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I read this book because I wanted to partake in the Elizabeth Bank's book club on her site. I would not have chosen it otherwise.

I have no idea how it is/was a National Bestseller. The story is about a man in his 40s who is overweight, a smoker, an alcoholic, and has a dead-end job. His parents are both killed in a car accident and his older sister, who suffers from a severe mental illness, has been missing for decades. The only people left in his life now are his aunt/uncle and the crippled girl next door who is in love with him. When he returns to his parents' home after their funeral, he discovers an unopened letter from California about his sisters' whereabouts as well as finds his childhood bicycle in the garage. He decides that he is going to bike from Rhode Island to California to get to his sister. Along the way he encounters a rainbow of characters and is involved in many near-death situations.

OK, first off, I have no idea how a 279 pound man this is a heavy smoker AND an alcoholic who hasn't ridden a bike in 20 years can just hop on and trek across the country like it's nothing. He mentions how he hasn't had a fruit or vegetable in years and next thing you know all he eats is bananas and water. For someone to quit smoking and drinking cold turkey and Lance Armstrong his way across the US with absolutely zero training, is completely unrealistic. That was one of my biggest issues with the story.

Then the people he meets and the situations that follow were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO unrealistic. I won't go into detail, but in every situation he's accused of serious crimes or injured so badly and then he just says, "I'm from Rhode Island, I'm riding my bike, I'm not a bum, I have no money, yadda, yadda, yadda...." and everyone is hunky dory with that.

On top of that, was the Norma character. The crippled girl next door that his in love with Smithy. She sounded just as nuts as the sister. The conversations between the two of them were incredibly awkward and I began to believe that Norma had Tourette's or something. She was constantly blurting out random nonsense, which became very annoying after the third or fourth time.

I was slightly curious about the sister's story line. Unfortunately a lot of details were left out and while I understand that it was written from Smithy's point of view and not hers, I still wish I could have more of the background story on her.

I get that this was a story about finding yourself and not judging anyone (hello, all the people he runs into seem to have no problem with what he's doing or the stories he tells them about his family). It seems that only after he finds out what happened to his sister is he finally able to really live his life and not worry about her anymore. He went through that process in such an extreme and unrealistic way, that it made the novel non-enjoyable.

Don't waste your time.