Chick Flick Road Kill: A Behind the Scenes Odyssey Into Movie-Made America

by Alicia Rebensdorf

As a child of the 1980s, Alicia Rebensdorf was raised by TV and movies. But when she, like so many of her generation, found herself a bored twentysomething, waitressing and wondering why life wasn't as she imagined it would be, she devised a plan: She'd visit the locations of the shows and movies she grew up with and try to come to terms with her nostalgia for places and scenes that purported a real America.

Chick Flick Road Kill explores...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580051944
• ISBN13: 9781580051941
• Release Date: February 2007
• Publisher: Seal Press (CA)
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

I Love This Book!

I couldn't put this book down. It was laugh out loud funny and honest. The beautiful, witty writing lead me on a trip across the county to places I have never been to, but I had seen many times in the familiar movies I grew up with. It made me want to visit the river of Deliverance and a magical spot in Georgia. I could relate to the author's searching, her expectations and her doubt.

You don't need wanderlust to love this road trip!

Part of it was that I knew of the places she wrote about, either because I'd been there, or had seen them in the movies, but mainly because it was just such beautiful writing!! I was captivated seeing things through her eyes, the depth of her responses, the honesty. Here are JUST a few of my favorite descriptions: "Here, like pictures drawn in grade school, land and sky meet in a thin-lipped line. The sky is absolutely all over - I can't look anywhere it's not - yet it feels light as tissue, as if I could poke through it with a finger. Being in the presence of the Mississippi, so shiny and big and alive, feels like how I imagine it would be to be next to a whale, astounded so much mass can move. In the sky, homing pigeons do laps, their bodies angling at the same moment, disappearing like a knife turning on its side, then turning back, black and bodied again. I navigate the road's rare meat, the loose bloody heaps of deer and raccoon, others as stiff and whole as furniture. The warm air rushes in as if it's about time. The humidity makes me feel lovely and grimy and young. It's unfair how everything is striking when it's fleeting. Yet all my attempts to thwart this, trying to prolong a moment by stopping to savor a town or a view, tend only to prove it true, the high ache of passing a place collapsing the moment I try to capture it.....So now, as I drive, I try to ride that heartbreak, accepting that the very thing that makes this moment spectacular is that which will make it end." But this book is more than just mesmerizing metaphors. It's full of self-deprecating wit, personification of cars and other inanimate objects, terrifying situations, and soul searching insights that helped me understand why I both love and hate this country. Encore!! What's next?! I'll be waiting.

Immediate, funny, haunting, and real

Rebensdorf's inner journey outdistances her 13,000 miles on America's roads. This girl's got the pedal to the metal of her mind and heart, and she doesn't let up on herself, not for a minute. I was pulled along on her trip, impatient for the next adventure while savoring the current one, each sentence a pleasure due to her deft phrasing and acute eye. During the few days I was reading, I felt disembodied from my own physical location, felt I'd escaped along with the writer as she drove along. I grew dismayed, towards the end, at how few pages were left for me to experience. She asks the questions I've always asked myself as well: what matters? how can I matter? Her book's both sassy and soulful, and it builds towards some lessons that are both profound and eloquent. I cannot imagine anyone who wouldn't enjoy this book -- the America she writes about is the one that's shaped or shaping us all.

two journeys

This author takes the reader on two journeys. As she travels the country seeking out the sources of the movie myths with which she grew up, she also introspectively looks into herself as she has to cope with new situations and deal with loneliness, self-image, romantic fantasies, fear, preconceived notions, men - all under the shadow of 9/11. The result is a disarmingly honest, intelligent and witty book which will elicit chuckles and tears. The reader is led into the consciousness of a Gen X-er and emerges with a better appreciation both of the younger generation and how the media affects our perceptions. This is a great read!

a smart book that reads easily

i just started reading this book and i love it - perfect balance of humor, insight, skepticism and adventure... rebensdorf's candidness and honesty are unique (and severely lacking from so many fluff books out lately). it's so refreshing to hear a gen x woman defy tired trends like chick lit and self-important shallow non-fiction with wit and genuine introspection. not to mention taking the road trip we've all dreamed about. can't wait to see what she does next.