Road Trip: True Travel Across America

What do you get when you cram four 20-something strangers, a couple of cameras and a microphone into a new Chrysler Neon and then send the car and its cargo out on a three-week, cross-country road odyssey? An hour-long Neon infomercial targeted at Generation X? Yes, but what else? A book called Road Trip. With barely a mention of the word ``car'' let alone ``Neon,'' Road Trip fancies itself a ``travel material for [the baby buster] demographic.'' Each chapter opens with a list of slacker-friendly tourist destinations en route from Boston to Los Angeles, but the majority of each chapter is an edited transcript of the passengers' conversations-My Dinner with Andre. Unfortunately, Brad, Wade, Cheri and Eileen are poor substitutes for Wallace Shawn, Andre Gregory and Louis Malle. They are four middle-class college-educated moderates who discuss everything from racism and political correctness to who just farted. One wonders what else transpired that was not recorded by either Cheri's diary or the microphones. Road Trip cannot compete with more comprehensive travel materials, and its insights add little to what has been explored in MTV's The Real World. (Dec.)