Another Fine Mess by Tim Moore

Another Fine Mess Reviews

• 
  Joe O&

  Tim Moore could write a travelogue about spending an afternoon in an empty IKEA in Milton Keynes and make it riotously entertaining Over the last two decades he has established himself as one of the uirkiest funniest – and perhaps masochistic travel writers around For his latest wheeze Moore drives 6000 miles from one coast of the USA to the other to work out why so many seemingly sane Americans voted for Donald Trump as their President And by only travelling through counties that voted for Trump And by driving a 1924 Model T FordMoore chose his mode of transport because the Model T Ford was once seen as the personification of the ‘American Dream’ – the same dream of economic freedom and social mobility now possibly in its death throes in the Age of Trump It also gives Moore a hook with which to delve into America’s industrial history contrasting the life of the legendary industrialist Henry Ford with that other self proclaimed self made man Donald TrumpThe Model T Ford could in the hands of a lesser writer look like a wacky affectation But it provides Tim Moore with a great conversation starter across Middle America and really allows him to build a connection and get under the skin of the ordinary Joe Six Packs he meets particularly during the car’s freuent roadside breakdown mishaps“Another Fine Mess” doesn’t just deliver cracking jokes and whimsy; as he enters his third decade as a travel writer Tim Moore is becoming an increasingly astute political observer He gets to the heart of Middle America through the simple act of talking to its inhabitants who would have thought it eh? By doing this Moore ensures “Another Fine Mess” carries weight than a hundred handwringing New York Times thinkpieces and comes as close as any writer to pinpointing how such a cheery welcoming folk could support a malevolent prick like Donald Trump whose “curiously campish and cartoonish tones” are perfectly described by Moore as being “half Top Cat half Dr Evil”Thoroughly recommended one of Tim Moore’s best adventures yet
• 
  Rachel Hyland

  Tim Moore is one of my very favourite travel authors His books are outlandish and enchanting as he voyages near and far in the uirkiest of manners whether riding the route of the Tour de France on a vintage bicycle or walking the Camino with a donkey or just wandering around his hometown of London trying to figure out why the UK version Monopoly streets were chosen He has a wry wit a genial manner and a keen observation all essential in his chosen literary field I have my favourites among his titles of course but there is not a single one I have not enjoyed immensely Another Fine Mess continues this fine traditionIt kicks off his latest oddball journey very abruptly with contemplation of Donald Trump’s election victory and a map of the US that showed the deep red of Republican votership edged in Democrat blue Moore wondered who these people were and what the fabled American Dream had to do with their peculiar choice of Conman in Chief In typical Moore fashion he goes from “I’m going to cross the red bits of America to find out” to “I’m going to cross the red bits of America in a 1920s Model T Ford to find out” and that is just so par for his left of field course that the decision barely warrants a paragraph in the planning stagesIt is a decision that will take up chapters upon chapters of the rest of the book however as his Model T – dubbed Mike – breaks down at regular intervals and is constantly in need of attention from a vast network of Trump voting red state old car guys who are so incredibly kind to Tim throughout his journey that he finds it difficult to reconcile their hospitality and can do spirit with the lying leader they still support He does note that perhaps his journey would not be uite so full of downhome generosity were his skin colour different and he does tell tales of the casual racism he encounters that hurt the heart and soul But for the most part he finds the people of Trumpland to be everything that is good and decent which makes their willingness to follow a man who is manifestly not those things even confusing to himAlong the way Moore goes in depth into the legacy of Henry Ford examining the car magnate’s history of pacifism and industrial largesse and belief in socialized medicine and then turning any potential hero worship on its head by exposing Ford’s rampant anti Semitism Hitler gave him a medal and pernicious social engineering agenda He looks at America’s car culture at the suburban sprawl and the ghettoization of inner cities like Detroit and Atlanta and the generalized decay of the “fly over states” where vast tracts of land lie fallow and the sumptuous beauty of the landscape is overhung by the shadow of opioid addiction and steady economic declineIt is a startlingly real image of America today giving some insights into how it got to its present position – bearing in mind Trump’s presidency was barely a year old when this was written – and how it lost its place as an innovator and leader on the world stage But it is also a detailed catalogue of all the many things that can go wrong when driving a 93 year old car across an entire continent and the kindness of strangers that gets you from sea to shining sea As long as you’re a middle aged white male of courseThrough it all Moore is at his amusing thought provoking self deprecatory best and if the book doesn’t necessarily answer its over riding uestion – how can good people follow such a bad man? – it does offer up some theories and than anything puts a human face on those “deplorables” who were just doing the best they knew in a world they no longer understandAnd many of whom know how to fix stuff when it breaks giving us hope that America can indeed someday be made great again
• 
  Sebastian Wulff

