Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Flatiron Books, and author Sarah Kendzior for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

Having suffered from depression most of my life, I’ve developed a few theories. One of them is that those of us who see the world as it is are prone to depression. We see that the platitudes don’t always work. Hard work does not equal success. Going above and beyond at work often results in being given more work. You have less control over your destiny than many self-help gurus would like you to believe. This last one is a piece of the puzzle that explains why our country is in its current state. People would like to think that if life has been fortunate to them, they have done things “right,” while people who are less fortunate than they have not. This makes it easy to excuse any sense of compassion towards those less fortunate than ourselves and encourages selfishness.

I can relate quite a bit to Sarah Kendzior. The Last American Road Trip details various trips she’s taken with her family over the years across the United States. Having made certain choices in her life, this meant life on a budget, while she still wanted her children to experience America. Road trips were the way to go. Kendzior details the trips to many beautiful out-of-the-way places in our country that have an impact on her and her family. Indeed, I finished with a small list of places I’d never considered visiting before reading this book.

Kendzior and her family live in Missouri, but she’s a liberal, much like me. The problem is that the bad things we’ve seen happening in this country over the last decade affect her to the point of tears and needing time away from her family due to the many things happening that she has no control over. She fears for her children; I fear mostly for my grandchildren at this point in time. We try to do our best to let them have real childhoods before what’s happening in the United States robs them of their innocence, while Kendzior is more open with her children about the bad things going on. I can understand why she turns off her phone as a way of escaping life during these road trips, yet real events seem to seep into their break. Although I believe we are in the worst crisis this country has ever been in as a result of the grifter-in-chief, even with my depression, I feel like I have to have hope that we as a country will come out the other side. Kendzior seems to be very much the doom-and-gloom type.

I enjoyed how she detailed things like Route 66 and how its rise and fall have mirrored American culture. Being from Missouri, she also has a lot of information about Mark Twain and his life. There were many things I did not know about him. She also contrasts popular destinations like Yellowstone Park with those more off the beaten track, like Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Kendzior is good at finding the beauty all around her, even in the smallest details.

I did enjoy The Last American Road Trip quite a bit, despite the negative outlook Kendzior seems to have for the future. It reaffirms my desire to travel across the country as we enter our twilight years. There is so much out there to see, and good people as well. I think people who do not have left-leaning political beliefs won’t enjoy it, though. When you want to believe that everything positive that happened has been of your own doing, while negative things are someone else’s fault, it can be difficult to see that very little of it is in our control, and we’re throwing away the little bit we do have with both hands.