Truck: A Quarter Life Crisis Handled Poorly

Eric Hall West
Outskirts Press (2010)
ISBN 9781432743765
Reviewed by Marty Shaw for Reader Views (11/10)

 

Eric Hall West did something very few people have the courage to do. He left a comfortable world to follow his dream, walking away from a good job and a woman who loved him to live the life of a truck driver so that he could write about it. His experiences and revelations ensure that nobody will ever look at an eighteen-wheeler the same way again.

Enduring a job that was already emotionally unsatisfying, Eric finally decided to take the plunge when fate seemed to point him in the right direction. With excited friends and a supportive girlfriend backing him, he resigned from his job and began scouting out trucking schools. What he learned about admission requirements was both comforting and horrifying to him; comforting because it was so easy to get into the class, horrifying for the exact same reason. The training turned out to be remarkably easy, which he found to be surprising since he had never even driven a manual transmission before sitting in the cab of a big rig. Eric’s education continued as he came to the realization that the Department of Motor Vehicles doesn’t discriminate when it comes to handing out a Commercial Drivers License. Anyone who passes the exam, whether they pass with flying colors or scrape by with no extra points to spare, is permitted to drive a vehicle that weighs approximately 80,000 pounds. Once school is completed, Eric takes to the road and his real education into the world of trucking actually begins.

“Truck” is an entertaining and thought-provoking book, and I would highly recommend it for anyone who is considering becoming a truck driver. While many of the serious moments are lightened by Eric’s writing style and sense of humor, he manages to provide a fairly detailed look at what’s involved with a life on the road. From uncooperative dispatchers to ‘lot lizards’ and from a life that had it all to living in a moving, tin box, Eric pulls no punches when he describes the emotional roller-coaster of a solitary lifestyle and forever shreds the illusion of a truck driver’s life being one of seeing the sights and visiting exciting new locations. As he mentions throughout the book in various ways, it doesn’t matter if the ocean is 4 miles or 14, 000 miles away, all industrial neighborhoods look the same.  Eric’s ‘quarter life crisis’ is a lesson for everyone. Don’t shrink away from following your dreams, but don’t blind yourself with rose-colored glasses when charting your path.

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