2.5 stars, rounded down because of some really tone-deaf things (for example, joking about Apartheid) and the abrupt ending

I had trouble getting into this book, particularly because my review copy was formatted in a really bad way (most of the gaps between words were missing and some words even overlapped, so I had to really concentrate to read). But I'm sure that issue probably isn't present in the finished copy (but do check Amazon's "look inside" feature to make sure.)

What also made it harder to get into it was how it was not one of those memoirs that have plot. Memoirs with a plot are easier to read. Even though our lives don't technically have a plot, when writing a memoir, most authors contrive it or at least layer it all with an undercurrent of a theme or something like that. The Last Hobo didn't seem to have one, at least for most of the book - it's just a tale of travels, and maybe a little bit of a coming of age story. It's quite naive, certainly at first. But it did get rolling eventually.

There were a few things that bothered me though. For example, it's a tale of things that happened in 1979, but there is no reason to use the word "Indians", because even though that may have been the word most in use in 1979, but the book wasn't released in 1979, it was released much later (2016), when more respectful terms were already in circulation. I suppose the author didn't know this? (Although it's hard to say whether that's true, cause he did use "Native Americans" a couple of times too, so it's fairly odd how he keeps interchanging it with a term that is now deemed disrespectful and ends up using it more often even.) He uses the word "Indians" throughout the entire book, with very few exceptions. And even though he does mention that he believed America had commited grave sins to the "Indians" and the Black people, he still did not look into how to speak more respectfully about them.

I also didn't like how naively the author kept labeling people, for example saying things like "shallow people and deep people don't mix", shallow people being the tourists, and the deep people being them, the hitch-hikers, of course. I remember thinking like that when I was 16 too, but now I think that's just purely offensive. Some mindsets are best left in your teenage years, like cast off clothes, because they're seriously not good anymore when you grow up and out of them. You simply can't label people like that. And I couldn't figure out whether the author is actually being serious, or just poking fun at himself for being 19 back then and thinking like that. I honestly can't believe someone who was 19 in 1979 and published this book in like 2016 could actually still think that kind of labeling is fine? There were a lot of things in the book that came across as naive in the same way. But I honestly don't know if the author meant it seriously. I couldn't work it out. Maybe I was just grossly misreading it or something.

Oh, and yeah, and the author finishes that phrase with "shallow and deep people don't mix, it's like Apartheid" and I'm SERIOUSLY not even going there. I can't believe he said THAT. Maybe the author doesn't actually know what Apartheid was like for the people going through it..? Imagine joking about that. Just IMAGINE. Do people maybe also joke about concentration camps..? (Oh God, they do, don't they...)

I do hope though that it was some kind of weird humor on the author's part, and I'm just not getting it. It is still awfully tone-deaf to use Apartheid, the actual horrible historical tragedy which cost people their lives and families (not to talk about their quality of life or their dignity), as some sort of joke (seriously, who's being deep and who's being shallow here, man?) But at least if he was being jokey, he didn't mean to offend anyone. I'd always rather think the better about someone than the worst.

Despite the simplicity, tone-deafness and the mock-or-maybe-not judgemental attitudes, the travels were kind of interesting to read about. I have a few friends who hitchhiked around Europe and Asia, so I've heard some of these stories and thought they were cool. So it was interesting to hear more about adventures in the same vein. It being 1979, there were also some pretty cool musical references, and it kind of felt like the author was still trying to make it into the rapidly departing train of being a hippie. I am fascinated by the 60's and early 70's and the subculture of those days, so it was interesting to read in that way as well. I just wish it was a little bit less like reading someone's teenage, judgemental diary. I also can't quite believe there is a book two AND a book three?! (Or at least they were planned.) I felt like book one was a little bit long for just one hitchhiking trip... And yet, it just kind of abruptly ends mid-trip. It's pretty unsatisfying.

One thing though, I have to cut the illustrator some slack. The drawings were amazing.

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.