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The Sunset Route: Freight Trains, Forgiveness, and Freedom on the Rails in the American West
The unforgettable story of one woman who leaves behind her hardscrabble childhood in Alaska to travel the country via freight train--a beautiful memoir about forgiveness, self-discovery, and the redemptive power of nature.
After a childhood marked by neglect, poverty, and periods of homelessness, with a mother who believed herself to be the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, Carrot Quinn moved out on her own. She found a sense of belonging among straight-edge anarchists who taught her how to traverse the country by freight trains, sleep in fields under the stars, and feed herself by foraging in dumpsters. Her new life was one of thrilling adventure and freedom, but still she was haunted by the ghosts of her lonely and traumatic childhood.
The Sunset Route is a powerful and brazenly honest adventure memoir set in the unseen corners of the United States--in the Alaskan cold, on trains rattling through forests and deserts, as well as in low-income apartments and crowded punk houses--following a remarkable protagonist who has witnessed more tragedy than she thought she could ever endure and who must learn to heal her own heart. Ultimately, it is a meditation on the natural world as a spiritual anchor, and on the ways that forgiveness can set us free.
After a childhood marked by neglect, poverty, and periods of homelessness, with a mother who believed herself to be the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, Carrot Quinn moved out on her own. She found a sense of belonging among straight-edge anarchists who taught her how to traverse the country by freight trains, sleep in fields under the stars, and feed herself by foraging in dumpsters. Her new life was one of thrilling adventure and freedom, but still she was haunted by the ghosts of her lonely and traumatic childhood.
The Sunset Route is a powerful and brazenly honest adventure memoir set in the unseen corners of the United States--in the Alaskan cold, on trains rattling through forests and deserts, as well as in low-income apartments and crowded punk houses--following a remarkable protagonist who has witnessed more tragedy than she thought she could ever endure and who must learn to heal her own heart. Ultimately, it is a meditation on the natural world as a spiritual anchor, and on the ways that forgiveness can set us free.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published July 6, 2021
95 people are currently reading
7237 people want to read
About the author
Carrot Quinn
6 books344 followersI'm a writer and a long-distance hiker.
You can read more of my adventures and essays on my blog- carrotquinn.com
My instagram is @carrotquinn - instagram.com/carrotquinn
You can read more of my adventures and essays on my blog- carrotquinn.com
My instagram is @carrotquinn - instagram.com/carrotquinn
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 248 reviews
August 15, 2021
Reading this wrenching memoir, I was constantly amazed by the fortitude if this young woman, but also the strength she had to constantly start over again. She writes with honesty, vulnerability and puts it all out there, no holds barred. Her life with a schizophrenic mother, she and her brother victims of abuse, starvation, homelessness and this from an early age. When finally taken in by her grandparents, she is fed, clothed but still denied the love she craves.
Drugs and alcohol are never her problem, she only wants to live the best life she can on her own terms. Her lifestyle is not one I could ever embrace, jumping trains, hitchhiking, living place to place, dumpster diving. Trying to come to terms with her past, while finding a viable future. By books end she does find some, but not all of her answers, but she lives a life and lifestyle that suits her at this time.
I should add that she can definitely write, this book draws one in and makes us see both the pain and searching her life entails. Joy too, though she may not have many material things or many of the things we take for granted, by choice at this point I think, she is rich in both friends and experiences.
ARC from book browse.
Drugs and alcohol are never her problem, she only wants to live the best life she can on her own terms. Her lifestyle is not one I could ever embrace, jumping trains, hitchhiking, living place to place, dumpster diving. Trying to come to terms with her past, while finding a viable future. By books end she does find some, but not all of her answers, but she lives a life and lifestyle that suits her at this time.
I should add that she can definitely write, this book draws one in and makes us see both the pain and searching her life entails. Joy too, though she may not have many material things or many of the things we take for granted, by choice at this point I think, she is rich in both friends and experiences.
ARC from book browse.
February 5, 2021
this is going on my list of all-time great memoirs
September 1, 2021
3.5 stars Thank you to BookBrowse for giving me this book to read and review. Published on July 6, 2021.
Carrot Quinn was running. Maybe not running from, but trying to run to.
Carrot - born Jenni - had a miserable childhood. A schizophrenic mother, a brother raised apart from her, and grandparents who were cold and unloving. In her early teens Carrot had had enough. She took to the rails. She spent her next eight or so years mostly living on other peoples couches, eating from dumpsters, and hiding in tree lines waiting for the next train to take her to where she thought she needed to go. Carrot saw a lot of the US and felt the freedom from confinement, but she also felt loss. The loss of a mother, the loss of family, the loss of a home. She was always searching. Those losses stayed with her.
This is a raw exposure of a memoir, offset by the beauty of both nature and mankind, as seen by one young woman trying to outrun her troubles. The life of Carrot Quinn has been one of heartbreak wrapped in self discovery.
Carrot Quinn was running. Maybe not running from, but trying to run to.
Carrot - born Jenni - had a miserable childhood. A schizophrenic mother, a brother raised apart from her, and grandparents who were cold and unloving. In her early teens Carrot had had enough. She took to the rails. She spent her next eight or so years mostly living on other peoples couches, eating from dumpsters, and hiding in tree lines waiting for the next train to take her to where she thought she needed to go. Carrot saw a lot of the US and felt the freedom from confinement, but she also felt loss. The loss of a mother, the loss of family, the loss of a home. She was always searching. Those losses stayed with her.
