Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2014), Edition: First Edition, 336 pages
Description
A cross-country hitchhiking journey with America's most beloved weirdo. John Waters is putting his life on the line. Armed with wit, a pencil-thin mustache, and a cardboard sign that reads "I'm Not Psycho," he hitchhikes across America from Baltimore to San Francisco, braving lonely roads and treacherous drivers. But who should we be more worried about, the delicate film director with genteel manners or the unsuspecting travelers transporting the Pope of Trash? Before he leaves for this bizarre adventure, Waters fantasizes about the best and worst possible scenarios: a friendly drug dealer hands over piles of cash to finance films with no questions asked, a demolition-derby driver makes a filthy sexual request in the middle of a race, a gun-toting drunk terrorizes and holds him hostage, and a Kansas vice squad entraps and throws him in jail. So what really happens when this cult legend sticks out his thumb and faces the open road? His real-life rides include a gentle eighty-one-year-old farmer who is convinced Waters is a hobo, an indie band on tour, and the perverse filmmaker's unexpected hero: a young, sandy-haired Republican in a Corvette. Laced with subversive humor and warm intelligence, Carsick is an unforgettable vacation with a wickedly funny companion-and a celebration of America's weird, astonishing, and generous citizenry.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member revliz
I failed to get into this one; guess my tolerance for sick/bawdy humor evaporated when I wasn't looking. I never made it past the invented section before it was due back at the library.
LibraryThing member viviennestrauss
The third section (the real non-fiction accounts) were wonderful. I read more than half of the first 1/3 and while they started out amusing, they became less so with each succeeding chapter. Only read the first two of the second part of the book, just too over the top and ridiculous.
LibraryThing member iowabooker
I dont know which about the book was better, the fictional rides he dreamed up or the real ones! It was fun, weird, stretching of the imagination all the while glimpsing into Americans from all walks of life and his take on their conversation.
LibraryThing member delphica
I cheated on this a little bit, because I didn't realize that half of it would be fictional short stories. I am a huge fan of John Waters as a person, but not particularly interested in his creative work. It always seems like it would be GREAT if you found it shocking, but I'm not really sure what
In general, I enjoy reading his writing about his thoughts and observations, usually about when he does John Waters things like hitchhike across the county, being crabby and judgmental, and genuinely interested in other people at the same time.
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else is in there if you don't find it shocking. So I ended up skipping the short story section.In general, I enjoy reading his writing about his thoughts and observations, usually about when he does John Waters things like hitchhike across the county, being crabby and judgmental, and genuinely interested in other people at the same time.
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LibraryThing member marsap
John Waters, film director (of trash and pure camp!), writer, artist has decided to hitchhike across America, from his home in Baltimore to his apartment in San Francisco. He has his wit, his iconic pencil-thin mustache, and a cardboard sign that reads “I’m Not Psycho” (and contact with his
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wonderful assistants in Baltimore). The book is actually three books in one—Waters presents stories of the best that could happen to him; the worst that could happen and what really happened. Some of my favorite stories involved a student driver, a store that sells used items (in every form) and of course a carnival (this is John Waters). The real trip was actually quite touching and sweet—I really felt the Waters truly appreciated and liked the people he met in the middle of the country. Hilarious, touching, campy, filthy and quite trashy (again this is John Waters). I found myself laughing out loud throughout the book. Not for everyone—4 ½ out of 5 stars. Show Less
LibraryThing member etxgardener
In 2010, with the Great Recession drying up funding for his movies, John Waters decided to hitchhike from his home in Baltimore to his home in San Francisco and write a book about his experiences. All his friends told him he was crazy, but when his publisher gave him his book advance he was
The "Best That Could Happen" is quite funny and features every pleasant fantasy that could come out of Waters' twisted imagination. My favorite story is him getting picked up by a woman in a driver's training car who has locked her instructor into the trunk after discovering hat he is a member of the ARmy of God and his anti-abortion ravings have driven her mad.
The "Worst That Could Happen" is the flip side of the first third of the book and the dark side of Waters' imagination can be truly frightening. Every dark horror from his fevered brain appears on the page up to and including his demise on the road. Thus, it is a relief to come to what really happened on his adventure west. Luckily he had a staff who armed him with a state-of-the-art GPS and made up is cardboard signs "To the End of 70 West," "Mid-Life Crisis" and "I'm Not Psycho" as well as ensuring he carried a full compliment of credit cards for hotels, food and gas for his rides. He also benefits from hi own celebrity, as many of his rides pick him up because they recognize him.
However,what is touchingly reassuring is how many rides he gets from salt of the earth people who just pick him up out of their own generosity, many of whom go out of their way to leave him at a good spot to pick up his next ride. Also touching are the people who think he's just a down on his luck man and press a ten or twenty dollar bill into his hand to help him out. Waters, too shows signs of being a responsible adult. When he is picked up by someone who could have sprung from the script of one of his movies, he lectures him on not taking chances in strange places.
Be careful John Waters. This book could ruin your reputation.
