Readers' rating:
Published Jun 2017
256 pages
Genre: Short Stories
Publication Information
A long-haul mover's rollicking account of life out on the Big Slab.
More than thirty years ago, Finn Murphy dropped out of college to become a long-haul trucker. Since then he's covered more than a million miles packing, loading, and hauling people's belongings all over America. Known by his trucker handle as U-Turn, he spends his days (and many of his nights) in a 53-foot eighteen-wheeler he calls Cassidy.
In The Long Haul, Murphy offers a trucker's-eye view of America on the move. Going far beyond the myth of the American road trip, he whisks readers down the I-95 Powerlane, across the Florida Everglades, in and out of the truck stops of the Midwest, and through the steep grades of the Rocky Mountains. As he crisscrosses the country, Murphy recounts with wit, candor, and charm the America he has seen change over the decades, from the hollowing-out of small towns to changing tastes in culture and home furnishings.
Some 40 million Americans move each year, and very few have any idea what they're getting into or the kind of person to whom they are relinquishing their worldly goods. The Long Haul is also a behind-the-scenes look at the moving industry, revealing what really happens when we call in "the movers."
Through it all, Murphy tells poignant, funny, and often haunting stories of the people he encounters on the job: a feisty hoarder in New Hampshire; a Virginia homeowner raging when Murphy's truck accidentally runs down a stand of trees; an ex-banker in Colorado who treats Finn and his crew with undisguised contempt; a widow who needs Murphy to bring her archeologist husband's remains and relics to a Navajo burial ceremony in New Mexico. These experiences inspire Finn's memorable reflections on work, class, and the bonds we form with the things we own and the places we live.
Brimming with personality and filled with great characters, The Long Haul is a resonant portrait of the enduring appeal of manual labor in the dark underbelly of the American Dream.
"The Long Haul can be almost shamefully enjoyable, allowing readers to have their fix of 'fabulous-life-of' porn and class outrage, too... [T]he stories Murphy tells ... my goodness, how astonishing they are, and how moving, and how funny." - New York Times Book Review
"Like priests, movers shepherd us through life's transitions; like cowboys, truckers drive the roads we'll never know. Both see America in ways the rest of us don't. In The Long Haul, Murphy ... bring[s] us into his semi-mythic world." - The New Yorker
"It's [Murphy's] rich perspective as a mover that makes this story of trucking life so insightful. ... A well-written story that rarely slows down." - Los Angeles Times
"The Long Haul delivers because it is a survey of a culture fused to a working man's memoir--and Murphy, smartly, avoids sentiment and lazy comparisons." - The Paris Review
"A veteran driver's informative, humorous and beautifully detailed memoir. ... It's a hoot to ride along with Murphy." - The Seattle Times
"There's nothing semi about Finn Murphy's trucking tales of The Long Haul." - Vanity Fair
"Finn Murphy ... bring[s] readers along for a rollicking ride through a trucker's world and [provides] an insider's eye, pairing it with an involving series of encounters." - The Midwest Book Review
"A rare, fascinating glimpse into the lives of big-rig pilots and the people they move… The Long Haul beguil[es] readers with wit, wisdom and observations born from decades in transit." - Denver Post
This information about The Long Haul was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Finn Murphy grew up in Connecticut and now lives in Colorado. He started working as a long-haul trucker in 1980. The Long Haul is his first book.
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