This is a raw exposure of a memoir, offset by the beauty of both nature and mankind, as seen by one young woman trying to outrun her troubles. The life of Carrot Quinn has been one of heartbreak wrapped in self discovery.
July 5, 2021
Always and forever, I will think of this book every time I see a freight train passing by. But life riding on the train is not the most important theme of this memoir. The more pressing theme is the mistreatment and neglect the author received as a child.
I have questions, many questions about Carrot Quinn’s life. How could her mother ever have sole custody of Carrot and her brother Jordan? Why does this family have material possessions like a sewing machine and thousands of cigarettes for her mother, when they have no food? How many other children in America are as neglected as these children? Can some details of a memoir be embellished? And most importantly, isn’t it wonderful that Carrot Quinn can write such an intriguing memoir? She uses so many wonderful metaphors.
I think this book is right up there with Educated as an eye-opening memoir. The Sunset Route publishes this week, July 6th. Thanks to Book Browse for giving this book to me. It’s a gem of a memoir!
I have questions, many questions about Carrot Quinn’s life. How could her mother ever have sole custody of Carrot and her brother Jordan? Why does this family have material possessions like a sewing machine and thousands of cigarettes for her mother, when they have no food? How many other children in America are as neglected as these children? Can some details of a memoir be embellished? And most importantly, isn’t it wonderful that Carrot Quinn can write such an intriguing memoir? She uses so many wonderful metaphors.
I think this book is right up there with Educated as an eye-opening memoir. The Sunset Route publishes this week, July 6th. Thanks to Book Browse for giving this book to me. It’s a gem of a memoir!
December 28, 2021
From the time I first learned this book was coming out I was psyched to read it, and not only because its hard not to be curious about a person named Carrot. I am certainly interested in the rootless ever-moving people who still ride the rails. I guess being a hobo somehow seems more romantic than being a homeless person, though I cannot say why. I am also always interested in the children of people with severe mental illness, and Carrot was raised in a remote location by a schizophrenic single mother who neglected her children, and who abused them emotionally and physically. This is of interest to me both because severe mental illness has had impact on friends and family I love and because incidence of serious mental illness is on the rise and our current policies are at best insufficient and at worst actively counter-productive when it comes to protecting the mentally ill and their families. As it turned out, the book was a very personal story that I don't think had potential for broader application. That is okay, this is Quinn's story to tell and though it was not the book I was looking for I am sure it will be of interest to many.
Regardless of what I did or did not get from the book, Quinn has had an undeniably fascinating life. It should surprise no one that she sought escape from a life of pain and hunger and nearly unimaginable deprivation any way she could and that she longed for control since she grew up having none. She sought that controlled escape through a lot of sex (which does not appear to have been particularly gratifying) through anorexia, and through the utter independence of riding the rails and getting lost in the wilderness -- she is now a distance hiker, having completed the Pacific Crest Trail more than once in addition to other walks. Quinn's new life, as a person constantly on the move in the remotest places is incredibly dangerous. It requires next level physical fitness and the ability to live with only those possessions you can carry. Quinn is a grown woman with no home, repulsive hygiene, no health insurance, little education (she is clearly very smart and better read than most people I know who have master's degrees, but she barely graduated from an "alternative" high-school and pursued no formal studies thereafter), and no profession other than writing and hiking and posting about her hikes and asking for donations. Of course now she is a published author which requires some respect for outside structure, deadlines are deadlines. I respect Quinn's rugged individualism, but my god she seems lonely, and her survival is so precarious. I feel like this is supposed to be a book about overcoming, and in some ways it is, and in many ways it is not. In the end I had respect for and interest in Quinn, but not a hint of envy for the prospect of tossing off my burdens and hitting the open road. The only way to be unburdened is to love no one (and to be loved by no one, or to be cruel to those who might love you), and that sounds awful. I am glad though that it works for her. Given her childhood this could have been a tragedy, and it most definitely is not that.
My lack of connection to this story was exacerbated by a strange rather jagged organizational structure that left me confused a great deal of the time. Quinn went back and forth in time constantly. That can be a great device if connections are drawn between what happened before and after, but I missed those connections if they existed. I thought the train riding would be a through-line for the story, but she just stopped riding trains at some point and not much was said about that. I was glad she stopped riding while she still had working limbs, lot's of people don't stop until sustaining serious injury, but I don't really know how or why that decision was reached. I also don't understand why, having made that decision, she put herself in more danger traipsing to the arctic with nothing but wool gloves and a few dollars.
I think there was a very interesting story, but Quinn's writing style did not work for me and I think her failure to effectively connect a lot of dots left this book feeling unfinished despite a very linear epilogue.
Regardless of what I did or did not get from the book, Quinn has had an undeniably fascinating life. It should surprise no one that she sought escape from a life of pain and hunger and nearly unimaginable deprivation any way she could and that she longed for control since she grew up having none. She sought that controlled escape through a lot of sex (which does not appear to have been particularly gratifying) through anorexia, and through the utter independence of riding the rails and getting lost in the wilderness -- she is now a distance hiker, having completed the Pacific Crest Trail more than once in addition to other walks. Quinn's new life, as a person constantly on the move in the remotest places is incredibly dangerous. It requires next level physical fitness and the ability to live with only those possessions you can carry. Quinn is a grown woman with no home, repulsive hygiene, no health insurance, little education (she is clearly very smart and better read than most people I know who have master's degrees, but she barely graduated from an "alternative" high-school and pursued no formal studies thereafter), and no profession other than writing and hiking and posting about her hikes and asking for donations. Of course now she is a published author which requires some respect for outside structure, deadlines are deadlines. I respect Quinn's rugged individualism, but my god she seems lonely, and her survival is so precarious. I feel like this is supposed to be a book about overcoming, and in some ways it is, and in many ways it is not. In the end I had respect for and interest in Quinn, but not a hint of envy for the prospect of tossing off my burdens and hitting the open road. The only way to be unburdened is to love no one (and to be loved by no one, or to be cruel to those who might love you), and that sounds awful. I am glad though that it works for her. Given her childhood this could have been a tragedy, and it most definitely is not that.
