What do you think?
Rate this book
Zephyr: Tracking a Dream Across America
Book by Kisor, Henry
- GenresTravelNonfictionTrains
338 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
12 people are currently reading
74 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 4, 2009
I love trains! I have taken almost every Amtrak train in the country and many in Europe. Kisor writes about taking the California Zephyr and his experiences as a deaf person. If you ever get a chance to take this train, do it. It travels over two mountain ranges and through some of the most magnificent scenery in the world. There is nothing better than listening to a book and watching gorgeous scenery go by.
In fact, as I write this, I am traveling east on the California Zephyr through one of the beautiful red canyons in this area, (this one named after Dr. Wallace Debeck, the only physician practicing between Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction in the territory of the Yutte Indians) climbing into the Rocky Mountains out of Grand Junction, Colorado on what is the most gorgeous scenic train trip in the United States. The train follows the Colorado River for about two hundred miles along the edges of cliffs as it climbs to the Moffit Tunnel at the highest point of any railroad in the United States at some 9,000 feet. My laptop is playing Sibelius Symphony #5 into earphones as I type, or listen to a recorded book on CD compressed to MP3 format so I can squeeze an entire book into a series of files on the laptop.
Next to me is a stack of books brought along for nighttime or non-scenic desert. A can of Coke is within easy reach. The only thing missing is a grand thunderstorm or blizzard and wireless access to the Internet. I suppose I could simulate the weather on the laptop. Wonderful stuff, technology. It just gets better and better.
This should be a must trip for everyone. You come away with extraordinary awe for what the pioneers accomplished. We have a terrific book written about this trip. It just doesn't get any better than this. If I get lucky we'll run really late and get some extra time for free.
In fact, as I write this, I am traveling east on the California Zephyr through one of the beautiful red canyons in this area, (this one named after Dr. Wallace Debeck, the only physician practicing between Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction in the territory of the Yutte Indians) climbing into the Rocky Mountains out of Grand Junction, Colorado on what is the most gorgeous scenic train trip in the United States. The train follows the Colorado River for about two hundred miles along the edges of cliffs as it climbs to the Moffit Tunnel at the highest point of any railroad in the United States at some 9,000 feet. My laptop is playing Sibelius Symphony #5 into earphones as I type, or listen to a recorded book on CD compressed to MP3 format so I can squeeze an entire book into a series of files on the laptop.
Next to me is a stack of books brought along for nighttime or non-scenic desert. A can of Coke is within easy reach. The only thing missing is a grand thunderstorm or blizzard and wireless access to the Internet. I suppose I could simulate the weather on the laptop. Wonderful stuff, technology. It just gets better and better.
This should be a must trip for everyone. You come away with extraordinary awe for what the pioneers accomplished. We have a terrific book written about this trip. It just doesn't get any better than this. If I get lucky we'll run really late and get some extra time for free.
September 27, 2012
Train lore, history and travelogue are interesting. Comments on geography are good. This would be a better book if the editor would have cut the imagined murder mystery.
April 1, 2023
Henry Kisor's 1994 Zephyr: Tracking a Dream Across America is a wonderful exploration of the California Zephyr, the transcontinental Amtrak rail route running both ways between Chicago and Oakland, California.
Now, this 2,416-mile trip of three days could be done in a coach seat, naturally, but a sleeper room really is the way this should be done, isn't it? Thus Kisor, a journalist and railfan who has taken the Zephyr a number of times, now does the Chicago-to-Oakland run specifically for the present book, interviewing and also plain old hobnobbing along the way with members of every level of the train's crew. The author happens to be deaf, by the way, a highly accomplished lip-reader rather than a user of American Sign Language, and at the very end--after we occasionally have wondered about his description of intercom announcements and whatnot--it finally is explained that this time he was accompanied by various family and friends as interpreters, with Kisor finding himself "pleasantly astonished" (1994 Time hardcover, page 321) at how helpful this was in dealing with different speakers' accents, announcements, and other discussions "out of [his] line of sight" (pages 320-21).
This book is not simply a memoir of a particular train journey, though. Yes, the particular sights and stops and interactions and conversations of this trip are part of the plot, if I might term it that, but throughout Kisor also unobtrusively weaves in a great deal of informative background material on the development of the railroad industry in general--both technological and economic, and also its effects on, and its changing place in, American society--and on the creation and evolution of the particular sprawling route itself. It is this dual nature which makes the book so particularly interesting, along with its behind-the-scenes look at the work and lives of those who staff the trains.
