More than just the travelogues of a world-class skier, legendary climber, and consummate lover of mountains crisscrossing Europe and the Americas; these stories look into the mirror around the early history and development of U.S. ski racing and rock climbing in the wake of W.W. II and through the destructiveness of Vietnam. Rather than palliative tales of youthful antics, escapism and bravado, in that looking glass Dorworth finds the very soul of America and our society. And he doesn’t always like what he sees.
By searching the depths of his own nature and allowing it to be changed by his experiences, Night Driving bears witness that out of a mind-bending era of drugs, drink, and crazy responses to a crazed world, it’s possible to find not only redemption but a deeply creative wisdom.
Dorworth’s keen observations, filled with admirable honesty, irony and humor (many put down more than 40 years ago), are today, sadly, a powerful portent of a world that remains full of questionable government, environmental annihilation and senseless war.
Yet unlike many, then and now, who turn on, tune in and drop out, Dorworth’s reaction is to embrace “the staggering chore... using whatever tools and talents we have to breath life into the machine; to add humanity to the robot.”
