Colum McCann, who won the National Book Award last week for Let the Great World Spin, was inspired to write by a cross-country bike ride:
So he took off on a bicycle for a year-and-a-half odyssey across the United States, traveling through Florida, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and the Pacific Northwest, dipping into Mexico and finishing in San Francisco. Along the way people would confide intimate stories. “In a strange way they would become novelists,” he said.
The bike ride took place early on in his career, when he was “modeling himself” on Jack Kerouac. The stories he heard on that ride stayed with him ever since. The NYT has published an excerpt of his book. It’s based on the people of New York and 9/11.
We’ve been inspired by the bike as well in our travels, touring, and racing. So has David Byrne and wrote about the bike in his recent book.
Readers, how about you? Written a great American novel on your bike?
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