Divided Highway

The Quest to Save the American Dream

By: Daniel M. Urbaetis

Narrated by: John N. Gully

Caught in the tidal wave of the housing crisis, and feeling the impact first-hand, a young man sets out on a mission to be a beacon of hope for America. Once a US Coast Guard, this man knows what it means to pull people from the dark depths whether it be figurative or literal.

Having been on the same ship as many of his fellow Americans, he sees the negativity being served nightly on the jaded news reports.

It's not all doom and gloom. This is still America. This is still the place dreams are allowed to flourish provided you put forth the effort required to achieve. Since no one else seems to remember this, Daniel sets out on a journey to inspire all of America to get back to being great, again. The only place defeat resides is in the heart of those convinced they have lost. Daniel is determined to show them it can just as easily go the other way, too.

Based on actual events, this unique tale amidst the 2008-9 housing and banking crises will inspire you, make you laugh, and make you proud to be alive. This is the human epic. This is the divided highway....

©2009 Daniel Urbaetis (P)2015 Daniel Urbaetis

Ambitious and thoughtful

Here’s what I liked about this book:
First, I largely identify with the author in his worldview, including his unbridled optimism about the human spirit and the strength/goodness of America specifically. About 20 years ago I would have said we were strikingly similar in our philosophies – time and life experience has perhaps made me a bit more cynical and skeptical, but I continue to be a fellow traveler of the divided highway of which he speaks. Not that my identification with the author or his ideas has anything to do with the merit of the work …

Mr. Urbaetis lays bare his heart and soul in this work, which is an act of courage to be noted in its own right. He seems to have no hidden agenda other than inspiring others. Also, he’s not such a bad writer. Granted, he’s no Hunter Thompson, to whom he (not wrongly) compares himself, but he can write a decent sentence and put one with the next in a way that keeps things moving right along.

What’s more, Urbaetis has an interesting story to tell. After all, not many people have attempted to walk across the United States!

Lastly, with respect to the narrator Mr. Gully, I feel he was a good choice for this project. It’s hard to know for sure without knowing Urbaetis personally, but he seemed to capture the spirit of the man and didn’t take a lot of unnecessary chances. In fact, if you’d have told me the book was narrated by the author himself, I would have believed it. Can’t give praise much higher than that for a memoir.

Now here’s what I saw as shortcomings in this book:
The opening or preface of the story was overwrought and longwinded. Yes, I understand Urbaetis wanted to lay out some of his background, as well as the overarching themes, beforehand – but I would have preferred to get straight into the action.

The “characters” aren’t exactly the most likable. I say this knowing it’s a personal insult of sorts to Urbaetis and his then-estranged fiancé, but alas the author self-identifies as an a$$hole on more than one occasion. Also, in one passage he expresses some misogynistic views that were certainly a detriment to his gaining sympathy as a protagonist.

There is virtually no dialogue, which, in spite of Mr. Gully’s oratory talents, makes the narration rather monotonous and the peripheral characters mere cardboard cutouts. Perhaps this being a memoir, Urbaetis wished not to embellish upon or blatantly put fictional words in the mouths of real people. While understandable, it makes the story considerably more boring.

Then there’s the fact that, while the notion of a cross-country trek portends of wild adventure, there is surprisingly little to be had (even considering he only makes it part way). Yes it was interesting to hear of the many small adaptations and overcoming of hardships, not to mention how the home loan business worked pre-crash, but I guess I just expected more. And expectations can turn out to be a real downer when they’re not met.

I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Blast.

Saving the American Dream One Day At a Time

"Divided Highway" was a good listen. It was written in first person and is a personal accounting or journal type story by Daniel M. Urbaetis. I think he proves to have good writing skills only anything I could identify with was brief. I truly love his patriotism and his belief in the American dream.

I think this author will continue writing in this style and perhaps a day will come when he does carve out a niche in this genre and in the vein of HST.

John N. Gully is a proven talented narrator. He has a wonderful speaking voice and he's especially versatile. He did a great job reading for the author and made it easy to understand. His performance was flawless.

"This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Blast."

Divided Highway: The Quest to Save the American Dr

Any additional comments?

"This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Blast."
I found this book hard to follow. The plot in itself was ok, but too much foul language for my taste.

irritating author and disjointed writing

I tried to like this book. The narrator is honest and clearly telling a tale of a young man that lived a little on auto-pilot without making many hard decisions. He gets sucked into the subpar mortgage business, makes some money without really thinking about the ramifications of his business, and loses his job and home. He and his girlfriend move into her Dad's house, but he gets into a fight with Dad and ends up in a shelter. He looks for work and philosophizes. He is mostly a practical guy, seems to be doing all the right things to get a job and rebuild his life, but he grated on me. He called someone a "mongoloid" as an insult. He and the girlfriend break up and he wonders if she was cheating. He just seemed all talk and excuses. The writing style is intelligent but really hard to follow and disjointed. At 4 hours into the book, before he even left on his journey, and skipped ahead to see if it improved. Nope. He makes some terribly racist comments about black neighborhoods and then spouted something about the fact that he was "called" to make this walk, that only he could be the inspiration to restore America's faith in itself.

I was sorry to leave the book unfinished as the narrator, John Gully, had a very likeable voice and narration style that was very listenable... though not enough to make up for the meandering, confusing writing style and the pompous, lightly insulting tone of the author.

NOTE: This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review.