American fiction abounds in stories of journeys and travellers: pioneers, drifters, restless spirits, searching for meaning and identity, many of which pose questions about the idea of the West and the elusive promises it embodies. The author considers two such journeys, in John Cheever's short story 'The Swimmer' (1964) and Paul Auster's novel 'The Music of Chance' (1990), comparing their protagonists with earlier travellers from the novels of Willa Cather and Jack Kerouac.