Vernon Huffman, One Thousand Miles Past the Last Gas Station: The Story of Bike4Peace (Amazon) 2016.

I suppose, if you were going to pick one of your siblings to write a memoir, you might not choose the one who has suffered multiple concussions and head injuries. You might not choose the one who experimented with Marijuana at the earliest age. But you don't get to choose what your brothers and sisters do. And I have to admit, my brother has put a lot of time and effort into this self-published book. So I had no doubts that I would buy a hard copy and read it cover to cover. Wanting to be a supportive brother, I should write a smashing review of the book, but it is about as disjointed as a conversation with its author is. Like many self-published books, it could have benefitted from an editor.

It did remind me of the compassion I have for the various women with whom my brother has hooked up over the years. Let's just say that he hasn't been much for long-term commitments and that a guy who has been married four times has a bit of explaining to do. That explaining, however, and the details of relationships included in the book, hardly contributes to the story of an excellent cause: Bike4Peace. His multiple cross-continent bicycle trips are an amazing feat. His commitment to living an environmentally sustainable lifestyle is commendable. And the story of those bike trips is worth telling. It is likely that someone who does not know him quite as well as I might enjoy the story a bit better.

Always an idealist, Vernon presents a bit of an idealistic view of his family as well. Our great grandfather Roy did do a lot of bicycle riding. He also was a dedicated and complete keeper of personal journals. He never mentioned the aversion to automobiles that Vernon imagines in his book. The story, however, does serve to bring together some desperate ideas in at least the mind of the author.

My dear brother has done a commendable thing by writing his story. It is convenient that he went through the process of publishing it so I can have an actual book. And he will get a few folks to read the story that they might not otherwise have known.

I wonder what story he might tell if he included in the book the fact that less than a year after it was published he has become the owner of an automobile.