The Longest Walk

A Pinnacle of Travel Literature, and Perhaps Nonfiction as a Whole

This is arguably one of the most underrated books in the travel genre. Throughout the book, Meegan artfully narrates and develops the main and minor characters we encounter along with him, and he does not romanticize the privations of a true traveler; indeed, our expectations of what the road has to offer, I believe, parallel his. He set out with grand ideas of adventure and, while achieving them, lost his naivete about them, and he doesn't fool us about this. In addition, who in all humanity could undertake a more raw, primal expedition than to literally walk through the vast majority of the societies of the western hemisphere? It is unfitting that such a man and his story should not receive more of the fame and recognition he, and it, deserves—but even then, this would be almost paradoxical, as he did not drum up fanfare for his adventure. Perhaps the last of a group of true adventurers. If only this review were the magic bullet that would give the story requisite status in the annals of travel literature—but it isn't. One would be amiss and incomplete without reading this most excellent account of adventure and humanity.