Travels with Charlie

A Modern Search for America

De: Sol Smith

Narrado por: Sol Smith

A young couple sets out to discover the country in the pre-dawn of GPS navigation and instead discovers each other.

In Travels with Charlie, William and Charlotte Stronghold quit their jobs and sell their belongings in order to set sail and find a new home somewhere between their native California and the green mountains of Vermont. Along the way, they fall in love and into hate with the popular culture that binds Americans together. The lines are blurred between shady roadside attractions and heralded national monuments, between the natural wonders of the country and the loud and annoying tourists who populate them, between the concepts of place and self.

A head-on collision, a single burrito nearly a yard long, dead presidents, something that is probably a bear, and a Canadian sex club provide the backdrop for this story that is part romance story, part tall-tale, and part coming-of-age memoir. At times sweet and heartbreaking, almost always bitingly funny, Travels with Charlie is an American story about life on the road, in the tradition of Huck Finn, On the Road, and Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley.

©2014 Sol Smith (P)2019 Sol Smith

Entertaining, funny, and heartfelt

I loved this book. I got the hard copy and the audible version. It made me nostalgic for places that I’ve never even been. This book was an entertaining piece of art that makes you want to continue until you find out what happens next.

Dug it!

Travels with Charlie was itself a fabulous road trip. It was as meandering as it was insightful. Sol Smith portrays both love and travel in a way that is at once completely relatable and completely unique. The narrative simultaneously paid tribute to significant and (sometimes) beautiful landmarks and history, turned the mundane into fun, and shone a light on the hope and fear of growing young love. The blurring of lines between fiction/nonfiction, narrator/self, humor/uncertainty was something altogether new, playful, and poignant.

Funny, informative, and extremely sincere

It’s not often that a book brings so much pure enjoyment. Listening to this audiobook made me look forward to car rides that were previously boring, just so I could listen to this story.
Sol writes about his honeymoon across America. The writing style is sarcastic, informative, and deeply honest. I found myself laughing numerous times throughout this book at all the little details, like all the terrible service at restaurants the couple had and all the loud, annoying strangers- or “microphones” - that the couple met. The best part of this book was Sol’s sincerity. You could literally feel the deep love Sol has for travel, new experiences, and, especially, his wife. This book leaves you refreshed, content, and eager to start looking at life with a more adventurous eye.

Fun listen for a commuter-honest, funny, and real

I enjoyed this book and the way it was read. It made me laugh on many occasions and brought back memories of my own travels as both a kid and an adult. It was like listening to my best friend tell me stories as we had conversations over dinner or drinks. I thought the style was creative and liked the critiques of some of America's "hot spots." I have yet to visit Grand Canyon (not THE Grand Canyon!) but MUST make a point of it now that I have listened to this book. I enjoyed the hefty dose of reality when it came to descriptions of being newly married (and broke) and of encounters with different types of people from coast to coast. I'm not sure if others would enjoy the narratives around eating and having to pee as much as I did, but it was quite humorous to me. I was most certainly entertained by listening to this book. I have a feeling that reading it on one's own would not do the book justice. Hearing it read by the author is likely the best way to "read" this book to get the intent and the humor I believe the author hoped to convey. Overall, I thought the book was great and would certainly read another book by this author.

Not

I’m sorry this is not the travels with Charlie that I was looking for totally different.

Awesome!

Loved Travels with Charlie. So well written - hilarious, informative, real! I stayed up way too late on several nights listening on my headphones. My husband would chime in, "What are you laughing about?" Recommend to anyone interested in travel, real people, and needing an uplifting mood. Sol Smith is a brilliant writer.

Travels with Charlie.

This was a good book.I enjoyed it to a point.It dealt with a lot that I never knew about.Narration was fine.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.' 

TOOK - ME - BACK

I would’ve never guessed that such a personal book could be so enormously relatable. No spoilers but the author is talking about his memories of young marriage and a subsequent adventure. I was also married young and I constantly felt like I was remembering things about the start of my journey as someone described theirs. This is a wholesome love song I highly recommend. This tale exists somewhere between tall tale and personal rhapsody and those blurred lines I create a genuine charm that to me are a very real experience. For of course we are what we remember - not necessarily what happened. I strongly recommend this for a couple to read together as they are many lessons we can all learn from examining our younger selves. Cheers to this wonderful story.

Couldn’t wait for my commute!

Never laughed so much and so hard listening or reading a book! Growing up in the Central Valley, I easily found myself visualizing every corner, every park, and melting in the same damn summers! Easy to follow along, and the writers voice draws you in. He is very animated, talented, and I didn’t want their road adventures to end! I will definitely be on the look out for more “Adventures with Charlie!”

Makes me want to take a road trip!

This is a great love story take takes you across America. Each time I listen to this book it makes me want to jump in my car and go to all of the places they went to.