"…a wise and clever book, funny, warm and filled with astonishing characters. But it also represents an important exercise, casting an Argus-eye on a largely invisible but un-ignorable world. It is thus a book that deserves to be read widely."

"Anyone who has ever griped about freeway traffic or being elbowed on the subway should spend some time with Carl Hoffman’s book. I’m glad he made it back in one piece to write this tribute to the millions who every day endure what most of us don’t care to imagine."

"Carl Hoffman has reinvented the travel log as the supreme theater of paradox. … his travels are a search for an unholy grail—something freakish; something dangerous; something authentic. Forget the inoculations. Disregard protection. Take this ride, and find the way to interconnectedness, verity and understanding.”

"Carl Hoffman’s clever, fearsome book takes us into the frantic fear and pitiless extinctions that punctuate the simple struggle to get from home to anywhere, for so many of the world’s people. But it also takes us into the heart of the writer: and that journey, with its beauty and compassion, its conscience and courage, is so thrilling that we hope the ride never ends."

"The Lunatic Express transcends its masochistic premise to reward readers with an adventurous, humorous, insightful and improbably inspiring narrative."

"Hoffman has an uncanny ability to capture the colorful host of characters encountered on the road…"

"Hoffman gathers insights into the fortitude of third-world travelers, his own competing yearnings for domestic stability and adventure, and the brutal economics of mass transportation in impoverished parts of the globe."

"With adventure, danger and self-discovery in one insightful package, The Lunatic Express is Eat Pray Love for men. But don’t worry. Women will enjoy it, too."

"So worth reading. Read it, give it, live it, learn it."