My lack of connection to this story was exacerbated by a strange rather jagged organizational structure that left me confused a great deal of the time. Quinn went back and forth in time constantly. That can be a great device if connections are drawn between what happened before and after, but I missed those connections if they existed. I thought the train riding would be a through-line for the story, but she just stopped riding trains at some point and not much was said about that. I was glad she stopped riding while she still had working limbs, lot's of people don't stop until sustaining serious injury, but I don't really know how or why that decision was reached. I also don't understand why, having made that decision, she put herself in more danger traipsing to the arctic with nothing but wool gloves and a few dollars.
I think there was a very interesting story, but Quinn's writing style did not work for me and I think her failure to effectively connect a lot of dots left this book feeling unfinished despite a very linear epilogue.
August 3, 2021
A tremendously brave story, exposing the brutality of how our society deals with mental health crises, drug/alcohol abuse, sexual abuse, parenting support lacks - and also illuminating how resilient we can be, especially with the support of community, no matter how unconventional. The time jumping around was a little confusing, but maybe that was the best way for Carrot to come to grips with, and share, her story.
August 5, 2021
One of those rare books you cannot put down; I stayed up until 2am reading. There’s really no right words to paint what it feels like when someone describes your insides in the way Carrot does. There’s this suspension between the heaviness of life and expansive limitless freedom the world wants to offer and Carrot flicks between these two places so effortlessly you both feel all the pain and all the joy, beauty in a way that almost reconciles it all. I wish I could read it for the first time again. I wish I could give it ten stars.
August 28, 2021
Really 2.5 stars, but for this book, I would not round up. I finished in two sittings, mostly to finish but also, it was a rather easy read. The book is loaded with metaphors. Although I found bits about the modern train hobo lifestyle interesting, I found the author a rather unlikeable person. Her 'adult' life is marked by unapologetic shop-lifting for whatever she needs, simply stealing as a way of life, and living off of other people. She outright rejects the notion of work for pay. (Sidenote, I'm thankful I borrowed and did not pay for her book, which I'm certain she can appreciate).
This 'story' was more about the author's impoverished upbringing by her schizo mother, and her running away, searching for something, perhaps a story to write. After Quinn's mother is sent away, her grandparents taker her in. She then leaves their home, after punching her grandmother in the face (as Carrot had also done to her mother). Making her way to punk houses, she learns to shoplift, steal, have group sex, and how to travel for free across the country.
I found the memoir to be less than forthright after having read more about her online. For example, nowhere in this book does she talk about the writing courses she took or her writing aspirations, yet apparently this was something she told everyone in the punk houses, to leave her alone so she could write her book. Perhaps Tara's success and other writer's success in the same genre made an impression on her?
I'm not sure where the "Forgiveness" part of the book title comes in. Nowhere in the writing does she seem to have any remorse for rampant stealing and assaulting family members. Or is she alluding to her forgiveness of her mother? For what? Being mentally ill? Father? For giving her up?
She, no doubt, was dealt a bad hand. But in her adulting, I think the truth is Carrot Quinn found it difficult to abide by rules and became an abuser and taker. She keeps running (or walking rather) as she doesn't believe in "exchanging labor for capital", and will always be looking for the route that she doesn't have to pay for. So buy this book if you'd like to support her goals.
This 'story' was more about the author's impoverished upbringing by her schizo mother, and her running away, searching for something, perhaps a story to write. After Quinn's mother is sent away, her grandparents taker her in. She then leaves their home, after punching her grandmother in the face (as Carrot had also done to her mother). Making her way to punk houses, she learns to shoplift, steal, have group sex, and how to travel for free across the country.
I found the memoir to be less than forthright after having read more about her online. For example, nowhere in this book does she talk about the writing courses she took or her writing aspirations, yet apparently this was something she told everyone in the punk houses, to leave her alone so she could write her book. Perhaps Tara's success and other writer's success in the same genre made an impression on her?
I'm not sure where the "Forgiveness" part of the book title comes in. Nowhere in the writing does she seem to have any remorse for rampant stealing and assaulting family members. Or is she alluding to her forgiveness of her mother? For what? Being mentally ill? Father? For giving her up?
She, no doubt, was dealt a bad hand. But in her adulting, I think the truth is Carrot Quinn found it difficult to abide by rules and became an abuser and taker. She keeps running (or walking rather) as she doesn't believe in "exchanging labor for capital", and will always be looking for the route that she doesn't have to pay for. So buy this book if you'd like to support her goals.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 28, 2021
Carrot Quinn has had an interesting life with plenty of fodder to make a truly readable memoir. In this book, she shares her experiences riding the rails by jumping on freight trains. Mixed in are memories from her less-than-perfect childhood. Her younger years are weaved with poverty and neglect. She was moved from place to place and never felt settled. Through her experiences we see her learning more about herself and developing an appreciation for the natural world. This novel is in turns heartbreaking, inspirational, raw and adventurous.
