Snowshoeing Through Sewers: Adventures in New York City, New Jersey, and Philadelphia

"Rockland isn't just 'observing' America objectively, he's in it, all the way, fighting the old clichés with jokes and insights about everything he sees and about himself. It's a very refreshing book."--Robert M. Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance "Rockland is one of the most exuberant men on earth and a raconteur of genius, and those qualities enliven every chapter, every sentence, every step of the way. Snowshoeing through Sewers is both funny and wise, and a damn good travelog to boot! One of the most unusual and entertaining books I've read in a long, long time."--Tom De Haven, author of Freaks' Amour and Funny Papers In these ten alternately poetic and comic tales of adventure in the New York/Philadelphia corridor, the most densely populated chunk of America, Rockland walks and bikes areas meant only for cars and paddles through waters capable of dissolving canoes. He hikes the length of New York's Broadway, camps in New York City, treks across Philadelphia, pedals among the tractor trailers of Route 1 in New Jersey, and paddles around Manhattan and through the dark tunnels under Trenton. Whereas Henry David Thoreau built his cabin on Walden Pond to get out of town, for Rockland, the challenge is to head into town. As he writes, "in the late twentieth century, a weed and trash-filled city lot . . . may be a better place than the wilderness to contemplate one's relationship to nature." Michael Aaron Rockland is a professor of American Studies at Rutgers University. His many books include Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike (Rutgers University Press) and a novel, A Bliss Case.