Metroliner

An essential companion to Riding the Rough String, his previous collection of reportage, personal essays, and profiles, Metroliner explores the two poles of Toby Thompson's life on the East Coast. For more than forty years, he has ridden the rails between Washington, DC and New York, capturing not only the sensibilities of these two cities but the tenor of his time as well. From the Smithsonian to the secret fishing spots of Manhattan, from profiles of Norman Mailer and Jackie Gleason to the White House press corps, Metroliner represents a career's worth of reportage from one of America's most accomplished writers.

"An intrepid tripper in the Merry Prankster sense, and an urban Thoreau,"
- Tom Wolfe

"A first-rate collection, impressively diverse and vastly enjoyable."
- Carl Hiaasen

"...graceful and entertaining, to say nothing of [the] energetic reporting..."
- Tom Brokaw