"With asides spanning the years from his pot-smoking, pill-popping teenage years to his later adult failures as an average American man, this...hoot of a memoir rings with themes that will appeal to many readers coming-of-age in the 1970s and '80s. A candid and humorous tale."
—Kirkus
"An achingly poignant odyssey consummately crafted and disguised as a personal family memoir."
—Lon Milo DuQuette, author of My Life with the Spirits
"...riveting, funny, emotional. I laughed out loud and cried real tears."
—Krista Vernoff, showrunner of Grey's Anatomy, Shameless, and Charmed
"Devin Galaudet writes that his dad “wanted to lift off the lid to life for me and show me its flailing innards” and that’s what Gallaudet does, himself, in these pages—he lifts the lid off a complicated, volatile, father-son relationship and shows us all that is flailing and painful and hilarious and poignant within. Gallaudet’s journey with his father is deeply, engrossingly, unique, yet also has much to say about what it means to come of age as a man in America. A compelling and unforgettable read."
–Gayle Brandeis, author of The Art of Misdiagnosis: Surviving My Mother's Suicide
"Devin Galaudet has taken on one of the toughest subjects a writer...and a man...can attempt: coming to terms with his relationship to his father and summoning the courage for a final goodbye. Galaudet writes with a great eye for physical detail, compassion, intensity and humor. 10,000 Miles with My Dead Father's Ashes promises to be a guidebook for the rest of us who might undertake a similar emotional journey.”
—Kent Black, editor-in-chief at Palm Springs Life Magazine
“How do you write a travel book about a serious topic... while still keeping it fun and highly readable? I had no idea—until I came across 10,000 Miles. This is a story that needs to be widely read.”
—Chris Guillebeau, New York Times Bestselling author of The Art of Non-Conformity
"Devin Galaudet captures the wrenching, often funny intricacies of grieving for a less than perfect father. Love and violence, abandonment and slapstick comedy commingle in this poignant and real story of how we come to terms with our parents in their varied and often complex manifestations."
—Kate Maruyama, author of Harrowgate
"Galaudet writes with a voice that is vulnerable and even painful at times, but it's also always entertaining and downright funny. He's clearly an excellent storyteller and traveling around the world with him would undoubtedly be a blast! His writing is the next best thing."
—Kenneth Shapiro, Editor-in-Chief of TravelAge West
"Devin Galaudet tells his story of love and loss with humor and poignancy. This is a candid, moving work about a scared boy trying to find a way to be a grown man."
—Telaina Eriksen, 2010 and 2011 Pushcart Prize nominee
"Anyone who's scattered a parent's ashes knows it is a confusing mix of sadness and irony. Devin captures both perfectly."
—Peter Hancoff, Writer, producer, troublemaker
"[Devin's] writing is creatively intriguing, well crafted, with a very strong narrative voice."
—Alma Villanueva, writer of Song of the Golden Scorpion
"Devin Galudet’s journey is a mind-boggling and trenchant tale. Devin captures the deeply troubled moments of a developing young man as he traverses his often maniacal and devastatingly convoluted relationship with his father. He pulls on this thread in gentle tugs, with wit and humor, and lands his punches with the skill of a pro-boxer. His story carries with it a sense of urgency, the need a son has for a father, as the relationship vanishes in the wind. Truly moving, cohesive, and rich in wry cynicism, Devin’s writing is taut and can teach all us all something about the love a son has for his father,"
—Kat Kambes, Writer
"Galaudet’s story moves in circles from “ the merry-go-round experience of finding a parking space in Cadiz”, to circling the streets for a place to stop, and then watching the slow moving second hand of a wall clock in the Tourism Office of Cadiz as he waits for a singer to pay tribute to his deceased father whose ashes he carried from California to Spain. In small details like finding parking, Galaudet reveals the inner landscape of losing a parent, interspersing dark humor to give the reader the space to breathe through the intimacy of grief. Galaudet’s travel memoir shows us that no matter how far you travel the language of grief and compassion are the same. 10,000 Miles with My Dead Father’s Ashes is about a journey 10,000 miles across the ocean, and the story of encircling 10,000 miles within to where it all began."
—Angela M. Brommel, writer
2018-06-18
A seasoned traveler's memoir about his father's death and the nagging need to make peace with the past.Flashing back to 1972, when the 7-year-old author was "living with my parents in the worst apartment in a good Jewish neighborhood in Los Angeles," Galaudet launches into a chronicle of his three-decade relationship with his father, an old-school Chicagoan who survived the Great Depression by honing a keen skill of hustling to survive. A big drinker, gambler, and coarse adventurist with few parenting skills, he would disappear and reappear, first for days and weeks, and later years, throughout the author's life. Despite the absenteeism, Galaudet, who runs the In the Know Traveler websites, clearly respected his father, yearning for his approval and striving to emulate him while nurturing an ongoing love-hate relationship. Fast-forward 20-some years, when the author was a restless, multiskilled, soul-searching adult living temporarily in Las Vegas as a location scout for a boss he hated. One day, Galaudet received a call from Cathy, his father's most recent wife, who informed him that his dad had suffered a fatal heart attack. He also left a bizarre last wish to have his ashes spread near the seaside village of Cadiz, Spain, while a native speaker sang "Ave Maria" as the soundtrack. "Really," writes the author, "he wanted to be sent into outer space on a rocket, but he knew that was not going to happen." So Galaudet was suddenly forced to contend with the past, a project that he shelved indefinitely. Several years later, he finally traveled with his father's remains in a rucksack, attending a bullfight, visiting cafes, and having conversations with the ashes as he struggled to find closure. With asides spanning the years from his pot-smoking, pill-popping teenage years to his later adult failures as an average American man, this navel-gazing hoot of a memoir rings with themes that will appeal to many readers coming-of-age in the 1970s and '80s.A candid and humorous tale.
