I finished this one a couple of months ago. Lonely Planet puts out an anthology of travel writing with a different theme every year. I love travel writing, and individually most of these essays are really good, but this book suffers from an ailment common to anthologies. Because they are all written to a single theme, after a while it's just too much of the same thing. For one thing, almost every single essay makes a point of including the word "nowhere", usually as "in the middle of nowhere", so that you can be sure they did, indeed, stick to the topic. Individually this is no problem, but after ten or twenty in a row it starts sounding cliche. And because they are all writing about "nowhere", the book as a whole comes across as a bunch of very well-traveled people having a one-up contest of "You think that's remote? That's nothing! Listen to this!"
But, like I said, individually these are all great stories. A few of my favorites:
* Grounded in In Bihn by Karla Zimmerman - When Zimmerman's bus breaks down in a tiny Vietnamese village she is befriended by the locals and comes to cherish the unique experience. Many of the essays have a similar theme, but this one is succinct, well written, and doesn't get overly dramatic about how "nowhere" the place is, or overly sentimental about how great it turns out to be. It's understated, and I like that.
* In the Wake of Albatrosses by Kery Lorimer - Lorimer and friends travel to Antarctica on a whim. Lorimer's vivid imagery is almost enough to make me wish I could have been there. Almost.
* The Worst Country In The World by Simon Winchester - Painfully hilarious. That's all I can say.
* On The Trail by Karl Tao Greenfeld - This stands out just because it is so absolutely heartbreaking. I really wanted to cry for the guy. Greenfeld went to China to write a book on SARS. For fifteen pages he describes in agonizing detail the difficulties of finding anyone willing to talk, and how after months he finally got on the right track, then spent months more persuing it, only to have his laptop with the nearly complete book and all his notes stolen. OK, maybe I don't recommend reading this one because it's so depressing, but it did stand out.
* The Living Museum of Nowhere and Everywhere by Rolf Potts - Potts is well-travelled and assumes that small town America has nothing to offer him, but finds some fascinating people and stories in a rural Kansas museum. The author is a little pompous in congratulating himself on still being able to enjoy the lowly midwest, even though it's no Paris, London, Myanmar, or India, but it's nice to hear a story that shows you don't have to risk dysentary to connect with "the world".
* A Visit to Kanasankatan by Jason Elliot - Elliot describes visiting a friend in a seemingly exotic place, filled with ethnic looking men, veiled women, shop signs in all languages, foreign sounds and smells, and poverty. In the end we learn his friend lives in North Kensington, London. It's a great twist. I'd love to use this as the basis for a writing assignment.
But, like I said, individually these are all great stories. A few of my favorites:
* Grounded in In Bihn by Karla Zimmerman - When Zimmerman's bus breaks down in a tiny Vietnamese village she is befriended by the locals and comes to cherish the unique experience. Many of the essays have a similar theme, but this one is succinct, well written, and doesn't get overly dramatic about how "nowhere" the place is, or overly sentimental about how great it turns out to be. It's understated, and I like that.
* In the Wake of Albatrosses by Kery Lorimer - Lorimer and friends travel to Antarctica on a whim. Lorimer's vivid imagery is almost enough to make me wish I could have been there. Almost.
* The Worst Country In The World by Simon Winchester - Painfully hilarious. That's all I can say.
* On The Trail by Karl Tao Greenfeld - This stands out just because it is so absolutely heartbreaking. I really wanted to cry for the guy. Greenfeld went to China to write a book on SARS. For fifteen pages he describes in agonizing detail the difficulties of finding anyone willing to talk, and how after months he finally got on the right track, then spent months more persuing it, only to have his laptop with the nearly complete book and all his notes stolen. OK, maybe I don't recommend reading this one because it's so depressing, but it did stand out.
* The Living Museum of Nowhere and Everywhere by Rolf Potts - Potts is well-travelled and assumes that small town America has nothing to offer him, but finds some fascinating people and stories in a rural Kansas museum. The author is a little pompous in congratulating himself on still being able to enjoy the lowly midwest, even though it's no Paris, London, Myanmar, or India, but it's nice to hear a story that shows you don't have to risk dysentary to connect with "the world".
* A Visit to Kanasankatan by Jason Elliot - Elliot describes visiting a friend in a seemingly exotic place, filled with ethnic looking men, veiled women, shop signs in all languages, foreign sounds and smells, and poverty. In the end we learn his friend lives in North Kensington, London. It's a great twist. I'd love to use this as the basis for a writing assignment.
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