What to listen to while reading...
Head Over Feet by Alanis Morissette
All Apologies by Nirvana
Peaches by The Presidents of the United States
If I Ruled the World by Nas
Fire Water Burn by Bloodhound Gang
Hopeless Romantic by The Bouncing Souls
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy!
What to listen to while reading...
Head Over Feet by Alanis Morissette
All Apologies by Nirvana
Peaches by The Presidents of the United States
If I Ruled the World by Nas
Fire Water Burn by Bloodhound Gang
Hopeless Romantic by The Bouncing Souls
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy!
August 8, 2021
Shiiiiiiit, one of those memoirs that you want to look away, but you can't. A pretty crazy look into poverty in rural areas (AK?!) and growing up around severe mental illness. I loved how Carrot reinvents herself through different times - like 4 mini lives lived in 1/3 of a lifespan. I think my favorite scene in the book is when she is in the car with her cousin moving to Portland and everything she has thought about society, the way things work, how things COULD be different is exposed for the first time. I think I learned enough about trains that I could ride one. And I love how it ends (or just how life number 5 begins?) - finding through-hiking, and all the space trails have to hold you and your shit, is pivotal.
July 14, 2021
I enjoyed this book very much! It is Carrot Quinn's story of how she grew up, raised (or not raised!) by a schizophrenic mother, how her early years so affected the rest of her life, and how she learned to deal and live with it.
It is a sad story, but it also feels like an awakening. And it reminds the reader of all the people out there who have had such difficult situations to deal with and how each of us should be more empathetic and understanding of everyone around us. We're all so different and come from a different place. Carrot Quinn learned that riding the rails, travelling the country, and thru-hiking were her ways of finding herself and living life the way she needed to do it. Wouldn't it be nice if we all could find that "thing" that we needed in life? :)
It is a sad story, but it also feels like an awakening. And it reminds the reader of all the people out there who have had such difficult situations to deal with and how each of us should be more empathetic and understanding of everyone around us. We're all so different and come from a different place. Carrot Quinn learned that riding the rails, travelling the country, and thru-hiking were her ways of finding herself and living life the way she needed to do it. Wouldn't it be nice if we all could find that "thing" that we needed in life? :)
August 13, 2021
This was the book of the month for my Indie bookstore book club(WAW).
I am so happy they chose this book: THE SUNSET ROUTE by Carrot Quinn.
I enjoyed reading about Carrot's freight train experiences and adventures - she certainly embraces the unknown with all of herself. It was not always easy reading about her childhood, how they lived with their mentally ill mother, most of the time hungry and basically neglected and overlooked by those around them as well as family. It is very disheartening to know this is happening in our country - fellow members of communities needing help, needing assistance and support and pretty much being ignored. Our country needs to be better.
Thank you to Carrot for writing this book and sharing her journey. I found her descriptions of her surroundings almost poetic - she certainly has a gift for writing. Yes, sometimes the time period would change within a chapter but it was easy to follow. I appreciate her sharing her soul through words. I hope this book becomes a BEST SELLER. I also hope this isn't her last book as I can see Carrot becoming an important mentor, leader, speaker for her community. She is awesome.
I am so happy they chose this book: THE SUNSET ROUTE by Carrot Quinn.
I enjoyed reading about Carrot's freight train experiences and adventures - she certainly embraces the unknown with all of herself. It was not always easy reading about her childhood, how they lived with their mentally ill mother, most of the time hungry and basically neglected and overlooked by those around them as well as family. It is very disheartening to know this is happening in our country - fellow members of communities needing help, needing assistance and support and pretty much being ignored. Our country needs to be better.
Thank you to Carrot for writing this book and sharing her journey. I found her descriptions of her surroundings almost poetic - she certainly has a gift for writing. Yes, sometimes the time period would change within a chapter but it was easy to follow. I appreciate her sharing her soul through words. I hope this book becomes a BEST SELLER. I also hope this isn't her last book as I can see Carrot becoming an important mentor, leader, speaker for her community. She is awesome.
August 4, 2021
Lovely and jarring and beautiful and weird and worth reading.
January 18, 2023
Children are often forced to grow up in such awful circumstances and The Sunset Route: Freight Trains, Forgiveness, and Freedom on the Rails in the American West by Carrot Quinn is her story of her upbringing (if one can call it that) and her coming of age and finding herself.
Carrot was born and raised in Alaska by a schizophrenic mother. Her story is devastating and hard to bear. It is also compulsively readable.
Quinn shifts from telling her story as a child to her story hopping freight trains. She begins traveling by train because she has fallen in with a bunch of millennial anarchists in Portland, OR. I appreciated getting to know about that perspective.
If you liked Educated, you may appreciate this book and the different path which Quinn followed.
Carrot was born and raised in Alaska by a schizophrenic mother. Her story is devastating and hard to bear. It is also compulsively readable.
Quinn shifts from telling her story as a child to her story hopping freight trains. She begins traveling by train because she has fallen in with a bunch of millennial anarchists in Portland, OR. I appreciated getting to know about that perspective.
If you liked Educated, you may appreciate this book and the different path which Quinn followed.
December 8, 2021
Special thanks to Random House and Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of this book, The Sunset Route: Freight Trains, Forgiveness and Freedom on the Rails in the American West.
