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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
Inspiring - reading this book made me want to drop everything and get [b:on the road|6288|The Road|Cormac McCarthy|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21E8H3D1JSL._SL75_.jpg|3355573]. The author manages to convey the exuberance of meeting new cultures without pretension or patronization. This is a really well done travelogue, but more, it describes living your life on your own terms, at any age, bucking trends and sage advice in favor of following your heart.
I thought the author had a lot of courage to leave a privleged life to travel "on the cheap" so to speak. However, I was bothered by her assumptions that she could just "put on the clothes and stay awhile" with the native peoples she so loved to visit and suddenly she would be one of them.
But as someone had mentioned, on her website it does look as if she is trying to do things to help those impoverished cultures that she did visit...her heart is in the right place.
To paraphrase another reviewer... I admired her travels and courage but boy did I want to bonk her on the head at times.
But as someone had mentioned, on her website it does look as if she is trying to do things to help those impoverished cultures that she did visit...her heart is in the right place.
To paraphrase another reviewer... I admired her travels and courage but boy did I want to bonk her on the head at times.
Writing is far too detailed and chronological; needs some major editing. Find myself wondering how she lucked out into some situations. Didn't finish.
adventurous
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
I had mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, I found the author's journey very inspiring, and as a 30-something woman looking ahead to an empty nest and a marriage that sometimes feels like it is on shaky ground, I can appreciate the way she dealt with the sudden upheaval in her life and turned it into an opportunity to do something she'd set aside to be a wife and mother. But on the other hand, I saw a lot of the same things that are mentioned in other reviews - the "above it all" stance she took when it suited her to do so, her willingness to sit by and become a tourist to scenes of desperate human suffering without feeling any compulsion to try to make a difference, and the way she cruised through the world dripping in the very privilege she complained about in her rich, white American friends in the opening chapter. I was far more interested in the places than in her navel-gazing, and it was those places and, at times, people that saved the book for me. I only hope that if I should ever have the opportunity to undertake a journey even a fraction as remarkable, I will be better able to get out of my own head and really engage with it.
The idea of taking off and traveling the world is such a lovely dream and Rita was able to do this because she came from an extremely privileged life. It took a lot from me to finish the book because of how she wrote it. The locations and people that she was able to meet were all fascinating but there was just something about this story that I just could not connect with. Perhaps it was that I had a different story in my head of how this book would be or that fact that she was already an author on this journey and at times it felt more like a research, well mapped out "adventure" than a truly authentic journey.
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
I am a person who loves to travel and I've done my share of traveling -- I'm still jealous. To be able to get up and go, to leave your known world for a bit of the unknown, seems like a luxury that most of can't afford - either because of financial issues, or lack of time, or the responsibilities of real life that bind us to our homes. What I liked about this memoir was Rita's personal journey. Her first trip was to close-by Mexico and, yes, she did go to live in a village, but the Mexican culture is very close to Californians and not too exotic. She had her misgivings, hated eating alone in a restaurant but overcame the challenges, toughed it out and stuck with it. My hat goes off to her for that.
I did find, however, that she never really explored why she felt the need to be away from her real family and substitute it with other family. When she lived in Bali and her mother was dying, it almost seemed as though she felt a deeper loss over the death of Tu Aji, than that of her mother and father. Why? Perhaps she doesn't even know herself, but it did strike me as odd that she would replace her need for friendship, comraderie and ultimately love, with perfect strangers and not with her more immediate family.
In any case, an amazing travel book. Thanks wingedman for thinking of me - I'll try to pass it on to another bxer who travels vicariously through books!
I did find, however, that she never really explored why she felt the need to be away from her real family and substitute it with other family. When she lived in Bali and her mother was dying, it almost seemed as though she felt a deeper loss over the death of Tu Aji, than that of her mother and father. Why? Perhaps she doesn't even know herself, but it did strike me as odd that she would replace her need for friendship, comraderie and ultimately love, with perfect strangers and not with her more immediate family.
In any case, an amazing travel book. Thanks wingedman for thinking of me - I'll try to pass it on to another bxer who travels vicariously through books!
LOVED this book. I love to travel and learn new things and have new experiences. Rita Golden Gilman is a brave and inspirational woman. This book has me excited to start traveling again!
I did not hate this book like many other reviewers. I am rather unemotional about it, so I suppose that says something about the book. Parts of it were interesting, other parts were pointless and unnecessary. The entire chapter on New Zealand felt like an afterthought that was hastily thrown together to add a few pages. I learned nothing of the people or the place, just that the author likes seafood and ate a lot of it while there. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, there is much better travel writing out there.