PRAISE

for Interstate 69

“What we get is more than the story of a road. Interstate 69 is an American-civics reality show, featuring pitched battles among special interests, grass-roots activists, environmentalists, politicians and Beltway bandits.”

— The Wall Street Journal

“Meticulous reporting.... [Dellinger] has written 310 graceful pages about how things, big things, get done — and undone — in America.... What distinguishes Interstate 69 is how personal it seems, and how fair.”

— The Austin American-Statesman

“A great journey, with sharp reporting and fine writing and a genuine feel for an America we don't often notice. With Dellinger at the wheel, the saga of the unfinished interstate becomes a wonderful tale.”

— Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief

“A rollicking dispatch from the heartland as great plans are laid for a mega-highway just at the moment when America runs out of gas. Matt Dellinger is a first-rate reporter and an agile portraitist who gives us a rare look at the loony shenanigans that shape our landscape and our society.”

— James Howard Kunstler, author of The Geography of
Nowhere and The Long Emergency

“Interstate 69 is not just about highways. It's about Americans deciding on their future. The politics and arguments about this one proposed highway may or may not lead us somewhere—but like any great journey, it's the trip that's the thing.”

— Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower:
Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

“From the first page Matt Dellinger draws a compellingly written narrative that is not only hard to put down but is sweeping in its context. America's history, and its future, breathes in these pages.”

— Ken Auletta, author Googled: The End of the
World as We Know It

“Interstate 69 is about a road that doesn't exist, and probably never will, and we learn anew about small town America whose fortunes ebbed and flowed with the advent of the superhighway. Dellinger has given us a new way to understand—and enjoy—our history.”

— Seymour Hersh, author of Chain of Command:
The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib

“Whether I-69 is ever built or not, it has provided Matt Dellinger a good route into the middle of our country, a fascinating and often-neglected place. His story of an imagined road, its boosters and its discontents speaks eloquently of the deep changes shaking up America today. This is an affectionate, hard-won, and skillfully-made book, filled with the pleasures of original discovery.”

— Ian Frazier, author of Great Plains and On the Rez