2026 Spring Read: The Mythos of America
by Lauren Pronger
Hello from Amarillo, TX! This is Lauren Pronger back again with another Radio Readers BookByte about Shing Yin Khor’s graphic novel The American Dream? for the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club.
So, we know from my previous BookBytes and the novel’s blurb that Khor undertook a Route 66 road trip to better understand the mythos of America and how they, as a queer immigrant, might fit into it. We also know from Khor’s website that as an artist, they like to explore the idea of myth in general. Their Eisner Award winning graphic novel The Legend of Auntie Po, a work of fiction but born of research, is “a new American myth” set in the 1800s. So how does The American Dream? fit into all of this?
There are three obvious myths that I see. One, the myth of Route 66 itself. Two, Route 66 as a kind of “American Dream” for generational Americans (by which I mostly mean the descendants of white European settlers). Three, the stereotypical “American Dream” of immigrants newly arrived in America. Reading the graphic novel, it feels as though Khor weaves between these three interpretations at various points. They discuss how tourists engage with the myth of Route 66 itself by traveling its length and documenting its living and bygone sections. Generational Americans are depicted idolizing the highway as a sort of “golden age” for American culture, and both old American families and new American families recently immigrated make a living with small businesses along the highway, where travelers can engage with the Route 66 myth, or by engaging with the myth themselves as Khor does to better understand America as a whole.
Having lived in Amarillo most of my life, the myth of Route 66 has been ever-present, even before I learned to recognize it. Cadillac Ranch almost holds its own gravity, partly because of the mystery behind its creator Stanley Marsh, a local legend in terms of eccentric art which has become a local icon. Pretty much anyone in Amarillo is familiar with the Dynamite Museum, a collection of road signs with seemingly nonsensical sayings or illustrations scattered all over town. Driving to and from New Mexico along Tascosa Road to 385, my family passed the Floating Mesa on every trip. Cadillac Ranch is just another addition to the local mythos, but one that we can actually interact with and make our own mark on, however temporary.
I didn’t think about these things as Route 66 growing up. Even 6th Street, our historic stretch of Route 66, never seemed like the iconic highway until I opened a shop there and started engaging with that myth directly. But even on those few blocks, I can see all three interpretations of myth in Khor’s novel. I see domestic and international travelers almost every week engaging with the mythos of Route 66 - its history, its present, its fascinating grip on both America’s and the world’s idea of what America is and what it means. Then there are new and old Americans with their own small businesses either focused on that idea of Route 66 itself or not. Some cater to travelers, some cater to locals, but we all work on that stretch of the highway engaging with any or multiple of these myths as informed by our own experiences with Route 66 and the American Dream, whatever that means to each of us. From biker bars to coffeeshops, bookstores to Lao restaurants, I can’t help but wonder how each of us here on Amarillo’s Route 66 stretch might interpret Khor’s novel, and the myth of the American Dream.
This is Lauren Pronger from Amarillo, TX for the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club. Thanks for listening.
