Breakfast at the Exit Cafe

Breakfast at the Exit Cafe

Breakfast at the Exit Cafe

"Whether it's the sign of a symbiotic marriage or of seasoned writers crafting a seamless travel collage, the narrative in this road trip through America flows as easily as a new car on an empty highway."

Breakfast at the Exit Cafe

“Alternating throughout the book, Simonds and Grady's voices are complementary. Simonds writes with an eye for lyrical details, using them as jumping-off points for imaginative ruminations, while Grady's sections are peppered with facts and trivia. Despite the distinctiveness of the two voices, the transitions are natural and effortless…By the end of the book, the story of two travellers has become a journey of another sort: the story of a marriage. And this second journey itself is analogous to relations between the U.S. and Canada. The question in both cases is: How can two very different nations share resources, come to understand one another, and ultimately learn to get along on the road they both share?”

Breakfast at the Exit Cafe

“Whether it’s a sign of a symbiotic marriage or of seasoned writers crafting a seamless travel collage, the narrative in Breakfast at the Exit Cafe flows as easily as a new car on an empty highway. The transitions between travel-partner-authors never feel clunky or truncated, but rather like one long conversation between mates…We benefit from their shared company; we never have to slog through long lapses of existential crises that often arise on long solitary journeys…In Breakfast at the Exit Cafe, Grady and Simonds manage to redeem Americans…In so doing, they also manage to define Canadian identity as something more than just anti-Americanism. Which, in the end, redeems us too.”

Breakfast at the Exit Cafe

"Wayne Grady and Merilyn Simonds's Breakfast at the Exit Cafe is the result of a spontaneous, improvised drive through 22 states in a Toyota Echo...As they barrel along interstates and winding highways, Grady's smouldering distrust and apparent dislike of the U.S. is literally shoulder-to-shoulder with Simonds's quizzicality and eye for offbeat detail.”

Breakfast at the Exit Cafe

“Grady and Simonds...seamlessly transition from one writer's voice to the other's. There's nary a duplication of events nor a chronological disconnect in the hand-offs from husband to wife, and vice versa. Even their meditations on people and landscape are complementary without being repetitive...Between the lines of travel narrative they provide potted but interesting histories of places, musings on stuff they buy and the restaurants they eat in, and analysis of the politics and culture of regions...At core, the book presents a series of slices of Americana, as considered and portrayed through Canuck eyes....This is a travel book that travels well.”