Author Fred Afflerbach, a former long-haul trucker and later award-winning journalist, debunks the truck driver stereotype via authentic characters and insight into the hierarchy, camaraderie, and culture of the misunderstood American long-haul trucker.
Even though it's fiction, Roll On is a stellar addition to your
adventure travel collection. Scooch over your copy of William Least
Heat-Moon's Blue Highways and John Steinbeck's Travels With Charley
and ride shotgun with trucker Ubi Sunt as he steers Old Ironsides,
his '56 Peterbilt 18-wheeler, along America's highways.Roll past
Shiprock, the magnificent throat of a volcano rising 1,500 feet
above northern New Mexico's high desert plain. And see Manhattan
anew from Ubi's rig called a cabover that sits on top of a
350-horsepower diesel. Meet The Chameleon, who offers "polishing,
painting and pills" at truck stops, and Mississippi Hippie, a
pony-tailed musician who, for cash, helps Ubi load and unload
freight and sleeps in the 45-foot trailer.Freedom and the meaning
of life are up for discussion as orphan and widower Ubi copes with
progress that threatens his way of life. This resourceful Good
Samaritan rescues "four wheelers" and other truckers who don't have
the road smarts that Ubi accumulated during what is now a bygone
era of independent trucking. Who but Ubi knows to carry bleach in
his magic side box to help improve traction on ice and snow?
If your father or grandfather was a jack-of-all-trades, you will
identify with Ubi's daughter Jeanne, who learned the value of tools
and CB radios from her Dad, but now wants him to give up the
road--or does she? Jeanne's twins Molly and Jeremy want nothing of
the sort, and excitedly beg Grandpa Truck to bring Old Ironsides to
school for show-and-tell.And don't overlook the jazz lover and poet
in Ubi, who keeps The Complete Works of Walt Whitman and a
flashlight in his bunk for night reading.Someone please send this
book to Clint Eastwood and Tommy Lee Jones, who know the strong
attraction of road stories and will appreciate the fine
descriptions: "West of Fort Worth, the land peels back and the sky
comes out like opening the curtains on a sunny day."Is Fred
Afflerbach writing a sequel? Roll on!
"An entertaining and informative cross-country odyssey, Fred
Afflerbach's "Roll On" traces the life of "the last of a breed," an
almost mythic, independence-minded truck driver, as he transports
furniture past famous landmarks, through dense forests, over major
rivers, and in and out of congested cities, carrying the reader
along on an engaging narrative with telling dialogue and
picturesque description. Whether rescuing students in search of the
real America or picking up a hippie helper who proves an expert
loader of others' belongings or encountering fascinating figures
whose household or business effects, even a grand piano, he moves
from west coast to east and points in between, Afflerbach's
wholesome hero regales the reader with a know-how not only for
maneuvering the highways in any weather or condition but for
dealing with one's origins and directions, in terms of love,
family, and ethical decisions. The novelist knows his subject
through and through and tells his compelling story artfully, one
full of insights and characters any reader will come to care deeply
about."- Dave Oliphant, noted poet and jazz historian. His latest
book is "KD: A Jazz Biography".
"Roll On" takes us as readers out of our familiar world and into
that of the long-haul truck driver. Fred Afflerbach, himself once a
long-haul driver, brings Ubi and his changing world alive in a way
that will touch your heart--and make you hope he finds happiness at
the end of his picaresque journey. This novel stands out as new and
fresh among many nostalgic reflections of life as it once was."-
Judy Alter, Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement in Western
Writing and former director of TCU Press.
""Roll On" takes us as readers out of our familiar world and into
that of the long-haul truck driver. Fred Afflerbach, himself once a
long-haul driver, brings Ubi and his changing world alive in a way
that will touch your heart--and make you hope he finds happiness at
the end of his picaresque journey. This novel stands out as new and
fresh among many nostalgic reflections of life as it once was."-
Judy Alter, Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement in Western
Writing and former director of TCU Press.
"An entertaining and informative cross-country odyssey, Fred
Afflerbach's "Roll On" traces the life of "the last of a breed," an
almost mythic, independence-minded truck driver, as he transports
furniture past famous landmarks, through dense forests, over major
rivers, and in and out of congested cities, carrying the reader
along on an engaging narrative with telling dialogue and
picturesque description. Whether rescuing students in search of the
real America or picking up a hippie helper who proves an expert
loader of others' belongings or encountering fascinating figures
whose household or business effects, even a grand piano, he moves
from west coast to east and points in between, Afflerbach's
wholesome hero regales the reader with a know-how not only for
maneuvering the highways in any weather or condition but for
dealing with one's origins and directions, in terms of love,
family, and ethical decisions. The novelist knows his subject
through and through and tells his compellin
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