The Next Better Place

In 1959, at the age of eleven, Michael Keith set off hitch-hiking with his eccentric, alcoholic dad, who was always looking for the next better place. Keith's funny, worldly-wise memoir, told without sentimentality describes his childhood spent in the rundown rooming houses and homeless missions of Pittsburgh and Fort Worth; in the carnivals of the Midwest and the casinos of Las Vegas; and in every two-bit town along the way, where they attend AA meetings just for coffee and a doughnut. The Next Better Place explores the fine line between wanderlust and compulsion, between running away and arriving.