  So That was a disappointment Another Fine Mess if you will After reading Sag dem Abenteuer ich komme by Lea Rieck I fell into a hole of buying all traveling books I could get my hands on And this one might be a mistake Maybe I made a mistake by expecting something similar to the aforementioned novel It was heavily focused on traveling the world on a motorbike while the motorbike was important but not the focus of the bookThe focus was the journey itself how thr author changed how her views changed and how the people she met on the way were a part of it I expected this book to be the same however with the political focus on Trump What we got however was essentially a history lesson on Henry Ford and the production of his cars a few chapters of telling us how the car works like shit and needs to be repaired freuently some jokes some of them funny some of them not and only past the halfway point did we get the first chapter that really showed a conversation about Trump and his voters After that of a history lesson that at least I did not sign up for and a whole lot of not that much until we had a few scenes in the last 70 pages that actually felt like the book that I wanted to read Thirty of them were history lessons and focuses on the inner workings of the car thoughSo I wasn't impressed Granted if you want to read a novel about Henry Ford with a side of a bit of traveling in his car and some comparisons to Trump sure This book might be for you If you expect a book predominantly about political discussions about Trump with Trump supporters and a UK citizen with a nice topping of traveling and maybe a little bit of backstory but not too much Well I'd recommend to skip this one
• 
  Popup-ch

  Tim Moore goes on another of his madcap trips This time he had swapped his vintage bikes for an old car as he travels across the US in an original Ford Model T going from the East to West coast only through counties that voted for Donald TrumpHis writing style is very reminiscent of the early Bill Bryson irreverent and erudite at the same time offering up a mixture of his own mishaps and personal anecdotes together with a well researched background story of the Model T and how the fertile central parts of the continental US turned from a prosperous industrial and agricultural breadbasket into the desolate flyover country that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016He also visits Detroit where he charts the meteoric rise and subseuent fall of Motown Ford's Model T was designed and built there in 15 million copies making it the first mass market consumable making Henry Ford very rich and also creating the middle class by raising the pay for the workers until they were able to actually buy their own cars Over the second half of the 20th century the population of the city shrunk by ⅔ and the downtown area turned into a crime ridden gang warzone Over the past 20 years the situation has improved slightly but it's still a long long way from its peak in the early post war eraSome of his earlier books had a rather juvenile tone and while it's still here it's less pronounced and he has really done his research He manages to fill the most unexpected nooks and crannies of the story with tidbits from Henry Fords life Trumps presidency and a lot in between
• 
  Lee Osborne

  I'm a big fan of Tim Moore's writing I hugely enjoyed his tale of cycling along the route of the Iron Curtain on an East German shopping bicycle so I looked forward to getting stuck into his tale of driving across America in a 1924 Ford Model T It's a typically insane thing for him to do and as the book reveals he had some decidedly hairy momentsAs a tale of travels across small town America and of the trials and tribulations of taking a trip in an extraordinarily primitive car that sounds ridiculously complex to drive the book worked very well and was freuently very funny He weaved in plenty of interesting facts especially about Henry Ford's life and work and the American Dream The bit about trying to get to the bottom of how Trump got elected didn't work uite so well and got into slightly confused territory in places but was still interesting as long as you're alright with it being written from a Guardian reader liberal perspective it's not particularly objective and also doesn't reveal anything earth shatteringly new It's interesting though to contrast the generosity enthusiasm and friendliness of Trump's supporters with the pig headed ignorant meanness of the man himself All I'll say is if you think Trump is great and ardently supported Brexit you won't think much of this book but if like me you simply don't get why people voted for somethingsomeone so destructive it'll be of value although won't necessarily challenge your viewsA very enjoyable read I've always admired people who do absolutely crazy shit like this
• 
  James

