America by land

the long version

"There is a true story about a woman in New Mexico and a boy riding out to see her. It goes like this: He's riding a big American motorcycle from Pennsylvania, from New York State, from wherever he's been, and as he rides he thinks, Nobody knows me like she does, nobody ..." So begins America by Land, an erotic, evocative, and exquisite novel of two star-crossed cousins hurtling through the landscape of the West. The boy is Raymond Romeo Redfield, out of a job, out of. School, oblivious to the views from astride his Harley. Juliet is his cousin, living alone in the desert, haunted by her decision to give up her newborn baby for adoption. Together, they start to fill the vacuums in each other while undertaking an odyssey to locate and reclaim Juliet's child. Their dreamlike journey of adventure, memories, and sexual passion is a surpassing tale of love and loss from one of the most original voices in contemporary fiction. In the words. Of Tobias Wolff: "Robert Olmstead is a nation unto himself."