Book Review: Asphalt Asylum

Portland author Steve Theme’s memoir, Asphalt Asylum: The Dark Roads to Light, is the story of a 19-year-old who sets out in 1978 from his Seattle home to hitchhike where the road will take him.

He eventually covers 7,000 miles, from Seattle to Key West and back, through rain, heat, and snow, deserts and tropical forests, beaches and cities.

It’s an amazing journey, marked by generosity as well as danger, and his own remarkable personal journey from bitterness to acceptance — or as the subtitle for the book says, “The Dark Roads to Life.”

If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to hitchhike across the country, this book takes you there with vivid details that put you there with him.

Review by Jan Bear.