I have to say, I love a good book. Although nonfiction is not my favorite genre, I loved this well-written memoir by Carrot Quinn, who left her home because of abuse and a mentally insane mother and who made it on her own without money or a place to stay. This book is about that and so much more. It's about a girl, Carrot who lives with a mother who is not all there and when Carrot finally chooses to leave home, she leaves with nothing. Having nothing, she learns to live off of the land, learning how to survive with nothing. She gets her food, foraging for it wherever and whenever she can get it and for transportation she rides on the back of freight trains mostly to get from here to there. Carrot Quinn describes the wilderness and countryside and some chilly places with a deft, masterful hand.
People who leave their homes CAN make it outside, but can it ever heal their insides and their heart from living a traumatic life and childhood? What happens when they get desperate and go back home? Can the reason why they left ever heal them by going back someday? Does it ever change for them, even if they do make it back home? Can having a traumatic childhood ever really invoke forgiveness from a child to the parent who traumatized them?....I really enjoyed this book. I loved the desperation that was palpable and the description of the places Carrot went to and the people she met. Everything was easily visualized while reading this book. Choosing to live homeless without the tangible comforts of home life and the different things to consider such as how the elements of Mother Nature are something that can't possibly be planned and the endurance of living every day safely and surviving without a roof over her head were sad. Not eating for days, fear, uncleanliness, trusting strangers, learning who cannot be trusted and many, many other unforeseen things to consider by CHOICE were shocking sometimes. Sometimes it really didn't surprise me as much as I thought. Most times, it did shock me. Abuse hurts a lot more coming from family and familiararity than getting it coming from strange places, strange people and strange things.
This book is excellent for book clubs. The Sunset Route raises a lot of questions on what's worse, living with emotional and physical abuse at home, or living that same abuse on the streets, just another kind. Always hungry to learn, The Sunset Route also taught me a lot about independence, self-preservation, as well as survival in the face of danger. Most importantly though, its a book about forgiveness. 5 stars.
I have to say, I love a good book. Although nonfiction is not my favorite genre, I loved this well-written memoir by Carrot Quinn, who left her home because of abuse and a mentally insane mother and who made it on her own without money or a place to stay. This book is about that and so much more. It's about a girl, Carrot who lives with a mother who is not all there and when Carrot finally chooses to leave home, she leaves with nothing. Having nothing, she learns to live off of the land, learning how to survive with nothing. She gets her food, foraging for it wherever and whenever she can get it and for transportation she rides on the back of freight trains mostly to get from here to there. Carrot Quinn describes the wilderness and countryside and some chilly places with a deft, masterful hand.
People who leave their homes CAN make it outside, but can it ever heal their insides and their heart from living a traumatic life and childhood? What happens when they get desperate and go back home? Can the reason why they left ever heal them by going back someday? Does it ever change for them, even if they do make it back home? Can having a traumatic childhood ever really invoke forgiveness from a child to the parent who traumatized them?....I really enjoyed this book. I loved the desperation that was palpable and the description of the places Carrot went to and the people she met. Everything was easily visualized while reading this book. Choosing to live homeless without the tangible comforts of home life and the different things to consider such as how the elements of Mother Nature are something that can't possibly be planned and the endurance of living every day safely and surviving without a roof over her head were sad. Not eating for days, fear, uncleanliness, trusting strangers, learning who cannot be trusted and many, many other unforeseen things to consider by CHOICE were shocking sometimes. Sometimes it really didn't surprise me as much as I thought. Most times, it did shock me. Abuse hurts a lot more coming from family and familiararity than getting it coming from strange places, strange people and strange things.
This book is excellent for book clubs. The Sunset Route raises a lot of questions on what's worse, living with emotional and physical abuse at home, or living that same abuse on the streets, just another kind. Always hungry to learn, The Sunset Route also taught me a lot about independence, self-preservation, as well as survival in the face of danger. Most importantly though, its a book about forgiveness. 5 stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 3, 2021
A memoir of the author’s, Carrot Quinn’s, life from an underprivileged, sometimes homeless youth with a mother who suffers from being schizophrenic wrapped up in religious visions, and the consequent road to self-discovery for the author. Her journey starts with being adopted by her grandparents and then riding the rails as a train-hopper and walking or hitchhiking across the country, meeting many people including family that help her choose life paths to follow. The journeys expose her to different lifestyles and she develops different passions and identities, all of which propel the book’s momentum. For some readers may find the author’s flipping back and forth through the years disconcerting but it is essential for the unveiling of her life story and road to self-discovery, plus her coming to understand and accept her life’s journey so far. An engaging, reflective, and engrossing read that may involve self-discovery and self-reflection by the reader.
September 5, 2021
Carrot Quinn always writes with a lyricism that casts even the ugliest corners of her world into compelling light. Every time I read something from her, I feel a strong sense that the world is simultaneously terrible and beautiful, and that's okay, do not be afraid (a paraphrased quote that she included in a chapter heading.)
I started following the author's blog while she was living off the grid in Fairbanks, Alaska, and writing about her train travels in early aughts. So it was interesting to be to gain more insight into this period as well as her childhood and young adulthood. That she emerged from her many traumas with an enduring love for the world leaves such a sense of peace and hope. Doubtlessly I'll return to read this book again and again.
This passage, among others, left me in tears:
“I had learned that you couldn't escape the darkness entirely, but you could learn to live above it. Grief was an ocean but you could reach the surface and bob there, where the light was.”
I started following the author's blog while she was living off the grid in Fairbanks, Alaska, and writing about her train travels in early aughts. So it was interesting to be to gain more insight into this period as well as her childhood and young adulthood. That she emerged from her many traumas with an enduring love for the world leaves such a sense of peace and hope. Doubtlessly I'll return to read this book again and again.
