Kevin J. Hayes's A Journey through American Literature achieves a lot in a short volume. A strict economy of language keeps the message succinct, but the meticulous selection of material is what really wraps this ambitious task up in such a compact package. Hayes provides a whistle-stop tour of the influential works of American literature, from its earliest settlers to the present day. Each chapter presents a different form and charts its development through relevant examples, usually stopping short of the present day – few chapters venture into the twenty-first century. Key works are described in broad detail with basic analysis and placed within their literary or social context. Hayes excels in drawing these works together, linking their origin and influence, and highlighting specific works that mark important developments in each form.

The first chapter – “Beginnings” – offers an exposition of great opening lines and outlines many of the recurrent themes of American literature. However, it is not clear what the author hopes to achieve and the chapter is incongruous; the following chapters adhere to a very specific, and occasionally repetitive, formula. Chapter 2, “Travels,” follows neatly from the first as Hayes's discussion of early promotional rhetoric naturally gives rise to a history of travel writing. In placing the boom in international travel writing in the context of a post-Civil War America, Hayes demonstrates his skill in providing cultural context for literary trends. His occasional comments on publishing also provide unique insight, as when a discussion of twentieth-century travel writing arises from a typically brief history of the Federal Writers' Project.

In “Autobiography,” Hayes begins with Benjamin Franklin, introducing the concerns of accuracy and truth that are endemic to the form as a result of authors' selective depictions. Key ghostwritten narratives are explored – Jake La Motta's Raging Bull serving as an illustrative example – and accuracy is questioned again in relation to jazz autobiography, frequently constructed from tape recordings. Hayes highlights Kyung Cha, who serves as an excellent example of how readers must construct identities of the autobiographers they read, thus providing an answer to the question of authenticity that echoes throughout. Chapter 4 focusses on narrative voice and the short-story form. Opening with a discussion of Washington Irving's Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Hayes demonstrates the influence of travel writing. The chapter naturally focusses on such masters as Melville and Poe, but devotes special attention to humorists of the Old Southwest, naming several distinct voices and providing an introduction to their unique style. The short story is charted through modernism and postmodernism, culminating with Sandra Cisneros's work in the late twentieth century.

The overriding theme of “Poetry” is the distinction between the public and private poet. Initially describing the dichotomy between Walt Whitman's several editions of Leaves of Grass and Emily Dickinson's private manuscripts, the chapter concludes with a discussion of Richard Hugo's career. Describing Hugo as a published poet writing poems of a private nature and drawing this link back to Dickinson, the chapter has a wonderful sense of cohesion, the hallmark of Hayes's text.

Hayes frequently uses key collections or anthologies as a starting point of his discussions and in chapter 6 this point is Arthur Hobson Quinn's Representative American Plays. Hayes admits that early American drama had little to recommend it, and as such the chapter focusses more on modern rather than on early examples of the genre. Eugene O'Neill, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams are given due attention, but the transition from writing for stage to writing for screen is what makes the chapter shine.

The issue of “The Great American Novel” is handled eloquently in the penultimate chapter. The focus is as much on the idea of the Great American Novel itself and the literary criticism that gave rise to its myth as on likely candidates for the title. It concludes that though we may identify a Great American Novelist – William Faulkner and Jonathan Franzen being offered as likely candidates – an exemplary novel remains elusive still.

As each chapter is neatly concluded with a link back to its opening, so to is the book itself, with a chapter on “Endings” ending Hayes's Journey. Just as in his opening, Hayes touches on many genres, styles and periods through poignant conclusions to key works.

The work is comprehensive. However, in highlighting numerous key texts analysis can be all too brief at times. While the writing is enjoyable, the book suffers from a lack of direction. In failing to establish an expectation in the opening chapter the reader is left with an uncertainty as to how the text should be used.