Follow the Money

January 15, 2013
British journalist Boggan delivers a "Where's George?"-inspired debut examining the varied paths paper money can take and the hands it passes through. Taking a cue from an ill-fated newspaper piece he was assigned by the Guardian, the author decided to follow a $10 bill for 30 days and nights, pushing off in 2010 near Lebanon, Kan. (pop. 218). Unpaid and driven by curiosity alone, the inquisitive author put the ten-spot in the welcoming hands of deer-hunting lodge owner and first-aid responder Rick Chapin, tracking its 3,300-mile journey from the supermarket where the Chapins purchased lunch. Each consumer, in turn, spent the money and told Boggan their story, many still at the mercy of a struggling American economy. After contact with Ernie, a lifelong Lebanon farmer who lamented that crop machines have predominantly replaced human effort, the bill passed to a truck stop, where a traveling single mother and her son braved the roads together. The action sputters some in Hot Springs, Ark., but then revives as the money met a Chicago-based post-recession investment banker fearful of his increasingly embittered, angry older clientele and a Vietnam veteran still nursing painful war wounds. These poignant profiles give the book its heart and personify the reality of a collapsed economy. Boggan's eye-opening journey ends at the expansive home of a former auto maintenance welder in Detroit who remains optimistic about the future of the American automobile industry. A fun, multifaceted travelogue.

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February 15, 2013

London-based journalist Boggan gives readers a delightful account of his 30-day journey through middle America following a ten-dollar bill for 30 days as it passed from hand to hand across the country. He begins in Lebanon, KS, once known as the geographic center of the United States, and winds his way through Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Michigan as the bill is exchanged. A few people he encounters are suspicious of his motives, but most are entertained by his quest and welcome him--often into their homes. Along the way he harvests soybeans, hangs out with a bar band, spends hours in a tree stand with a couple of deer hunters, and learns that you can't dry synthetic-fiber clothing in a microwave. By the end of his journey, Boggan realizes that his presence is affecting the bill's movements, and that he has learned much more about human nature than about economics. VERDICT An engaging, positive portrait of the American Midwest as seen through the eyes of an Englishman, this will particularly appeal to fans of Bill Bryson.--Rachel Owens, Daytona State Coll. Lib., FL

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2013
In 2006, British journalist Boggan wrote an article about following a single 10-pound note for a week, tracking its movements from hand to hand. This highly entertaining book expands on the theme. Making his way to the U.S., Boggan changed from pounds to dollars and sent a marked $10 bill on its way, vowing to follow its progress for a full month. His journeyor, rather, the bill's journeytook him from his starting point of Lebanon, Kansas (popularly if inaccurately known as the geographical center of the U.S.), to Detroit, Michigan. The rules were simple: he had to be present at every transaction, he couldn't influence how the 10 bucks was spent, and he couldn't influence where the bill went (there was a tense moment when a guy said he was going to mail the bill to a place 406 miles away). Like Bill Bryson, whose travel books are as much about the people he meets as they are about the places he visits, Boggan writes entertainingly about the characters he encountered along the waymost of whom were, somewhat surprisingly, pretty cool with his unusual request to follow them around until they spent the moneyand about his various misadventures, which included racing down the road in hot pursuit of a First Responders vehicle on the way to an emergency. A nifty book with an unusual premise and plenty of fun.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)