Independence Day: A Lonely Heart's Voyage Around the USA Book

Jim Keeble is a Brit with his heart in North America. At least, he was, until his Italian-Canadian fiancée Angie-"beautiful, funny, caring, bubbly, outgoing, vivacious Angie"--decided to chuck him. In, of all places, the world's number one honeymoon destination, Niagara Falls. Given the circumstances, surrounded as he was by thousands of euphoric newly-weds humping away in motel-rooms expressly designed for the pleasures of nuptial love, Jim Keeble did the only right and honourable thing: he ran away.This, then, is an account of Keeble's ensuing emotional Odyssey, his epic schlep around the highways and byways of America, from the frigid Minnesotan heartlands to the frazzled Mexican borderlands to the fantastical Las Vegas NeverNeverlands, in search of serenity, dignity, tranquillity, and a possible bunk-up. It's a quixotic, rambling, dishevelled, mostly endearing tale, at once a light-heartedly laddish travel diary and also a heartfelt, funny-sad, very contemporary male confessional.Of course, Keeble doesn't get the girl. Any girl. Though he tries the crab-fed Cornishwomen of Carolina and the long legged Croatian horsewomen of Virginia, though he tries "Yummy Mummies" in Brooklyn and silicon-breasted sophomores doing Spring Break in Daytona Beach, he gets totally nowhere, fast. But what he does get is a lot of first-rate material for this rather likeable, rather readable travelogue. Only question: whatever happened to Angie? She sounded wicked. --Sean ThomasRead More