Nothing Happened and Then It Did: A Chronicle in Fact and Fiction

Book excerpt: “The road novel—or the road half-novel—has rarely been funnier or more appealing.”—Benjamin Moser, Harper’s In the great American tradition of funny road narratives— from Mark Twain to Hunter S. Thompson—a young journalist searches for his first big break down the lonesome highways of the Southwest and northern Mexico. Alternating chapters of fiction and nonfiction provide a hilarious account of Jake Silverstein’s misadventures on the hunt for an elusive magazine article—a journey that becomes a quest to understand the purpose of journalism and the nature of storytelling.