Book review: "Two Wheels Through Terror" by Glen Heggstad

Come for the terrorism, stay for the bike ride.

That's my take-away from "Two Wheels Through Terror," a fascinating 2004 book by Glen Heggstad.

A couple of events led me to Heggstad's book. First, I was intrigued by an episode of the TV show "Locked Up Abroad that re-enacted Heggstad's one-month ordeal as a prisoner of the Colombian terrorist group ELN in 2001. Separately, after I posted a review of a survival-oriented book online, a reader responded with a recommendation for "Two Wheels Through Terror."

I didn't run out and grab the book immediately, but I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. It's an amazing story of Heggstad's eight-month motorcycle ride from California all the way to the southern tip of South America and back.

What really surprised me is that the kidnapping ordeal turned out to be only a small part of what makes the book interesting.

Going in, I figured I might just read the captivity story, and then skim the rest of the book. Because what could be so interesting about a guy riding a motorcycle for long stretches? Plenty, as it turns out.

Heggstad, a judo instructor, puts a lot of himself into this book, and he's an interesting character. He is disciplined, stubborn, smug, independent and curious. In the book, one of his friends calls Heggstad "selfish," which in some cases seems true, but at other times he shows a gift of introspection and compassion for others.

"This journey was never intended to prove something to anyone else," he writes. "My intention was to better understand the real world and my own character, as well as to explore my own limits."

I admire him for even considering doing this solo trip, and for the careful planning that went into it. He and a friend modified his motorcycle to prepare for the rough road conditions he would encounter. He sewed hidden money pockets into clothes and an extra set of keys was hidden inside his motorcycle, both of which came in handy.

Heggstad even prepared a fake "cover story" in case he ran into trouble (and, of course, he did)  He made a fake ID card saying he was journalist with a motorcycle magazine, and he was ready with a story that he had prostate cancer and couldn't survive without special medicine. The latter element was crucial to winning his release.

It's a quite readable book and it's enjoyable to live vicariously through his travels (even though many of the events weren't "enjoyable" to Heggstad).

His captivity takes place early in the book and by the time it was over I was hooked. Heggsted startles everyone by insisting on continuing his ride afterwards.  He ventures through soaking rainstorms, freezing temperatures, sweltering deserts. He suffers a concussion during one fall. He nearly gets attacked by angry farmers, and is stopped numerous times by corrupt cops looking for a payoff.

Typically, I find most books too wordy,  but "Two Wheels Through Terror" is different -- I would have liked to see more. While he offers up many interesting events, Heggstad sometimes only hints at other experiences, without going into detail. For instance, in Argentina, he refers vaguely to "my new friend in Argentina" -- apparently a woman he grows close to -- but offers little more.

Be sure to read the epilogue. It describes how Heggstad's time in captivity led to feuds and anger among his friends, as they disagreed about what to do.

In all, Heggstad's describes the trip as a life-changing experience.

"At times, at the peak of frustration that travelers in strange lands so often endure, just when I thought I couldn't stand anymore, it was the sparkling eyes of a laughing, soft-haired child, the kindness of an aging Indian woman, or the stunning splendor of the Andes that rocked my spirit and tugged me back eagerly into the wholesome embrace of a land of many faces."

----

(Please support this blog by clicking on an ad.)

Book review: "Confessions of Raving, Unconfined Nut"

I knew little about Paul Krassner before starting this book. But I was eager to learn the background of the man who People Magazine once called "The Father of the Underground Press," so into the rabbit hole I went.

Krassner is a comedian, satirist, and writer who was embedded in the counterculture antics of the 1960s. He was a close friend and co-writer with controversial comic Lenny Bruce. He hung out with , author Ken Kesey (famed for his LSD "acid test") and counterculture guru Timothy Leary. He joined with the members of the "Chicago 7" during the incendiary protests at the Democratic Convention in 1968. 

In “Confessions of Raving, Unconfined Nut,” Krassner's autobiography, he tells stories about all of those people, and more. 

Krassner challenged social standards on obscenity, pornography and political expression. He never met a rule that he didn’t feel should be challenged. The motto of his left-wing newspaper, "The Realist," was “Irreverence is our only sacred cow.”

I don’t envy Krassner’s life – he takes too many drugs and finds himself unable to maintain any stable relationships – but boy does he have some good stories to tell.

There’s this one, for instance, when he was hanging out with the drug-taking Lenny Bruce:

“When I first met him, he would shoot up in the hotel bathroom with the door closed, but now he just sat on his bed and casually fixed up while we were talking. That’s what we were doing one time when Lenny nodded out, the needle still stuck in his arm. Suddenly the phone rang and startled him. His arm flailed, and the hypodermic came flying across the room, hitting the wall like a dart just a few feet from the easy chair in which I uneasily sat.”

Then there was the day, during his time as editor of "The Realist," when two Catholic schoolgirls were interviewing him. Two women that worked at the newspaper walked in totally nude. "'Sorry to interrupt, Paul,” said Sheila, “but it’s time for our weekly orgy.’ The interviewers left in a hurry.'"
That was his one and only threesome, he said.

Krassner was most famous -- or infamous -- for a hoax. In 1967, he "revealed" supposedly unpublished excerpts from William Manchester's book on John F. Kennedy, "The Death of a President." In fact, it was all written by Krassner, including one passage which described Lyndon Johnson having sex with Kennedy's body. This earned Krassner a lot of hate mail. Which he loved. 

After the 1960s, with so many taboos being broken and boundaries challenged, Krassner's star faded. He found it harder to shock people. By the 1980s, he said, "Bad taste had become an industry."

---

(Please support this blog by clicking on an ad.)