Small World: A Microcosmic Journey

by Brad Herzog

Join author Brad Herzog as he marvels at a castle in Versailles,
visits a guru in Calcutta, discovers a descendant of King David in Jerusalem, and more -- all without leaving the United States.

Small World is acclaimed travel writer Brad Herzog's unique tribute to the Land of the Free, featuring a world of stories culled along America's highways and byways. From Rome (Oregon) to Athens (New York), from Moscow (Maine) to Mecca (California), Herzog embarks on a fascinating journey into the nooks and crannies of the nation -- tiny towns struggling to live up to their grandiose names. Shattering the notion that distance alone translates to wonder, this perpetual traveler probes everything from the dark history of Congo (Ohio) to the residue of slavery along the great river in Cairo (Illinois). He encounters a cast of characters as varied as the landscape -- devout ranchers and devoted nudists, miners and migrants, artists and activists, hillbillies, hippies, hermits, and Hare Krishnas.

Herzog brings to bear the same sense of humor and acute observations that made States of Mind a hit, and discovers that there is, indeed, a fascinating world right in our own backyard. The hamlets in Herzog's Small World are full of cultural curiosities, historical wonders, and exotic folks -- and you don't even need a passport to get there.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Brad Herzog is the author of more than 50 books for readers of all ages. His children's books include two charmingly illustrated picture books about two of the most inspiring moments in championship sports history -- the 2016 Chicago Cubs World Series triumph (MURPHY'S TICKET, Sleeping Bear Press, 2017) and the 1913 U.S. Open golf tournament (FRANCIS AND EDDIE, Why Not Books, 2013). He has written more than a dozen rhyming alphabet picture books for Sleeping Bear Press, including H IS FOR HOME RUN, S IS FOR SAVE THE PLANET (a finalist in the National "Best Books 2009" Awards) and W IS FOR WELCOME: A CELEBRATION OF AMERICA'S DIVERSITY, which is sold at the Statue of Liberty Pavilion.

Brad is also the author of four critically acclaimed narratives about his travels through small-town America. His first travel memoir, STATES OF MIND (John F. Blair Publishing, 1999), reached #2 on the Amazon.com bestseller list. He followed that with SMALL WORLD (Pocket Books, 2004) and TURN LEFT AT THE TROJAN HORSE (Citadel Press, 2010). DETOUR 2020 (Why Not Books, 2020) is his cross-country chronicle of "America's wrong turns."

As a freelance magazine writer, Brad has been honored several times by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), including a Grand Gold Medal for best feature article of the year. He has been interviewed on "The Today Show" and "Oprah" and has been profiled in publications ranging from People magazine to Reader's Digest. Brad (www.bradherzog.com) lives on California's Central Coast.

Reviews

[Bryon Brandt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book for two selfish reasons:
1) I'm part of one section of the book where the author met and interviewed me in his travels for researching the book.
2) My picture is in the book.
(And I quite like the picture.)

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was *this close* to abandoning the book but for some reason stuck it out. I want to read more non-fiction but this just wasn't very interesting. The journalist visits some small towns in the USA with names of bigger places (Rome, Jerusalem, etc.) not long after September 11, 2001, and writes about them.

There were some great bits in the book, but they were all quoted from Mark Twain and John Steinbeck. He made me want to read those books. There is an interesting book list in the back that I will probably use.

One thing that really bothered me were the ridiculous similes that he throws into the narrative. I'd like to believe they were supposed to be read in a sarcastic-dramatic fashion, but I suspect they were added with the intent of being eloquent. I started marking them after a while because each one would make me squirm.

"Death hovers over Bagdad like a summer storm cloud."

"I was stuck, like a camel in quicksand."

Yeah, it was like that. I probably won't try any other books by Herzog.

[Sarah Ewald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am embarrassed that this is still in my feed. I have a note on the book saying I finished on 9/14, but no indication of what year...
The premise of this book was for the author to visit "nooks and crannies of the nation" (driving a Class B van), and all of the stories are tiny town that have names that originate from town with large populations, as in Amsterdam, Montana; Vienna, S. Dakota; Prague, Nebraska, Athens, NY...if you get the picture. (I was originally drawn to this book because of the RV nature of the travel.)

