America the Beautiful?: One Woman in a Borrowed Prius on the Road Most Traveled

Comedy writer Roberson (How to Date Men When You Hate Men) quit her Late Show with Stephen Colbert job to visit national parks and—despite naysayers insisting she was “going to get murdered”—lived to tell the tale in this wobbly seriocomic travelogue. Taking her “Great American Road Trip” in the spring and summer of 2019, 30-something Roberson believed that “if I let myself be truly present, something alchemical might happen” to her generational malaise. She started at Lake Superior’s Isle Royale, “the least visited national park in the contiguous United States,” and awarded herself Junior Ranger badges along the rest of her odyssey, a gimmicky “organizing principle” that detracts from Roberson’s more serious-minded considerations of global warming, the displacement of indigenous peoples, and how influencers cause overcrowding at national parks. Side trips to Los Angeles (“to take meetings”) and art mecca Marfa, Tex., land less like unplugging and more like “I-hang-with-the-cool-kids” striving, and Roberson overall struggles to mold her experiences into a coherent narrative. She’s undoubtedly funny and great on a line level, but jokes alone don’t save this meandering memoir. Agent: Dana Murphy, the Book Group. (Apr.)