Patiently collected over five years of weekday commuting, this episodic diary takes place entirely on, in and near public transit in Portland, Oregon. Fifty absolutely-true tales are recounted by a travel-worn businessman. All are set in the limbo that occurs on the trains and busses within the two cities between which he commutes. There are stories of the unexpected; petty violence, eccentric strangers, impromptu concerts and startling acts of kindness. But there are also stories of the unapologetically expected and, even when our narrator speaks to age-old inner city archetypes, he delivers a striking depiction of their humanity and paints vivid pictures of humans whom he will only ever meet once. Sometimes cynical and droll, sometimes wondrous but always charming, this nonfiction collection is an honest and simplistically beautiful account of ourselves rubbing shoulders.
