1989, William Morrow & Co. - Hardback
1989, Bantam - Paperback

 

 

 

 

 

 

Talking to Tom Bodett…is like drinking a cup of cocoa in front of a roaring fire on a stormy day. Bodett combines a common touch with rare warmth and wisdom.
--The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

 

Tom Bodett is the latest in a long line of quintessential American voices ranging from Mark Twain to Garrison Keillor.
--People magazine

 

Welcome to The End of the Road, Tom Bodett's first great feat of storytelling. By turns funny (even farcial), nostalgic, provocative and often touching, this book introduces Bodett's cast of characters from The End of the Road, Alaska. It is a sharp-eyed accounting of life's perpetual disorders.

 

from Chapter 3, Tamara and the Cat (page 35)

Tamara Dupree hasn’t had the easiest time of it since she reached the End of the Road. It’s not surprising, though. She came in with such a chip on her shoulder, she was bound to run into trouble sooner or later. What’s funny, and kinda sad about it, is that most of the trouble she’s had, she’s done to herself.

Tamara came in from California, or maybe it was Oregon. She’s what you might call a vegetarian activist. If you get behind her in line at the grocery store with a pack of hamburger in your cart, she starts makin’ little gaggin’ noises in her throat and tries to move away from you.

That’s when you’re lucky, ‘cause Tamara’s not shy with her opinions and like as not she’ll start rummaging through your groceries, lecturing you on which vital organ functions are going to fail if you eat this, that, or the other thing. She has not endeared herself to very many folks this way, and a lot of us have taken to putting Ding Dongs and Nutty Buddies on top of our carts just to get a rise out of her….

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