“A masterwork of American road literature that captures a specific moment (summer 1973) and makes it eternal. Saint Phalle’s prose is deceptively simple—clear sentences, vivid details, dialogue that breathes. But beneath that clarity runs a current of poetry.”
The Spaces Between, Vol 1
THUMB OUT
Epigram
(Author readings are embedded at the top of each chapter)
Every young man tells himself a story about who he’s going to become.
My dreams were blocked.
Every resource denied.
All that was left was the side of an American highway.
Thumb out.
Scared shitless.
But I felt a growing confidence that if I just put one foot in front of the other and walked out that door, I would make it.
I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
ACT ONE: BEFORE THUMB OUT
Purple Barrels - University of Pennsylvania (1969-71)
Fish Out Of Water - Park Avenue, New York City (1971-72)
The Band That Never Played Out - Greenwich Village, New York City (1971-72)
Detonation - Ledge Acres (July 1973)
ACT TWO: SURFING THE INTERSTATES
Thumb Out — 8 min — Westchester estate to the open road
Turn On Your Lovelight — 10 min — A Grateful Dead concert that changed everything
The Kindness of Strangers — 14 min — The people who stop for you
The Price of Paradise — 9 min — Everything costs too much
The Frequency of Freedom — 16 min — Mini Woodstock in the Rockies
Solitary Push — 7 min — Wyoming alone, California ahead
Chicken Coop Days — 10 min — A friend coming apart in Santa Rosa
Sasha Among the Giants — 13 min — Peyote and redwoods
Target Practice — 7 min — When friendship turns dangerous
Let the Guitar Decide — 14 min — Jerry Garcia, a guitar, and Highway 1
ZIP! — 7 min — Something impossible above Big Sur
Love Through Stone — 12 min — Prophetic dreams
The Ocean Don’t Lie — 6 min — A sailor’s wisdom in the Mojave heat
Out in the West Texas Town of El Paso — 9 min — Steve on the am news
The Descending Dark — 9 min — Into Big Bend carrying everything
Phantom Ships — 10 min — Vision quest — roads become water
ACT THREE: AFTER THUMB OUT
Caught In The Light — Coming home to a home that’s already gone (September 1973)
Chapter Six: Together Brothers — You can’t put the genie back in the bottle (1974-75)
The Grind — A fresh start with renewed energy (1976)
The Rug — The pursuit and the betrayal (1977)
Hitting The Big Time — Inside the gates, outside the dream (1977-78)
The Factory Floor — Like putting hub caps on cars (1978-79)
An Entrepreneur Is Born — Working for myself makes me happy (1979)
Before Thea — My father brings his three sons together (1980)
“Raw, unflinching 1973 hitchhiking memoir blending family trauma, Vietnam-era tension, Grateful Dead mysticism, and vivid road encounters. Strong voice, evocative prose, no filler—reads like Kerouac raised on acid and Allman Brothers.”