This passage, among others, left me in tears:
“I had learned that you couldn't escape the darkness entirely, but you could learn to live above it. Grief was an ocean but you could reach the surface and bob there, where the light was.”
October 19, 2021
I used to romanticize thoughts of what would have happened if my partner hadn't convinced me to go with him to college instead of staying out on the road camping and farming, if his grandmother hadn't taken us in. It would have been hard. Beautiful but difficult and sometimes awful and dangerous. I need to reread this every time I start daydreaming about taking off hitchhiking again. I hate hitchhiking.
This book is phenomenal. Might be a new favourite.
Girl with absent father and schizophrenic abusive neglectful mother and older troubled brother survives childhood in Alaska and discovers freedom travelling by train, hitchhiking, sometimes working to afford used vehicles, and hiking. She's a boss survivor and her journey is exciting and informative.
This is a modern Kerouac stewed in anarchy, punk culture, protest culture, and reflective of travelling over stolen land and the privilege of being able to do so as a white person.
This book is phenomenal. Might be a new favourite.
Girl with absent father and schizophrenic abusive neglectful mother and older troubled brother survives childhood in Alaska and discovers freedom travelling by train, hitchhiking, sometimes working to afford used vehicles, and hiking. She's a boss survivor and her journey is exciting and informative.
This is a modern Kerouac stewed in anarchy, punk culture, protest culture, and reflective of travelling over stolen land and the privilege of being able to do so as a white person.
June 21, 2021
After reading The Sunset Route, I may never pass by a person who appears to be following an obviously different path than my own without wondering what story they have to tell. At least that is how I feel after turning the last page. I want this memoir to be a best seller. It must be a best seller. It deserves to be a best seller. I marvel at what a talented writer the author is. Her story is a thrilling adventure of childhood, counter culture, riding the rails, and pushing one’s body to it’s limits. The story does not lag for an instant and is the best book that I have read in a very long time. Surprisingly, I don’t know what drew me to requesting this read and I am not sure that it is something that would have been on my radar but I will preaching about it to whom ever I can. Do not miss it. Cannot thank The Dial Press and Net Galley enough for giving me this experience.
August 9, 2021
I've followed Carrot's long distance hiking writing for awhile and was really eager to read about her experience riding the rails. Her clear and straightforward writing style is devastatingly effective in conveying her childhood growing up with a schizophrenic mother. I don't generally rate or review memoirs since it's a person's life. But this is a good read and I had trouble putting it down, and wanted to give it a recommendation.
CW: child abuse
CW: child abuse
May 29, 2023
I haven't devoured a book so fast since I was a kid. Magnificent, tender and brilliant. I even dreamed about it last night in the short few hours of sleep I got between reading it. It was weirdly comforting to see complex echos of my own childhood explained in a way that I had never felt I had been able to express. This will stay with me for a long time.
March 2, 2022
So engaging, with vivid imagery. Felt freeing to read. And heartbreaking. Would definitely read the author’s other book. 4.5? really really good, I only wish there was a bit more direction to the final chapters
June 27, 2023
Love a well-written, adventurous, moving memoir!
February 12, 2023
I read Carrot's second book "Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart" several years ago when it came out. (My wife and I aren't thru-hikers but we're fascinated by the PCT. We're too old and out-of-shape to hike the whole thing, but we'd love to hike sections or be "trail angels" one day.)
"The Sunset Route" was originally published first. Since I only read (listen to) audiobooks these days, I was excited to learn of this second edition. It did not disappoint.
Carrot's childhood was so heart-breaking and feral. Most reviews give away too much of the story, but this memoir is brutally honest and vulnerable.
More than anything, I'm happy Carrot has a fruitful writing career. She's able to provide for herself and support many worthwhile causes.
"The Sunset Route" was originally published first. Since I only read (listen to) audiobooks these days, I was excited to learn of this second edition. It did not disappoint.
Carrot's childhood was so heart-breaking and feral. Most reviews give away too much of the story, but this memoir is brutally honest and vulnerable.
More than anything, I'm happy Carrot has a fruitful writing career. She's able to provide for herself and support many worthwhile causes.
Read
August 3, 2021I always wondered about the lives of people who ride the rails. Carrot tells it like it is; doesn’t seem as fun as I thought it would be. She’s been dealt a hard life but seems to make the best of it. She doesn’t give into drugs or alcohol which surprised me given the hard childhood she had.
July 12, 2021
I knew of the author previously through her long distance hiking blog, though I haven't read her self-published hiking-based memoir book.
This is a vivid account the author's abusive and destitute childhood and her attempt to deal with that trauma as a young adult. The writing is clear, and not filled with overly sentimental prose, though it does sometimes cross the (my) saccharine line. It jumps back and forth between her childhood and her twenties; sometimes that feels a little contrived but it mostly works.
I enjoyed it. I'm a slow reader, so the fact that I read it in 3 days means many people will read it in a single day. I wish I was more clear what the author learned though. *I* learned that hopping freight trains is dangerous, loud, dirty, filled with days-long stretches of sitting under a bush in the middle of nowhere waiting, and not at all something I'd want to do. It also makes it clear that abuse flows down across generations. But what did the author learn? There's one or two lines about what she learned in the last chapter, but I would have like to been shown that instead or at least in addition to being too-briefly told it. There are some things in there that make sense given her situation (shoplifting, anarchist political views) but I'm curious what she thinks about them now.
