Bad Trips

by Keath Fraser

Release Date: 16 April, 1991

Edition: Paperback

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Tries too hard

This book tries hard to be poignant, but doesn't make it. Much too depressing, and not entertaining enough.

A place to start finding some great writing

A collection of travel writing, mainly excerpts from longer works, although a few are short essays, describing those trips that--well, did not seem quite so fun at the time, but make for great reading. I read this book as a primer and introduction to the writers therein, some of whom I plan to seek out later, including:

* Stuart Stevens--Reads like Mark Salzman, probably in part due to the fact that he traveled with Salzman.
* P. K. Page--Her bit on Australia was great--exactly the problems with another culture that I'm looking for.
* Norman Lewis--His Golden Earth is considered a classic of travel writing and this excerpt was enough to show some of the reasons why.
* Colin Thubron--He traveled in the USSR before the break-up. There will probably be a spate of books about the USSR now that it's easier to travel there, so this should be a fine slice of something not to be seen again, like Tibet before the Chinese takeover.
* Paul Theroux--People had already recommended Theroux to me, and this except was a confirmation.
* Mary Morris--A woman traveling alone has increased risk, and implicit bravery. This particular woman is a good writer, as well.
* Charles Nicholl--More like a one-man "60 Minutes" team--the excerpt from his investigation on the cocaine underworld of Columbia just whetted my appetite for more.
* Jonathan Raban--Sometimes our own country is the most foreign of places. Raban's trip down the Mississippi looks good.

* Gavin Young--War reportage, neither sentimental nor brusque, just frighteningly real.
* Graham Greene--I've never read any Greene until this, and given this, and his reputation, I plan to correct that.
* Eric Hansen--More Borneo, this time on foot rather than O'Hanlon's river journey. Borneo's a strange place.
* Michael Asher--This is Arabia--another bit of difficult terrain.