“Here is a suggestion for everyone who plans a trip to the U.S., for everyone who has travelled in the U.S., for everyone who wants to go to the U.S. Or put in another way: here is a suggestion for everyone with the slightest interest in the U.S.A.: ‘Cowboy. On The Road in a Different America’, by journalist and author Lars Åberg…
It is told with a presence so strong that it is safe to say that one has been to the U.S. just by having read the book. That is how it feels. When I look back on my own journey along Higway One some years ago, it is Lars Åberg´s story that stays with me just as much as my own impressions.
‘Cowboy’ is both travel journalism, social journalism and political journalism, weaving together the present and the past. In other words, this is absolute world class travel writing.”
(Per Johnsson in the Stockholm morning daily Svenska Dagbladet, April 2009)
“Irresistible read…powerful and wilful narrative art…
He writes so darn well, with his sharp, detailed prose taking the reader with him from the first page to the very last one…You are there, with him, and you see it all before you thanks to his skilled balancing of light and shadow, euphoria and threat, pleasure and anxiety.”
(Author Ragnar Strömberg on national Swedish Radio)
“No other European travel writer has captured the atmosphere of the American outback as well as Åberg…
His book essentially deals with the divide between the mythology which praises all these adventurers and eccentrics and the reality that gradually obliterates them…
This is first class reporting, down to earth and close to life.”
(Stefan Jonsson in Göteborgs-Posten, Sweden´s second-largest morning daily)
“The lucky readers who´ll find “Cowboy” will dig it…
A long, beautiful and well-informed improvisation over an American theme: individualism – about the freedom to become whatever you want and the lack of freedom that prevents you.”
(Per Wirtén in the Stockholm daily Expressen)
“One of the best Swedish books about America, ever…There is a wonderful variety and compassion in Lars Åberg´s encounters with American dreamers.”
(Tomas Polvall in the daily Helsingborgs Dagblad)
”He writes with insight, knowledge and compassion.”
(Magnus Eriksson in the Stockholm daily Svenska Dagbladet)
”Åberg has made those journeys that the rest of us just keep dreaming about…
He is a brilliant stylist – the kind that makes you want to read his sentences over and over again… He sees the details and exposes connections that are so obvious that we don´t see them…
Lars Åberg is such a fine writer that one has to ponder the option of quitting the business.”
(Lennart Persson in the music magazine Sonic)
“When its first edition was published, Per Wirtén wrote in Expressen: ‘The lucky readers who´ll find ‘Cowboy’ will dig it.’ He is darn right, I totally dig this highly personal travel story from American backwaters…
If cowboy is more of a sentiment than a trade, Åberg has met people who are both sensitive and at work and he tells about them and the things he sees and experiences in a language which is a pleasure to read. The stories may seem to lack structure, but yet they don’t. He lets us get drawn into an atmosphere which remains alive from beginning to end and makes the reader think about her own opinions about the country on the side of the ocean…
Read this book. Even if you don’t agree with Åberg, his text will provide you with pleasant anger.”
(Kjell E Genberg, Dast Magazine)
“Best Books of The Year, 2003:
Swedish travel writing of the highest international standard is rare. Lars Åberg’s ‘Cowboy’ is first class. Åberg has traveled in, listened to and formulated his impressions from another kind of America with finely tuned intensity.”
(Tomas Polvall in the daily Kristianstadsbladet)
“Truly one of the best written travel stories about people, events and places off the main highway that you can read at the moment.”
(Göran Widerberg in the union magazine Dagens Arbete)
“If there is something that Lars Åberg does not do in his fine book of reporting, “Cowboy”, it is to romanticize… He is constantly on the move, but stays long enough for the landscapes to take shape and be saturated by time and experience… Like the cowboy, Lars Åberg is a skilled craftsman who does not waste the details.”
(Jan Eklund in Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s leading morning daily)