Maybe that's just me because the author runs in some of the same circles as me so I know a little about her currently. And maybe without that perspective you'd think the book had all the resolution you needed. For me, 4/5.
This is a vivid account the author's abusive and destitute childhood and her attempt to deal with that trauma as a young adult. The writing is clear, and not filled with overly sentimental prose, though it does sometimes cross the (my) saccharine line. It jumps back and forth between her childhood and her twenties; sometimes that feels a little contrived but it mostly works.
I enjoyed it. I'm a slow reader, so the fact that I read it in 3 days means many people will read it in a single day. I wish I was more clear what the author learned though. *I* learned that hopping freight trains is dangerous, loud, dirty, filled with days-long stretches of sitting under a bush in the middle of nowhere waiting, and not at all something I'd want to do. It also makes it clear that abuse flows down across generations. But what did the author learn? There's one or two lines about what she learned in the last chapter, but I would have like to been shown that instead or at least in addition to being too-briefly told it. There are some things in there that make sense given her situation (shoplifting, anarchist political views) but I'm curious what she thinks about them now.
Maybe that's just me because the author runs in some of the same circles as me so I know a little about her currently. And maybe without that perspective you'd think the book had all the resolution you needed. For me, 4/5.
July 19, 2021
I had Ten Thousand Miles by Freight Train on my to-read list for a long, long time, long after I saw that it had been pulled in preparation for a longer project—I kept it on there to remind me to check for that longer project, to hope that it came to fruition. And lo: The Sunset Route.
When you hitchhike, people tell you their secrets. You exist in a liminal space between what is real and what is not, a sort of leaf come unstuck from an eddy. The driver feels as though talking to you, the hitchhiker, is like stuffing a note into a bottle and tossing it into the sea. (173)
The Sunset Route takes us through Alaska and Colorado, Oregon and Texas, on and off freight trains and in and out of childhood and adulthood. Quinn's childhood was not an easy one: a single mother with unmanaged mental illness, abject poverty, an unrelenting lack of stability. As an child, she found herself bouncing between homes, never certain where the next meal was coming from; as an adult, she found herself drifting between homes, still without stability but with a great deal more agency.
Exchanging labor for capital is not something that we, the residents of Wych Elm, have much interest in; we jealously guard our labor, choosing to squander it on our own projects—zines on DIY abortions; elaborate shadow puppet plays on the history of the North American Free Trade Agreement; bicycles built from salvaged parts; gathering tea from the tea dumpster that smells of bergamot and rose, and hummus, fizzy with fermentation, from the hummus dumpster; wild travels south on freight trains to escape the winter rains. Because of this, of course, we have little money. When we need money, we work in manic spurts, going to North Dakota for the sugar beet harvest, or to southern Oregon in the fall to trim weed. You can offer up your body for drug trials, or pick old clothing by the pound from the Goodwill outlet, model it yourself, and resell it on eBay. You can hawk your dirty underwear online, let a strange man watch you get a pedicure, or wrestle with your friend in a baby pool of Jell-O while this same strange man jerks off. When you have a couple thousand dollars, you quit, because you can; you are young, healthy, and you need very little. You can subsist on day-old bread from the trash and boiled pinto beans. Life is breathtakingly short, and Western civilization is definitely going to collapse in the next five to eight years. Paid work is a sort of death. (209)
This isn't going to be a book for everyone: dumpster diving and shoplifting, skipping town on court dates and spending odd nights in jail and falling apart and picking up the pieces again. But it's wonderfully unapologetic and raw, full of the rush of wind over an open train car at sixty miles an hour, and the fizz of hummus past its sell-by date, and the uncertainty of the tracks ahead. Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart, but so will a memory of a gift-shop rosary far, far out of the reach of a kid for whom even a spare quarter is not a given.
When you hitchhike, people tell you their secrets. You exist in a liminal space between what is real and what is not, a sort of leaf come unstuck from an eddy. The driver feels as though talking to you, the hitchhiker, is like stuffing a note into a bottle and tossing it into the sea. (173)
The Sunset Route takes us through Alaska and Colorado, Oregon and Texas, on and off freight trains and in and out of childhood and adulthood. Quinn's childhood was not an easy one: a single mother with unmanaged mental illness, abject poverty, an unrelenting lack of stability. As an child, she found herself bouncing between homes, never certain where the next meal was coming from; as an adult, she found herself drifting between homes, still without stability but with a great deal more agency.
Exchanging labor for capital is not something that we, the residents of Wych Elm, have much interest in; we jealously guard our labor, choosing to squander it on our own projects—zines on DIY abortions; elaborate shadow puppet plays on the history of the North American Free Trade Agreement; bicycles built from salvaged parts; gathering tea from the tea dumpster that smells of bergamot and rose, and hummus, fizzy with fermentation, from the hummus dumpster; wild travels south on freight trains to escape the winter rains. Because of this, of course, we have little money. When we need money, we work in manic spurts, going to North Dakota for the sugar beet harvest, or to southern Oregon in the fall to trim weed. You can offer up your body for drug trials, or pick old clothing by the pound from the Goodwill outlet, model it yourself, and resell it on eBay. You can hawk your dirty underwear online, let a strange man watch you get a pedicure, or wrestle with your friend in a baby pool of Jell-O while this same strange man jerks off. When you have a couple thousand dollars, you quit, because you can; you are young, healthy, and you need very little. You can subsist on day-old bread from the trash and boiled pinto beans. Life is breathtakingly short, and Western civilization is definitely going to collapse in the next five to eight years. Paid work is a sort of death. (209)
This isn't going to be a book for everyone: dumpster diving and shoplifting, skipping town on court dates and spending odd nights in jail and falling apart and picking up the pieces again. But it's wonderfully unapologetic and raw, full of the rush of wind over an open train car at sixty miles an hour, and the fizz of hummus past its sell-by date, and the uncertainty of the tracks ahead. Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart, but so will a memory of a gift-shop rosary far, far out of the reach of a kid for whom even a spare quarter is not a given.
