backward for thousands of miles in a failed attempt to circumnavigate the globe in reverse, Plennie Wingo secured himself a Guinness world record and a place in the pantheon of American oddballs. Though he took things to extreme, he reminded me of a few people I've met--relentless optimists, full of energy and unperturbed by the impracticality of their obsessions or their lack of financial resources.

While Wingo made it to Europe, his overseas travel ended in Turkey, where authorities threw him in jail and made him leave. However, he did get a lot farther than I would have expected--crossing the United States and parts of eight other countries. His initial trip took 18 months and more than 5,000 miles and he eventually pushed his count to 8,000 miles.

He said he got his crazy idea when his daughter's friends were discussing stunts that were then the rage (pole sitting, peanut pushing, solo flying and the like) and said there was nothing that hadn't already been done. Wingo begged to differ.

The subtitle of The Man Who Walked Backward is a half misleading "an American dreamer's search for meaning the Great Depression." Wingo was a dreamer to be sure, but there is nothing in this book to suggest any introspection. He was after adventure, fame and fortune and was willing to sacrifice his family and 12 pairs of shoes to get it. He definitely found the first two, getting his photo and story in newsreels and newspapers across the country--and even overseas. He came home with just $4 in his pocket, but he managed to finance his travels, selling postcards of himself for a quarter (equal to about $4 today), carrying sign boards doing odd jobs and taking advantage of free meals and accommodations whenever they were offered.

Ben Montgomery puts Wingo's story into context, telling about both current and historical events related to the places Wingo walks through. This is often a real strength--especially when he tells us what others were doing to cope with the Great Depression at the time, including hunger marchers, strikers and suicidal businessmen. But sometimes his love of statistics got a bit too much for me--telling us for example, the number of telephones and library books in Joplin, Mo., or the exact number of days in World War I.

Overall, I found it to be a good read about an entertaining character.

[Koen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The charming and wholesome story of Plennie Wingo who set out to walk around the earth. Backwards.

Times were dire during the great depression and, as for most Americans, there was not much winning for Plennie. Out of work and out of money Plennie set out to do something extraordinary. Stunts had been a part of America for years and it brought you fame, sponsoring and money; flying transatlantic non stop, sitting on a pole for a month, rolling a peanut up a mountain with your nose, a lot had been done already. But nobody, Plennie thought, had walked the earth backwards.

So after some training, one day Plennie started walking. From Texas to New York, from Hamburg to Istanbul selling postcards and doing the odd advertising job but mainly relying on the kindness of the people he met on the way. Because, while it did bring Wingo some fame, it did not really bring him lots of money.

The story is amusing and well told. It's pretty random but I can sort of understand Plennie, what else was he to do? There sure wasn't any work, the adventure he would cherish for the rest of his life.

[Jim Willse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm probably the only reader of The Man Who Walked Backward who's actually interviewed its subject. Wingo came out of retirement in 1974 as part of a stunt to promote Ripley's Museum in LA, and I wrote a story about his backward walk along the Pacific Coast (I was in the AP bureau in San Francisco). Montgomery does a nice job recreating the times and locations of Wingo's original adventure in the 1930s.

[J.J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea that this ever occurred, and how far this man actually went. Enjoyed the Route 66 parts Oklahoma connection. This man sounds like a very interesting individual and the author's use of current events really tied the story together! Also lots of reference to Alfalfa Bill Murray.

[Daniel Farabaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much of this books was given over to general history as the author attempted to give the book atmosphere. It felt as if the story of the backwards walker was not enough to fill out the book. When the author focused on the the subject of Wingo it was good.

[Jack Goodstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loaded with digressions.

[Dale Muckerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was surprised at how good this book is. It tells the story of Plennie Wingo, a man who set his mind on walking around the world backwards. However, it also tells a bigger story--the story of a world also moving backwards in many respects. In a fashion reminiscent of Forest Gump and also reminiscent of the newsreel technique used by John Dos Passos in the USA trilogy, historical events of the late 1920s and early 1930s come to life in an engaging manner: crazy people doing stunts in the twenties, the birth of the Depression, horrific racism, terrible crime, the history beer brewing in St. Louis, the story of the dust bowl, Bonnie and Clyde, the plight of the Native American Indians, Al Capone, the building of the Empire State Building, Herbert Hoover, the rise of Hitler, and more are all woven into the marvelous but true tale. Yet the story in the end is about the existential plight of Plennie Wingo as he hopes to make his mark on the world and earn a few bucks in the process.

[James Simms · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because I heard the story of Plennie L. Wingo at a Carrollwood Toastmasters Club meeting! Before I read it I wondered why would a man choose to react to the Great Depression by putting on special glasses and attempt to walk around the world backwards. 274 pages later that question still lingers. However Plennie survived, saw the world and got Mayor Jimmy Walker's autograph and more than 40 years later appeared with Johnny Carson. He certainly was eccentric yet I wanted to hear more about Who he was rather than What he did. In this day and age of Social Media maybe Plennie would have gotten a Major Sponsor and launched a productive career. I guess in the end Plennie Wingo did it because he had nothing else to do and no one else had done it. (I think his 8,000 mile record of Backwards Walking still stands).

[Richard Montgomery · Rating 5 out of 5]

For The Record

From our beginnings until the very end, we all walk backwards every day. The lessons we learned as infants, children, teenagers and adults help us succeed in moving ahead as we walk backward through the mazes in our minds. Parallels to history, recent and current, can help us navigate the channels we choose to sail through our lives avoiding submerged obstacles imperious journeys. The numerous life lessons so expertly woven into this book are a credit to Ben's research and hard work in presenting them to us readers. Reading his straightforward approach to history as it impacted one man's journey was helpful in understanding where the potholes in life's road might be so we can be prepared to swerve.

[Cary Aspinwall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great nonfiction read about an important moment in U.S. history through the mirrored-lens eyes of little guy who dreamed big. It was a weird dream, and Plennie is pretty shifty and not always likable- but he did the damn thing. And the author manages to weave a very interesting story about a long, weird walk through time. Well done, Ben!

[Mike Rhea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book which wove Plennie Wingo’s journey and historical events effortlessly. At times the book went into great detail on some minute interactions the main character had and other times it would speed through some interesting interactions that I wish received more attention. All in all, excellent book that I would recommend to most people who like a good story but also love history.

[Keith Rowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fascinating story. At first I thought it was about a fictional character but this fellow really existed and really walked thousands of miles backward! His story is amazing with countless encounters with folks, friends and foes.

[Phyllis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me

Had to read f or book club. Historical facts a tad entertaining, but that's about all I can say in a positive way.

[Brian Dye · Rating 4 out of 5]

The juxtaposition of the Everyman to the villains, heros, celebrities, victories and catastrophies of the great depression. Good read.

[Caleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining read--the author does a good job of making Plennie's story interesting while mixing in both the well known and lesser known historical events of that time period.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting story. I learned a lot about the great depression and the dust bowl and the cultural attitudes of America then. And Plennie Wingo was quite an interesting character

[Sandra Kossmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting

I liked the book especially the history of the times around 1932. I did not like how he left his wife and child to go on his trek.