In addition to inaugurating Mary Lib’s new house with its first official hosted event, our February meeting was also Beth’s inaugural event. Welcome, Beth!
Joan, Annie, Linda, Saran, Beth, and I shared the first event at my new house three days before actually moving in and before furniture was moved, but we did have a kitchen table with six chairs, which is all we needed. Well, that and the yummy fruit and cookies that Linda generously provided.
The Long Haul, by Finn Murphy, provided an insight into the work of movers and their observations into the lives of the people who they help move. Additionally, the book shares perspectives on the stuff that people acquire, pack, move, and then perhaps never unpack but move again.
Our group explored the topic of our “stuff,” especially since so many of us had moved in the fairly recent past and had been faced with our own decisions about our stuff. What do we move? Why do we move it? Do we have our own unopened boxes sitting in garages after previous moves? Why do we keep them?
We talked about what would draw someone like Murphy to do this type of work. We considered the allure of the independence it offers, the ability to see the country and the cultures within it, and the rewards of seeing a job to completion. Murphy is a problem solver and seems to draw great satisfaction from (and was very good at) solving complex problems. This topic led to a discussion about the problem solvers in our own lives.
Murphy was a good storyteller. Some of his highlights were the story of the baby grand move and of Mr. Big’s Chinese gravestones!
Libby and Margie were on a hut trip but sent comments before we met. I’ll share a few of those: Libby – “The first part of the book to me felt like the story of a guy who wanted to run away, the times were ripe for alienation from regular society. He did see an America that few people ever see. He has some interesting amusing stories but I spent a lot of the book wondering what was really “driving” him since I imagined his background different from the average trucker...It was almost as if working at a hard back breaking job, he was escaping from himself. And ironically he ended up working for people (high end mover) from a class he originated from.”… I did enjoy the story about the “running convoy” being like a zen experience, the way truckers can communicate and stick together. Stories about what he sees in America about decline vs thriving towns we somewhat interesting. But the book left me hanging at the end, until I listened to the Terry Gross interview. After that I liked Finn, but the book itself lacked heart, I felt.
Margie – “…I was headed to UT for a week of skiing with the guys and thought I’d bring the book with me as a back up – in case I finish My Antonia. Driving w on I-80 through WY we got caught up in very slow traffic amidst many semi’s. On the opposite side, east bound there was a caravan of semi’s that was 5 miles long, bumper to bumper, and not moving. Every now and then there was a car interspersed. There were more than a handful of semi’s off the highway on their sides! That totally re-ignited my interest in these drivers – who they were, what their lives as truck drivers were like. Once in UT for the week, I did finish My Antonia and picked up The Long Haul again. I finished the book. And I was a bit stymied. I really didn’t like the person of Finn Murphy. And I felt sad for him. So I re-read your email about the book pick. and decided to listen to the interview with Terry Gross. That was quite interesting. As Annie said, it filled in that 10 year gap – and that made me even more sad for him. I will say that listening to him gave me a different perspective of who he was and I liked him a lot more after the interview.
We talked about the 10-year gap in Murphy’s personal story, but after listening to Terry Gross’s interview with Murphy and hearing him summarize how a bad decision turned his life upside down during that period, we concluded that those details would have been a distraction, disrupting the flow of the book. It made sense to us that he omitted it, but because we felt connected to him while reading his story, we couldn’t help but be very curious about that period of time.
Overall, most of us enjoyed the book, primarily because it gave us a glimpse into the lives of some very interesting people.