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committed. His book is written in three pats - the first two fiction: the best possible scenario and the worst possible scenario. It isn't until you get to the last third of the book that you read what really happened to him on the road.The "Best That Could Happen" is quite funny and features every pleasant fantasy that could come out of Waters' twisted imagination. My favorite story is him getting picked up by a woman in a driver's training car who has locked her instructor into the trunk after discovering hat he is a member of the ARmy of God and his anti-abortion ravings have driven her mad.
The "Worst That Could Happen" is the flip side of the first third of the book and the dark side of Waters' imagination can be truly frightening. Every dark horror from his fevered brain appears on the page up to and including his demise on the road. Thus, it is a relief to come to what really happened on his adventure west. Luckily he had a staff who armed him with a state-of-the-art GPS and made up is cardboard signs "To the End of 70 West," "Mid-Life Crisis" and "I'm Not Psycho" as well as ensuring he carried a full compliment of credit cards for hotels, food and gas for his rides. He also benefits from hi own celebrity, as many of his rides pick him up because they recognize him.
However,what is touchingly reassuring is how many rides he gets from salt of the earth people who just pick him up out of their own generosity, many of whom go out of their way to leave him at a good spot to pick up his next ride. Also touching are the people who think he's just a down on his luck man and press a ten or twenty dollar bill into his hand to help him out. Waters, too shows signs of being a responsible adult. When he is picked up by someone who could have sprung from the script of one of his movies, he lectures him on not taking chances in strange places.
Be careful John Waters. This book could ruin your reputation.
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LibraryThing member bjkelley
While the fictional good and bad rides at the start of the book were entertaining at first, I soon grew weary of them. The last 1/3 of the book about the actual rides was a lot more interesting, especially finding out how sheltered John Waters was from the real world (never been in a Walmart,
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hotels with no room service, etc). Would have made for a great reality show and I hate reality shows, but I do love John Waters. Show Less
LibraryThing member Big_Bang_Gorilla
In which cult filmmaker Waters takes off on a cross-country hitchhike, albeit bending the definition of 'hitchhike' a trifle. The book contains three parts; before he gets to the trip itself, he offers two novellas, one a best-case fantasy, the other the worst case. The latter is much funnier as
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well as less offensive, if that matters. Both have the feel of filler, though. As for the trip narrative itself, it was enthralling, a masterpiece of the witty despair subgenre of travel writing, and I found it difficult to put down. Show Less
LibraryThing member Sullywriter
Waters is as outrageously entertaining as ever but this book would be better if he'd stuck to his real life hitchhiking experiences. In the first third of the book, Waters imagines wildly bawdy and debauched best-case scenarios and nightmarish worst-case scenarios in the second third. The last
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third of the book is where he recounts his actual experiences and they are the most interesting and entertaining. There are plenty of humorous moments in the fictional sections but they still come off as so much padding. Show Less
LibraryThing member PeggyK49
Well, I love John Waters, so my son knew I'd love getting Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America for a birthday present. He was correct! I knew nothing about this book, so I had no preconceived notions. I didn't even read the notes on the book jacket.
At first, I was confused, not realizing
The non-fiction section of real life hitchhiking experiences that John Waters had was delightful. It's nice to know there are good people who want to help someone seemingly in need, even if the person is only needing a ride. I'm not certain I could overcome the instilled fear of picking up a hitchhiker.....unless, of course, I recognized it was John Waters!!
At first, I was confused, not realizing
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the first parts of Carsick were fictionalized. That laugh's on me! When I did realize, I was relieved that not all hitchhiking experiences would be THAT terrible. (Though I would never hitchhike, unless by absolute necessity.)The non-fiction section of real life hitchhiking experiences that John Waters had was delightful. It's nice to know there are good people who want to help someone seemingly in need, even if the person is only needing a ride. I'm not certain I could overcome the instilled fear of picking up a hitchhiker.....unless, of course, I recognized it was John Waters!!
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LibraryThing member Bodagirl
It's a good listen, especially if you are a John Waters fan. I ended up skipping over most of the first two thirds of the book because I wanted to know about his actual trip, not the imagined "wonderful" and "horrible" scenarios that sound like they are straight out of his films. The actual trip is
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not that exciting or long, which is probably why he fantasized the first two trips. Show Less
LibraryThing member noblechicken
I listened to the audio version of this, read by Waters himself. It really is as if you are in a long winded, but wonderful conversation with him. The first half of the book is completely over the top fiction, and is very much like Chuck Palahniuk novel, but less violent gross, more like sexual
If anyone else had been narrating this, it would not be as amusing, because the writing itself is not super fantastic, but when Waters begins his colorful rants they often get hilarious.
The real joy in this book is the non-fiction where Waters is is most candid and honest. It is a marvel to meet the real life characters he runs into that are just as eccentric as his fictitious ones. They are also so willing to help, some recognizing him, some don't. Fans of John Waters will revel in this and it is quite a fun romp.
