Normally, I enjoy cross-country travel books, but I wound up speed reading through the last half of this just to get the Goodreads credit. Not sure if it's because it feels dated, being now about 20 years ago, or knowing that I didn't have an adventure like this after college even if we're probably about the same age, or just something about the writing style that I can't put my finger on. ( )

Because I enjoy wandering the back roads (I hate interstate highways with a real passion) so much myself, I’m always on the lookout for a well written travel memoir about that kind of trip. It doesn’t matter if the travelers are walking, biking, or driving; I’m ready to make the trip with them. I’ve made lots of those trips in the US and Canada, even a bunch in the UK when I was younger, so George Mahood’s Not Tonight, Josephine: A Road Trip Through Small-Town America from my first glance at its cover seemed just about perfect.

Two young Brits, author George Mahood and his buddy Mark, decided to spend the better part of a year exploring America, having correctly assumed that the experience would be a much better way to learn about the country and its people than exclusively following the usual tourist track instead. Their plan, however, changed even before they landed in New York because Mark was granted only a 90-day visa, leaving George on his own when it was time to turn their rather ancient Dodge Caravan (called Josephine) around and head back to New York for the flight home. (George would inadvertently have his own visa problems later on.) Thankfully, Mark was able to join George before anything happened to George as he wandered around solo through places like some of Baltimore’s most drug-infested neighborhoods on foot searching for a place to sleep.

Not Tonight, Josephine is every bit as much fun as I hoped it would be. Because the boys, due to budget restraints, spent the bulk of their nights sleeping on Josephine’s too-small seats, parked wherever they felt relatively safe, they had more than a few encounters with local cops who spotted them parked overnight in unusual spots. And because the trip began so late in the year, they often woke up with ice on both sides of the windows and chattering teeth. Even some of America’s cheapest, dirtiest, and weirdest motels began to look good to them at that point.

There is even a love story happening in Not Tonight, Josephine despite the fact that George and Rachel have the Atlantic Ocean firmly fixed between them. At one point, as George continues to move westward and Rachel decides to relocate to Ireland, they manage to put more and more miles between them. For both, it is a new relationship with an old friend, and George fears that he is destroying it even before it begins. After Mark returns to England, George wants nothing more than to have Rachel join him for the return leg of the trip, but she is not so sure that is what she wants to do.

Bottom Line: I ended up liking Not Tonight, Josephine even more than I expected I would. George and Mark steered Josephine through many of the small towns and more-isolated regions of the country that I’ve explored on my own, and reading about their experiences brought back some good memories. It’s the “little things” and unexpected encounters that make this kind of trip a true success, and despite all the things they barely missed seeing on their travels, George, Mark, and Rachel ended up experiencing a very successful road trip with a lot of help from Josephine. This one is fun. ( )

Got about 25% in and didn't really enjoy it. Didn't seem like it was going anywhere. I Am sure it would get to a point, but I have other books to read. ( )

Overall this was an enjoyable but forgettable travelogue of the US. I enjoyed Mahood’s writing particularly when he threw in an amusing or sarcastic observation although at times he needs to be more careful that they are not dismissive of what he is writing about with clearly great fondness. Throughout the duration of his trip he certainly covered lots of ground and so the author is able to provide observations on both the East and West coasts as well as a trip through the South and the mid west. A lot of mileage and thus scale for one book.

Overall, and this may be because he wrote this after the fact armed with his 21 year old self’s journal of the time the writing has a tendency to fall into a pattern of ‘we drove to x and from there went to y before sleeping in z’. We are told a lot but don’t consistently get to see or feel his experiences, for example in his epilogue he references the number of Americans he met and how they feel about their country but most of his interactions are covered in a line or two with the exception of the other travellers he meets or the family he visits along the way.

I also felt the sub title was misleading – whilst there are undoubtedly small towns in this book they mostly get less than a paragraph whilst visits to Memphis, Chicago or Denver get significantly more coverage. This doesn’t make it bad by any means just not necessarily what I thought I was going to be reading.

Finally a large amount of the book reflected on the young author’s angst about being separated from his new girlfriend. Whilst undoubtedly a real emotion he was feeling at the time of travelling and his journal writing it took away time that could have been better served discussing what he was seeing and doing in the US. Readers of his other books which include one which covers his honeymoon may have enjoyed these sections more than I did but for me they felt flat and out of place.