Call me crazy but if I knew I could quit my day job to roam the hills and valleys of the United States, write about it and take pictures like the author of The Moonlight Chronicles, I would. But, let's face it -- there's something called reality -- and I am a part of that reality.
Author Dan Price is a destinationless traveler and hobo artist who illuminates the joys of simple living with his daily observations and wobbly illustrations. He has lived in a tent on a two-acre Oregon field for the past 10 years and spends his days journaling and listening only to his intuition -- if only all of us could be so fortunate.
But seriously, Price's book is not so bad. Actually, anyone with a love of nature and a yearning for simpler ways will enjoy his vagabond musings, quotations, photgraphs and hand-drawn, full color chronicles of life.
Price takes in everything available, everywhere he travels. For example, one of his observations in the book is a hand-drawn picture of salt and pepper shakers and a napkin holder. The hand-written caption below his art is, "at the Dairy King in Last Chance, Colorado. Had the ham and cheese on rye."
Price also hits the trail for five days in Hell's Canone, wanders through the Sierras, takes the family to the beach, watches Mikhail Baryshnikov dance in Portland, meanders through the alleyways of New York City and returns home to deal twith his children becoming rebellious teenagers -- and readers are forced to travel along in their minds.
The Moonlight Chronicles reminds us of small joys and the fact that happiness abounds in the little things.
This collection of one man's handwritten, unedited, wonder-full thoughts and drawings is a little far-fetched, but for those of you who like to read and look at things that aren't too mainstreamy or are a bit odd and unusual, the chronicles may be the book for you.
Grade: B