He visits Sturgis, South Dakota, and mingles with the Harley crowd there for the annual festival. In the same chapter, he visits the Northern Cheyenne Reservation and laments the deplorable conditions that we have imposed upon the Native Americans. He breezes by the Mount Rushmore and Wall Drug area and its commercialized commerce.

What amused me the most is the chapter in which he visits Athens, New York, and the hilarious adventures visiting the local nudist colony, of which he declines to fully partake of the activities.

"I was told that the rule of thumb (and other body parts) was: Look, but don't stare. In theory, that was fine. In practice it was like yelling up to a tightrope walker, 'Don't look down!' So I couldn't help but find the experience exceedingly weird at times, offering sporadic surreal moments, the first being that barbecue, where I was surrounded primarily by nude old men sticking forks into a plateful of knockwurst, trying to ignore the phallic violence of it all.
...A French-speaking couple was struggling to line dance. An obese woman did the twist. A woman with one leg sat on a bench and bounced to the music, as her toy poodle hopped around frantically.
'Can I get a wit-ness...Can I get a wit-ness...'
Everyone was giddy and nude; everything was hanging and bouncing and swinging and jiggling. And there was fifty-nine year-old Jimmy, the birthday boy, in the middle of the dance floor, doing the Macarena, wearing only a smile.
And I thought to myself: I have crossed the continent for this?"

Hilarious. I was contemplating giving my paperback copy to the local Goodwill store, but will probably keep it. I may re-read.

[Tim Basuino · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be a pretty interesting snapshot of America and the way it had reacted to 9/11 about a year later.

Yes, there is an obvious theme to this book - find spots on the map that have the same name as a far more remarkable city or place. But that formula leads into a fairly diverse look at what drives this country - from farmers trying to eek out a living in Oregon to bikers in Wisconsin to preservationalists in New York State to Civil Rights survivors in Illinois to liver-off-the-landers in Arizona to marginal immigrants in California, Herzog takes it all in.

And I found the in-between stuff to be useful to - details about how the Interstate System came into play, and brief histories of how certain parts of the United States wound up the way they are. And all tied to that one day that will live in infamy...

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dated and superficial

[Julio Morales · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I promised after States of Mind that I would immediately continue the journey with Small World: A Microcosmic Journey and I did!

I read States of Mind and When You Are Engulfed in Flames just a few days before starting Small World: A Microcosmic Journey. Two different ways of traveling, two different ways of looking at the world, and here come's another.

In States of Mind Brad Herzog's reader enjoys a predictable ebb and flo of polite encounters along the road.

On his second trip, in Small World: A Microcosmic Journey Herzog seems less comfortable on the road and more hurried in his journey and his interviews.

Why? Maybe because he has a limited time during a roadtrip away from his wife and two young children? While he enjoyed the company and assistance of his wife during his trip for States of Mind, Herzog's alone on this journey. That isolation and time limitation brings an impatience to his voice that was not present before.

Maybe like Truman Capote and Harper Lee, Brad Herzog found it easier to be trusted/opened up to by people in small towns when he had a woman as an interviewing companion? I miss Herzog's wife Amy's photos too! I think her contributions made States of Mind a bit bigger book than Small World: A Microcosmic Journey.

I'm looking forward to reading more Herzog. Next will be Turn Left At The Trojan Horse: A Would-Be Hero's American Odyssey.

[Cat. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Odd that I'm reading this along with the Ambrose book (below). The author decides to visit the world by driving around the U.S. investigating small towns which share their names with big cities: Paris, Moscow, Cairo, etc. Kind of an oddball concept, but I'm for any excuse to be paid to drive around the country, so what the heck! So I have two versions of traveling around the country, for two different (or maybe not) reasons, bookending two centuries.

It's actually a sort of touching journey, in that he seems to have intentionally picked tiny burgs with not much of an attraction besides their name. For instance, he goes to Athens, New York, not Athens, Georgia, which would be considerably more of a hoppin' place.

Still by the end of the journey, he seems to have found that people in small towns in Montana, Maine, Arkansas and Arizona are just regular people getting by. They also tend to be more outspoken and accepting of his presence than one would expect; perhaps it's just that he's exceptional at drawing them out to talk about themselves and their town.