  Catching my attention due to its cover I'd pay for a print of the cover art free of testimonials I took a punt on this and was pleasantly surprised Moore nailed the balance of recounting his journey and the historical and political context as he tried to drive a Model T coast to coast but crucially he's just very funnyThe idea seemed ambitious if far too time consuming to be enviable as Moore drove from the Atlantic to the Pacific through Trump voting counties of America This makes it sound political than it really was most of the book taken up by mechanical failures and the hospitality from motels and kind strangers Moore stopped it becoming repetitive by giving a history of Henry Ford and his most famous product as well as many of the towns he passed throughBut Moore's writing was the main draw and a synopsis of the book doesn't really do it justice Even when mocking people he still demonstrated warmth and he was funny without resorting to gags simply 'having a way with words' For a trip that sounded uite repetitive going through endless declining towns with blown gaskets and valves reading about it was very entertainingInitially I gave this 4 stars but I can't really find a flaw in it so 5 it is and I will look out for his other travelogues hoping they are just as good
• 
  Karl

  In the right hands the bumbling ineptitude displayed throughout could have been charming As it is the clumsy turns of phrase only amplify the baffling absence of mechanical sympathy and basic technical common sense that any reasonable person would ensure they possessed before embarking on such a journey The care and attentiveness of the last couple of chapters definitely smacks of far too little too late There are nuggets of insight sparsely spread through the book outweighed by a generally odious attitude to the people and places encounteredThere's a rare moment of self awareness about 23 through when the author acknowledges his snobbery but it's swiftly cancelled out a few pages later when he balks at a repair bill after relying on the generosity and goodwill of strangers to even reach that point Doing the journey in a Model T isn't really anything than a gimmick and I'm far from convinced that we'd have gained a better understanding of Trumpland if the means of transport had been conventional
• 
  Brian Gowthorpe

  Last year I very much enjoyed The Cyclist Who Went Out In The Cold but this is even better Tim Moore has really mastered his style and this adventure provided a fresh set of gruelling challenges The Model T was a remarkable phenomenon and singlehandedly created mass market motoring but reliable and maintenance free it was not But what goodwill it generated and it proved the key that unlocked the ‘flyover’ Trump voting states for our intrepid loony He met exceptional kindness and courtesy from people whose loathing of government interference and city folk have made them strangers in their own nation No wonder they hate Hillary Clinton’s condescending dismissal of them And there are many cheerful facts about Henry Ford and endless weirdness of America A lot of laughs were had on the way
• 
  Ben Twoonezero

  I have been a fan of tim for many years and usually give his books 4 stars this is not a 4 star book The book itself is well written but not funny as normal also some of his facts are just plain wrong ie Americans can buy assault rifles very easily they can buy semi automatic rifles but not assault rifles as there automatic so not available to civilians Also he seems to look down on all the people who vote for Trump but not those who voted for Hillary he seems stuck in a middle class left wing mindset and as no understanding of the blue collar working man and his fears and aspirations I hope his future books stick to travel and humor as I do not read a book to be preached too
• 
  Andy

  The comparison with Bryson is inevitable but well deserved This is a travelogue a history and social commentary neatly brought together around a clunking pile of rusty old metal It's engaging informative and amusing Well worth the readFor those of us not familiar with the American environment beyond the output of Hollywood and authors who assume we have a shared lifetime of common experience the view of a Brit abroad especially one travelling into corners we've never heard of is fascinating The history of Ford uncovers similar layers below the familiar story but being woven into a travelogue makes it accessible and adds modern context