Moreover, even while the author writes from the very early 1990s, a time before smart phones, when grabbing an occasional plug-in internet connection at a station somewhere was a fancy thing, he also spends an interesting bit of time here and there examining the changing race and gender relations he sees. In describing various people, for example, especially when interacting with them, Kisor often consciously describes a crew member or passenger as being White or Black--though he happens to use lower case--and in casual-seeming conversation he interviews crew members to get the straight dope on frictions and prejudices or lack thereof. None of this is forced or labored, but instead simply the natural work of a journalist, and Kisor's investigation of the seeming glory days of passenger rail, when "black porters--who were universally, if impersonally, called 'George'--merely were part part of the furniture with which their namesake George M. Pullman kitted out his sleeping cars" (page 227), is especially illuminating.
In short, Henry Kisor's Zephyr: Tracking a Dream Across America--which happens to be nicely indexed, by the way--is very engagingly written and informative, a 5-star delight even a generation after its first publication.
Now, this 2,416-mile trip of three days could be done in a coach seat, naturally, but a sleeper room really is the way this should be done, isn't it? Thus Kisor, a journalist and railfan who has taken the Zephyr a number of times, now does the Chicago-to-Oakland run specifically for the present book, interviewing and also plain old hobnobbing along the way with members of every level of the train's crew. The author happens to be deaf, by the way, a highly accomplished lip-reader rather than a user of American Sign Language, and at the very end--after we occasionally have wondered about his description of intercom announcements and whatnot--it finally is explained that this time he was accompanied by various family and friends as interpreters, with Kisor finding himself "pleasantly astonished" (1994 Time hardcover, page 321) at how helpful this was in dealing with different speakers' accents, announcements, and other discussions "out of [his] line of sight" (pages 320-21).
This book is not simply a memoir of a particular train journey, though. Yes, the particular sights and stops and interactions and conversations of this trip are part of the plot, if I might term it that, but throughout Kisor also unobtrusively weaves in a great deal of informative background material on the development of the railroad industry in general--both technological and economic, and also its effects on, and its changing place in, American society--and on the creation and evolution of the particular sprawling route itself. It is this dual nature which makes the book so particularly interesting, along with its behind-the-scenes look at the work and lives of those who staff the trains.
Moreover, even while the author writes from the very early 1990s, a time before smart phones, when grabbing an occasional plug-in internet connection at a station somewhere was a fancy thing, he also spends an interesting bit of time here and there examining the changing race and gender relations he sees. In describing various people, for example, especially when interacting with them, Kisor often consciously describes a crew member or passenger as being White or Black--though he happens to use lower case--and in casual-seeming conversation he interviews crew members to get the straight dope on frictions and prejudices or lack thereof. None of this is forced or labored, but instead simply the natural work of a journalist, and Kisor's investigation of the seeming glory days of passenger rail, when "black porters--who were universally, if impersonally, called 'George'--merely were part part of the furniture with which their namesake George M. Pullman kitted out his sleeping cars" (page 227), is especially illuminating.
In short, Henry Kisor's Zephyr: Tracking a Dream Across America--which happens to be nicely indexed, by the way--is very engagingly written and informative, a 5-star delight even a generation after its first publication.
August 10, 2020
Having traveled on the California Zephyr often between Chicago and Denver and between Denver and Oakland (but not in one long trip the whole way from Chicago to San Francisco as the author does), I was eager to read this book and the anecdotes of the people he encountered. Every trip I ever took on that train was an adventure (and in fact one of the anecdotes he recounts is also, coincidentally, one my husband and I were present for--I recognized the incident immediately). I was a little disappointed that my favorite part of the trip, Gore Canyon in Colorado, got very little attention in this story, but so many other moments did that I decide to forgive Kisor this one lapse. As a passenger, one notes that one is comfortable (or not), that the food is good (and it often is perfectly splendid), and that we run on time (or not). Reading about the myriad of safety checks makes you realize how much effort goes into seeing that the passengers do indeed have a safe and comfortable trip. I am glad we have always tipped our train car attendants and servers generously. They certainly have deserved it.
November 24, 2018
Kisor’s detail of the geography and history of both Amtrak and the California Zephyr route specifically is immense and engaging. He brings to light much of what happens behind the scenes in long-distance train travel, which I really enjoyed. Some of his more subjective commentary on types of people and his long-winded imagined murder mystery could have gone on the editing room floor though.
October 20, 2025
We rode the Zephyr from Chicago to the Bay in September 2025. It was a great trip, and this book added a lot to my pleasure. Really enjoyed it!
