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A review by mariasmusings
Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel by Suzanne Roberts
1.0
I love to travel and always enjoy discussing travel plans with other travellers - or even better swapping stories about some of our more unnerviing and life enhancing experiences. And so, it was with a sense of excitment that I opened the book, 'Bad Tourist' by Suzanne Roberts. A well-known travel writer, through a collection of essays, Roberts recounts her previous travels around the world from Peru to Africa to India.
The essay's are not told in chronological order but rather divided into several topics such as 'Sight's', Sleeping', Fesstivals and Specials Events' , the book does genuinely sound as a Roberts is about to embark on a detailed recollection of her travels and tell us about her expereinces along the way. Sadly, this did not prove to be the case; I had hoped to learn about her time in various countries, and while there are a few references to trains, mudslides to in Peru, the majority of her references are focused on her love-life - or lack thereof at the time. This book is more of a recollection about the men in her life and where she met them, rather than the places that they experienced together..
Roberts's attempts to find herself as she travels and indeed her eventual realisation that she does not need to be married to define herself, seems almost lost after all of the confusion that she has previously mentioned. Prehaps, an epilogue from the author to give a greater insight on her life and learnings now, would have added to the completion of the book. So much promise but in the end, I was truely disappointed by this book. I realise that the book will appeal to any, many other readers, I just prefer my travel memoirs to focus less on the author's life and more on the actual travel.
The essay's are not told in chronological order but rather divided into several topics such as 'Sight's', Sleeping', Fesstivals and Specials Events' , the book does genuinely sound as a Roberts is about to embark on a detailed recollection of her travels and tell us about her expereinces along the way. Sadly, this did not prove to be the case; I had hoped to learn about her time in various countries, and while there are a few references to trains, mudslides to in Peru, the majority of her references are focused on her love-life - or lack thereof at the time. This book is more of a recollection about the men in her life and where she met them, rather than the places that they experienced together..
Roberts's attempts to find herself as she travels and indeed her eventual realisation that she does not need to be married to define herself, seems almost lost after all of the confusion that she has previously mentioned. Prehaps, an epilogue from the author to give a greater insight on her life and learnings now, would have added to the completion of the book. So much promise but in the end, I was truely disappointed by this book. I realise that the book will appeal to any, many other readers, I just prefer my travel memoirs to focus less on the author's life and more on the actual travel.