Along the way, Herzog meets stoners, hermits (quite a few of these), Hare Krishnas, gun-totin' grandmas, and Vietnam MIA victims' families. He never makes fun of their beliefs, walking a careful unseen tightrope of asking questions about life in the Great Flyover while at the same time not falling completely for anyone's hokum, which most of the people seem to appreciate. The reader ends up caring a lot about these folks, some of whom I'm pretty sure most of us would not be cheered to see hanging out at the local Starbucks.

Oddest chapter: the nudists...er, naturists (Athens, New York) {edited by The Cataloger 12/31/04}
Best written chapter: the forests of his neuroses (Siberia, Maine)
Most countercultural: the Gathering EMT (London, Wisconsin)
Most depressing: company town (Congo, Ohio)
Funniest: King David's town (Jerusalem, Arkansas)
Most touching: the mysterious stranger donating a tree (Bagdad, Arizona)

I almost feel like I traveled with the author. I know I'd like to have thought of this, and done it!

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Small World is acclaimed travel writer Brad Herzog's unique tribute to the Land of the Free, featuring a world of stories culled along America's highways and byways. From Rome (Oregon) to Athens (New York), from Moscow (Maine) to Mecca (California), Herzog embarks on a fascinating journey into the nooks and crannies of the nation -- tiny towns struggling to live up to their grandiose names. Shattering the notion that distance alone translates to wonder, this perpetual traveler probes everything from the dark history of Congo (Ohio) to the residue of slavery along the great river in Cairo (Illinois). He encounters a cast of characters as varied as the landscape -- devout ranchers and devoted nudists, miners and migrants, artists and activists, hillbillies, hippies, hermits, and Hare Krishnas.

"Herzog brings to bear the same sense of humor and acute observations that made States of Mind a hit, and discovers that there is, indeed, a fascinating world right in our own backyard. The hamlets in Herzog's Small World are full of cultural curiosities, historical wonders, and exotic folks -- and you don't even need a pasport to get there."
~~back cover

I had to keep checking, to be sure I was reading the same book. Because it surely wasn't as scintillating or fascinating as the one described on the back cover. It was a very cursory swipe at these tiny towns, and an even more cursory glimpse of the people who live there. I must confess that I abandoned this book, following my rule of reading half of any book before giving up on it. (174 pages out of 362) I read till I couldn't bear to read it any longer -- with a TBR pile that reaches to the ceiling & is threatening to crowd me out of my own bedroom, why am I reading a book that's boring and not holding my interest?

[Robert Flaxman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny that after reading Bill Bryson's latest book, I moved on to what sort of felt like a poor man's "The Lost Continent." Brad Herzog travels around the country visiting small towns with names taken from the Old World and takes note of what he finds there. Unfortunately, the answers are fairly consistent - if anything, one of the most interesting things about this book is the revelation that "middle America" is more a state of being than a specific locale. The attempt to force 9/11 in as a common thread also means the book has not aged as gracefully as it might, and the epilogue is jarringly clunky. Still, this is the sort of book that will make you want to hop in the car, and Herzog does a good job describing the feel of the small towns he visits. Also, the final chapter - on Mecca, CA - is both the most distinct and (with its focus on immigration) remains the most topical.

[Aimee · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like reading travelogues, you'll like this book. In this case, it's not an exotic exploration of foreign continents, it's an exotic-of-sorts exploration of our own backyards--the forgotten hamlets throughout the US with town names like Rome, Athens, Jerusalem, etc. The writing is at times poetic and profound in its quest for self--smacking of Joseph Campbell, Kerouac, Steinbeck, et al.--and more often than that, it is irreverent in the way of a Mark Twain (irreverent like a fox). 4 stars instead of 5 because it needs a better edit--but all and all it's a good read.

[Florence Buchholz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A self conscious travelogue through some of America's smallest, most obscure towns. Mostly the folks that Herzog encounters are exceedingly ordinary and a bit dull but the background information about ghosts of American industries was interesting. The most self conscience part was the author's visit to a nudist resort.

[Carrie]

books I've read,travel narratives