February 7, 2025
Maybe it's because I had great expectations about what I love, travels and trains, that I've got really disappointed by this book. But anyway: the prose is dull and verbose, the descriptions have neither poetry nor irony.
323 pages that turn what would be an enjoyable 3-day journey from Chicago to California into an endless amount of yawns.
>> I have a copy to give away, you just pay shipping. Hit me back :)
323 pages that turn what would be an enjoyable 3-day journey from Chicago to California into an endless amount of yawns.
>> I have a copy to give away, you just pay shipping. Hit me back :)
May 4, 2016
This book is a piece of living history like the Zephyr itself. This particular e-book edition has been updated with prologues and epilogues for 2015 which nicely bring a 1994 book into the present. I also like the newer photographs and that he dated all so you had an idea from which trip they came. My only issue reading this on the Kindle is that I know the photos must have otherwise been so much better.
The author is an established writer and the book is very well written. In some chapters, his inner railfan begins to leak out and there's a little too much detail provided for a more mainstream train aficionado. I loved his description of the scenery-both what he saw with his own eyes and the pieces of history he shared as he passed the places and towns where they happened.
Like many such books, the most fun parts were the people he met and, in some cases, shadowed. I liked the in depth profiles and found myself wishing I could meet Lela, Mike, Ray, Chris, etc. I love that the contemporary epilogue updated readers on these people.
A solid read for people who enjoy train travel and a good look at the Amtrak of the late 20th century.
Highball Number Five!
The author is an established writer and the book is very well written. In some chapters, his inner railfan begins to leak out and there's a little too much detail provided for a more mainstream train aficionado. I loved his description of the scenery-both what he saw with his own eyes and the pieces of history he shared as he passed the places and towns where they happened.
Like many such books, the most fun parts were the people he met and, in some cases, shadowed. I liked the in depth profiles and found myself wishing I could meet Lela, Mike, Ray, Chris, etc. I love that the contemporary epilogue updated readers on these people.
A solid read for people who enjoy train travel and a good look at the Amtrak of the late 20th century.
Highball Number Five!
October 7, 2008
This past summer my son Miles, who is 8, and I rode the California Zephyr from Emeryville to Denver. We had talked about doing it for years. We had a great time just the two of us. It was an experience I'm sure we will remember fondly all our lives. Upon our return I read this book. I really enjoyed it although having taken the train surely made it a better read. When I finished reading it I looked up the author, Henry Kisor, and sent him an email and included a photo of me and my son in the dining car (it's my profile photo). Here is what wrote back:
Scott:
That book is 14 years old and somewhat out of date, but it does my heart good to know that people are still enjoying it. Many thanks for writing.
You haven't missed much by not going on to Chicago -- that night out of Denver and the pull across Illinois is pretty boring in terms of scenery.
And thanks also for that photo of you and your son. Clearly you are a great father -- and your son looks like a wonderful kid.
Henry
Scott:
That book is 14 years old and somewhat out of date, but it does my heart good to know that people are still enjoying it. Many thanks for writing.
You haven't missed much by not going on to Chicago -- that night out of Denver and the pull across Illinois is pretty boring in terms of scenery.
And thanks also for that photo of you and your son. Clearly you are a great father -- and your son looks like a wonderful kid.
Henry
June 3, 2009
A great book for railfans that want a behind the scenes experience of the operations of an Amtrak long distance train. Lots of fun and lots covered. Kisor even reveals all the quirky and interesting people you encounter on the train. He even devotes a good ten pages to a discussion with a passenger on how a murder could be committed on the train (like in the books) and in turn you learn about other parts of the train and places the California Zephyr goes. Sprinkled throughout the book you learn about the history or Amtrak and the railroad in the United States.
March 15, 2010
What a disappointment. I was looking forward to reading a train travel memoir that took place on a train that I might ride some day. The writing was prozaic at best, mostly pretty boring. The author had the nerve to thumb his nose at my favorite travel writer; Paul Theroux. I did glean some facts from this book, but there was no joy in reading it.
January 4, 2013
Heard this book on Chapter a Day on Oregon Public Radio years ago and I still think of this book from time to time. Good for anyone who loves trains, and also those who are interested in deaf culture (the author is deaf.)
August 22, 2011
Another book from my grandpa. He loved to travel and loved trains. I would love to travel the world on trains someday just for him.
October 8, 2014
Probably the only flaw to this book was the murder mystery part. Luckily, the writer formats in such a way that they are easy to skip.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews