The Long Haul

April 15, 2017
A moving trucker shares stories from a life on the open road.Murphy is not your typical trucker. As a moving truck driver, often known as "bedbuggers" hauling "roach coaches," he describes the strict hierarchy among truckers and how his type are shunned as outsiders. He also touts his middle-class background in suburban Connecticut and his nearly completed education at Colby College, a prestigious liberal arts school in Maine, to distinguish himself from the "cowboy truckers" who think of themselves as living out some modern fantasy of the Wild West. The author even mentions his nickname "The Great White Mover," which refers to his talent and indirectly to the industry's widening racial gap. In fact, Murphy decided to leave college a year before graduating (much to his parents' disapproval) to work full-time in the moving business following his experience of the camaraderie of working with a local company as a teenager. Eventually, the author worked his way up as a driver in the "high-end executive relocation" business, where he routinely makes cross-country hauls for his high-profile clients. Throughout his recollections, Murphy maintains an air of armchair philosopher, imparting common-sense wisdom and morals from three decades behind the wheel. With carefully retold anecdotes that illustrate the minutiae of life as a trucker, Murphy sheds light on this unique subculture. More than anything, he uses the narrative to combat the negative stigma against movers, taking jabs at past customers who slighted him. One story in particular fittingly encapsulates the author's background and mission: he purposely placed an abusive customer's antique Chinese gravestones upside down (he took a course in college) to embarrass the owner, who wouldn't have noticed. Ultimately, the behind-the-scenes appeal of Murphy's stories fades a bit after several chapters, but they shed light on a world not experienced by most. An entertaining and insightful snapshot of the hauling life.

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September 4, 2017
Murphy recounts some of his more curious, amusing, and private moments as a lifer in the long-haul moving business. During his career he has driven across the country innumerable times in large trucks, loading and unloading people’s lives; through these adventures, he shares the trade lingo (“bed bug hauler” is trucker lingo for a mover like him), secrets (movers could care less about people’s stuff), and challenges (exactly how you back a truck down a winding, narrow road). Campbell’s genial and scratchy voice perfectly matches the tone of Murphy’s prose and Murphy’s demographic. Campbell is also able to tease out the more emotionally tense moments, projecting the anger and frustration when Murphy confronts his boss or relaying the tenderness the author feels towards a companion he picks up on the side of the road. It’s the perfect audiobook for a long drive. A Norton hardcover.

November 1, 2017

Working at the gas station in high school, Murphy idolized the guys at the moving company next door. Directionless and smoking too much pot, he dropped out of college to drive for the company full-time, specializing in long-distance moves. A few decades later, he now moves high-end corporate clients and has stories to tell. Readers may wonder if some of the details have been embellished over the years, but considering Murphy's engaging style and ability to laugh at himself, the occasional big fish isn't distracting. The author's years of observing every corner of the United States and untangling the reality from the legends give this inviting book weight. Murphy has traversed the nation again and again and spent miles pondering the hollowing of cities, the "silence and vastness" of the Everglades' Alligator Alley, the mythos of the cowboy trucker, and trucking's changing racial makeup. VERDICT For fans of thought-provoking road trip tales.-Jennifer Rothschild, Arlington Public Library, Arlington, VA

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2017
Murphy's chronicle of his life as a bedbugger (a driver of long-distance moving trucks) affords an interesting peek into a solitary job and the people it helps. Choosing freedom and money over finishing his college degree, Murphy started driving a truck at 21 and hasn't looked back. Chapters tend to detail either the dangers of driving a truck in mountains, on ice, through winding roads (you get the picture) or the dangers of dealing with people he encounters at one of the most stressful times of their lives: moving day. The fact that he is responsible for their precious belongings make their relationship, which could last for days, even tenser. Murphy is a likable, easygoing man who loves his job, and his conversational, informal writing reflects this. Mostly, the book works well, though occasional forays into social commentary are undersupported and a bit jarring. Overall, a breezy, insider's perspective on a job many know little about that fits in nicely with other employment-related memoirs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)