American Atlas brings to the traditional "road" novel an exhilarating breath of fresh air -- or perhaps one should say a catastrophic gale. The hero is no penniless wanderer who subsidizes his cross-country trek by stealing chickens and hubcaps. He is Lawrence Bancroft who starts the novel off with a bang by walking out on his father's funeral and his position as heir to a multimillion-dollar pie company. Bancroft wants to be a poet and he pursues his dream across the length and breadth of America, serving up a dazzling portrait not only of the state of the nation but of a man in search of himself.