Summary

Nothing could have fueled his overoptimistic imagination more than when the unrealistic, made-up world he fell smitten with—the one in which he’d be able to fly around the country for free—became the one he lived in. Life on Standby chronicles Matt Johnson as he drags his friends onto planes and into unfamiliar cities with the self-imposed restriction of not spending money. Their food, lodging, and transportation are all just maybes, yearning to become more, but relying on the (hopeful) charity and selflessness of strangers to do so. The book serves as ambition’s bruised-and-battered tour bus, crashing through the daunting terrains of street slumber, self exploration, and even that impossible thing called love, hoping to catch a glimpse of the world’s unfiltered social conscience. It makes wrong turns and literary detours all along the way, hardly even arriving back home. But it does, and with this story to tell.