Follow the Money: A Month in the Life of a Ten-Dollar Bill

It's been a rather dismal week for reading. I blame it on the holiday weekend (which meant good food and good company, but little time to read), the erratic stateside delivery schedule of Paris Match (which kindly assured that after receiving no magazine for weeks, I can read a solid month's worth in one go). Also - unfortunately - I blame a really bad selection (which was, even more unfortunately, the only one I packed for the aforementioned holiday weekend): Follow the Money: A Month in the Life of a Ten-Dollar Bill by Steve Boggan.

Several years ago Boggan, a British freelancer, was commissioned to do a story following a single ten pound note around England for as long as possible. As long as possible turned out to be seven days, for on the seventh day the note was banked, but not before having made a circuit of London bars, Hampshire pubs, and markets, golf clubs, and even a dinner party where the bill in question was, according to Boggan, used to sniff cocaine. Anyhow, Boggan had so much fun the first time that he decided to replicate the experiment in the US with a ten dollar bill.

He determines to begin in Lebanon, Kansas, a tiny, dying farm town (population 218) whose claim to fame is having been declared the geographic center of the United States...in 1918. Follow the Money is the story of the people and places Boggan encounters as his bill makes its way from the plains of Kansas onward through Hot Springs, St. Louis, Chicago, and Detroit.

I quit half-way through. First, it's boring. The reviews were great and the book's cover boasts The Sun review prominently "A laugh-out-loud triumph." I didn't laugh once. I found Boggan to be irritating and, frankly, a bit boring. I mean, he came to the U.S. for a month and only brought two pairs of underwear, which he then tries to wash in various hotels rather than simply buying more...and needs to tell his readers this. Seriously? I also wasn't impressed with his let's-turn-follow-the-money-into-middle-America-travelogue approach. Or rather, that approach might have been okay if it weren't for the eminently more readable (and truly funny!) The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America by Bill Bryson. I read this well before I began blogging about my reading list, but I've found a great review of it on another blog.

In short, skip Follow the Money. Read The Lost Continent if you're in the mood for an ambling journey across middle America. Or don't read it if you're not. But I wouldn't bother with Follow the Money in either case.