The Distance to the Moon is about America's love affair with the car and the open road--what James Morgan calls "the epic entanglement that's defined this century and reshaped the face of America." Morgan takes us on an unforgettable road trip from Florida to Oregon, interviewing everyone from automobile collectors and designers, historians, psychologists, road builders, city planners, and barflies in an attempt to reveal why we're so obsessed with our automobiles. These car stories, he found, serve as our common mythology, and tell of our collective coming of age, our youthful aspirations, our loves and losses. Morgan also discovered that the simplicity of life on the road can give us the clearest picture of who we are as Americans."I was immediately caught up in The Distance to the Moon. It's a fine reflection on America's complex relationship with cars and the road." --Larry McMurtry"An entertaining traveling companion...The book's title...comes courtesy of John Updike Awho? calculated that the average American male drives the equivalent of the distance to the moon every 17 years. Morgan's book takes us a long way toward understanding why." --Bruce McCall, The New York Times Book Review