December 21, 2022
magnificent!! i started following carrot quinn's blog randomly like 15 years ago so this book causes some significant parasocial feelings in me but it is a beautiful story about someone having the courage to really break a cycle and create a life. very moving and eloquent and beautiful
July 29, 2021
Carrot Quinn's memoir, THE SUNSET ROUTE is one of the most brilliant books I've read. For Carrot to write so poetically while revealing such desperation, it's not an easy book to absorb. Carrot grows up in Alaska with a schizophrenic mentally-ill mother who speaks to the Virgin Mary, a brother and has no father. She's neglected, hungry more often than not, living moment to moment, surviving. She leaves Alaska at fourteen years old after her mother attempts to strangle her.
At that point, Carrot makes her way to Portland, falls into a counter culture existence living in punk houses, eating from dumpsters, shoplifting and traveling the country by rail. Carrot is introduced to the memoir, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard which gently leads her to embracing nature, feeling one with the trees and water. This memoir is her bible throughout the story. She lives in forests, homeless camps, exists out of society.
THE SUNSET ROUTE has a running theme of loneliness, isolation and grief. Carrot believes she is "unlovable trash" and is constantly trying to connect with another human. When she does, it is short lived and she ends up disappointed. Her description of hopping trains, meeting other hobos, living an alternative lifestyle is all interesting, but unsettling at best.
Towards the end she hasn't seen her mother in eighteen years and feels shame wondering if she should be taking care of her. She learns her mother is alive, and searches for her in Alaska, always a step behind. At the end of the memoir, she discovers long distance hiking making the 10,000 mile trip between Mexico and Canada three times. "I am new, clean and empty as the wind."
THE SUNSET ROUTE left me rattled after reading Carrot's journey and grateful for my own existence.
August 11, 2021
Yes, this is a book about trains, and the American west, and frontiers. But it's so much more. Carrot Quinn was...you can't say was 'raised' by a single mother...she was neglected, frightened, starved by a mother who was mentally ill and incapable of having any kind of relationship, even with her two children.
When Carrot was finally adopted by her mother's parents, we see that HER life was terribly hard as well. There is something generational about neglect and poor parenting.
Quinn ended up living on the street, in her car, on a friend's futon. In a tiny attic room. She takes lousy jobs. She dumpster-dives. She shoplifts. She survives. She finds friends who love and support her.
And she hitches rides on trains. She hitch-hikes. She experiences the West from inside fast-moving trains, hiding in boxcars. Eating canned beans stolen along the way. She seems to have no ambitions, other than being with others, and being on the move.
She has demons to face...and she tries. She tries to connect with her long-lost father and his family, and with her mother...now completely homeless, on and off her meds.
Forgiveness? I think she comes to terms with her mother's inabilities to parent, her father's abandonment, her grandparents' skewed ideas about raising teens. Freedom? I guess her idea of freedom is to live outside the boundaries others consider a 'good life.' She doesn't lack for friends, she gets by. She has amazing adventures that scare the be-jeesus out of me. I kept seeing my students in her eyes, her heart. I wondered how many of my students faced the kind of childhood Quinn survived.
The grandmother in me wants so much more for Carrot Quinn. But if she's content and at peace, my wishes don't matter. The entitled woman who was raised by parents (sometimes a single mom) who cared, and were much more able to raise me and provide for me, and model for me, weeps for Quinn and all her friends who never had the opportunities I did.
This is one I would have shared with my students, and eagerly waited for their reactions.
When Carrot was finally adopted by her mother's parents, we see that HER life was terribly hard as well. There is something generational about neglect and poor parenting.
Quinn ended up living on the street, in her car, on a friend's futon. In a tiny attic room. She takes lousy jobs. She dumpster-dives. She shoplifts. She survives. She finds friends who love and support her.
And she hitches rides on trains. She hitch-hikes. She experiences the West from inside fast-moving trains, hiding in boxcars. Eating canned beans stolen along the way. She seems to have no ambitions, other than being with others, and being on the move.
She has demons to face...and she tries. She tries to connect with her long-lost father and his family, and with her mother...now completely homeless, on and off her meds.
Forgiveness? I think she comes to terms with her mother's inabilities to parent, her father's abandonment, her grandparents' skewed ideas about raising teens. Freedom? I guess her idea of freedom is to live outside the boundaries others consider a 'good life.' She doesn't lack for friends, she gets by. She has amazing adventures that scare the be-jeesus out of me. I kept seeing my students in her eyes, her heart. I wondered how many of my students faced the kind of childhood Quinn survived.
The grandmother in me wants so much more for Carrot Quinn. But if she's content and at peace, my wishes don't matter. The entitled woman who was raised by parents (sometimes a single mom) who cared, and were much more able to raise me and provide for me, and model for me, weeps for Quinn and all her friends who never had the opportunities I did.
This is one I would have shared with my students, and eagerly waited for their reactions.
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