The Next Better Place

Albany, New York, 1959. Michael Keith is eleven years old and is being transferred to the care of his estranged, alcoholic father. Despite his mother's stern warnings, Michael and his dad set off hitchhiking out West. Michael spends the rest of his childhood crisscrossing the country, perpetually en route to someplace else. His memoir, told without sentimentality in the funny, world-wise voice of the young boy he once was, describes the peculiar characters encountered in an America far outside convention. Yet despite their dysfunctional existence, there is real love between this father and son, and they share the glorious freedom of the vagabond life. Michael C. Keith is a member of the Communication faculty at Boston College and the author of over a dozen books, mostly on the subject of broadcast media. Though he never graduated from high school, he attended community college and received his doctorate from the University of Rhode Island. Reader Oliver Wyman is a stage and film actor who has voiced countless cartoon, audiobooks, and computer games.