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weird. If anyone else had been narrating this, it would not be as amusing, because the writing itself is not super fantastic, but when Waters begins his colorful rants they often get hilarious.
The real joy in this book is the non-fiction where Waters is is most candid and honest. It is a marvel to meet the real life characters he runs into that are just as eccentric as his fictitious ones. They are also so willing to help, some recognizing him, some don't. Fans of John Waters will revel in this and it is quite a fun romp.
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LibraryThing member pivic
I didn't get the fact that the first two parts of this book were complete fiction until after a few rides into the first part; that's all what Waters wanted his trip to be, the second part is what Waters imagined how the trip would be if it were as horrible as possible, and the third part is -
Yes, the third part is the most interesting. Like Chuck Palahniuk, Waters managed to gross me out in his first part (not at the start) and the second part just bored me, but the third part, where his escaped his storytelling and actually started telling the story as it happened, is far and beyond the most interesting part to me, where boredom and other persons' stories are included.
So, why is Waters going on a hitchhike and writing a book about it?
What am I trying to prove here? I mean, I’m not bored. An ex-convict woman I recently met claimed her criminal past was not a result of a bad childhood but just because she “wanted an adventure.” I do, too. Kicks. But hasn’t writing and directing fifteen movies and penning six books made me feel complete? My career dreams already came true years ago and what I do now is all gravy. Shouldn’t I be retiring rather than sticking out my thumb? Retiring to what, though? Insanity?
[...]
Will I be safe? I know serial killers routinely pick up hitchhikers and murder them, but aren’t the victims, unfortunately, usually young female hookers? Yeah, yeah, I know about Herb Baumeister, “the I-70 Strangler,” who choked at least sixteen gay men to death, but he picked them up in gay bars, not on exit ramps of truck stops. Yet I must admit even truckers I know are fairly nuts.
Well, he wasn't murderd by a serial killer. Hope I didn't spoil anything for you by writing this. On the other hand, he writes a lot about how twittered-of his adventure on the road was.
The book would have been more interesting if Waters hadn't had access to his credit cards or his smartphone.
All in all: I wish only the non-fiction part would have been in here; that's at the end of the book. Otherwise, it's a semi-interesting read. Waters is eccentric in a good way, and that's interesting to read, but his free-wheelin' fictional stories are better left to films, if you ask me.
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according to Waters - the trip as it really happened.Yes, the third part is the most interesting. Like Chuck Palahniuk, Waters managed to gross me out in his first part (not at the start) and the second part just bored me, but the third part, where his escaped his storytelling and actually started telling the story as it happened, is far and beyond the most interesting part to me, where boredom and other persons' stories are included.
So, why is Waters going on a hitchhike and writing a book about it?
What am I trying to prove here? I mean, I’m not bored. An ex-convict woman I recently met claimed her criminal past was not a result of a bad childhood but just because she “wanted an adventure.” I do, too. Kicks. But hasn’t writing and directing fifteen movies and penning six books made me feel complete? My career dreams already came true years ago and what I do now is all gravy. Shouldn’t I be retiring rather than sticking out my thumb? Retiring to what, though? Insanity?
[...]
Will I be safe? I know serial killers routinely pick up hitchhikers and murder them, but aren’t the victims, unfortunately, usually young female hookers? Yeah, yeah, I know about Herb Baumeister, “the I-70 Strangler,” who choked at least sixteen gay men to death, but he picked them up in gay bars, not on exit ramps of truck stops. Yet I must admit even truckers I know are fairly nuts.
Well, he wasn't murderd by a serial killer. Hope I didn't spoil anything for you by writing this. On the other hand, he writes a lot about how twittered-of his adventure on the road was.
The book would have been more interesting if Waters hadn't had access to his credit cards or his smartphone.
All in all: I wish only the non-fiction part would have been in here; that's at the end of the book. Otherwise, it's a semi-interesting read. Waters is eccentric in a good way, and that's interesting to read, but his free-wheelin' fictional stories are better left to films, if you ask me.
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LibraryThing member LibroLindsay
Just as ridiculous, hilarious, salacious, and highly questionable as you might imagine.
LibraryThing member datrappert
Waters tells his story three times--the best scenario, the worst, and what actually happened. The first two options are incredibly obscene but with Waters reading his own book and being the personable likeable character he is, it is mostly borderline hysterical if you are not the offendable type.
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The true story of his Baltimore-to-San Francisco journey lacks the obscenity and is quite endearing as a diverse group gets him across the country--in between interminable waits beside the interstate on-ramp. Highly recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member weeta
Really, he could have left out the rather boring reality of his experience hitchhiking and just left it at the wonderfully filthy and fictional versions. This is one of those books that is most certainly best experienced as an audio book read by the author.
LibraryThing member steve02476
Liked the non-fiction parts: The introduction and the last third. The other two-thirds were sometimes funny but mostly tedious.
Original language
English
Original publication date
2014
Physical description
323 p.; 5.75 inches
ISBN
0374298637 / 9780374298630