Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

To Shake the Sleeping Self: A Journey from Oregon to Patagonia, and a Quest for a Life with No Regret by Jedidiah Jenkins

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adventurous challenging informative reflective slow-paced

2.5

I was in a massive reading slump and haven’t been super motivated to read. I’m glad I finally finished a book even after setting this aside a few times, but it wasn’t anything special.

I understand that this is a memoir and the author was wanting to go on both the physical journey as well as a spiritual one but there’s a lot to unpack. He talks a lot about God and religion, but it’s all surface level so I wish he’d gone deeper or talked about it a little less. His perspectives on everything lack depth in general and also lack a recognition of his privilege. He didn’t reckon with any of the challenges he was facing specifically the clashing of his sexuality and faith. He mentions poverty as if doing the bare minimum of not ignoring the existence of the poorer areas but didn’t reflect any more on his privilege.

I could write an entire essay on how ignorant he was but I’ll just give 3 specific examples:

  1. Said his favorite place was Argentina which he thought most resembled the US, he stayed in a gated community, and it was the richest country he went to…I think that pretty much says it all.
  2. he’s going on a 1.5 year trip to Central/South America and HE NEVER THOUGHT TO LEARN SPANISH?! I don’t even go on a short vacation without learning at least a few basic phrases in the local language 🙈 that’s just basic respect in my opinion. He also never seemed to research entry requirements or if he needed a visa in any of the countries thinking he could just enter no problem
  3. He doesn’t seem to take away/learn anything about the local culture; instead he says ignorant/ micro aggressive things about “how surprised he is that people speak English” or how an airport is “shockingly clean” or how he finally got to eat in a “proper restaurant.” He also makes fun of the food and comments about how the “charms of the poverty stricken towns has worn off” As if poverty is a tourist attraction for his enjoyment 🙃

Other things I didn’t like were how he treated his friend, Weston. He’s constantly judging him and gets upset when Weston can’t afford things throughout the trip. Weston even points out that Jed has his family to fall back on if he needed to be bailed out and Jed becomes defensive over his friend pointing out his economic privilege. He repeats himself often to the point I think I’ve reread a sentence on accident only to realize ‘oh no that’s actually just a new sentence saying the exact thing that he wrote two sentences ago.’ 

The story is interesting enough, I mean I obviously finished the book, but he comes off as a pretty pretentious guy with a lot of unacknowledged privilege. He’s just another white guy who finds himself to be the most interesting person in the world and thinks his story deserves to be told. I found myself rolling my eyes or sighing in exasperation at some of the things he wrote.

Overall I liked the idea of his adventure and reading about the locations but this book was frustrating in the way he viewed Latin America; being completely ignorant and seemingly learning nothing about himself or the places he visited.


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