- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Orca Book Publishers Ltd.; 1st Edition edition (Jan 15 1996)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1571430148
- ISBN-13: 978-1571430144
- Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 13 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 249 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #890,430 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Think your last vacation was bad just because you spent a couple of nights in the airport? You got off easy! In this delightful anthology, some of the world's best travel writers, novelists and journalists -- Eric Hansen, Pico Iyer, Barbara Kingsolver, and 48 others -- offer up the agonies of their worst trips. With an introduction by Mary Morris and a final rebuttal by Jan Morris.
From Publishers Weekly
While some of these essays transcend the limited range of their focus, the majority have the shallow immediacy of anecdotes told around a bar. There are endless accounts of nightmarish trips by boat, car and bus (too many people, lots of bad smells) and, more banal, airplane; horrifying stays in squalid hotels (insect invasions, faulty plumbing, rooms let by the hour); and hellish encounters with the locals (more bad smells, unsavory behavior). Sometimes these 49 tales-introduced by Mary Morris and with a rebuttal by Jan Morris-are amusing, but too often even the authors appear more dutiful than interested, and many stories end patly. The best, however, offer glimpses into the rewards promised by travel-enlightenment, a taste of the exotic, insight into human behavior. Eric Hansen's account of a sleepless winter night passed among the homeless in Grand Central Station and Paul Theroux's claustrophobic Christmas in Central Africa fall into this category; so do Larry O'Connor's moving description of a slum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and Suzanne Lipsett's encounter with an American couple in Bangkok, circa 1968. All reflect Pico Iyer's belief that "the one great glory of traveling is that hardship is always redeemed by commotion recollected in tranquility." These authors, and half a dozen others, seem changed by their experiences; the rest rather blithely have shrugged theirs off.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
I Should Have Just Stayed Home,
By A Customer
This review is from: I Should Have Stayed Home: The Worst Trips of Great Writers (Paperback)
The editors don't pay their writers. Shame on them. The stories are hillarious and well-written, but the editors are thieves.Don't buy this book.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing,
By
This review is from: I Should Have Stayed Home: The Worst Trips of Great Writers (Paperback)
The backcover text describes this book as a "...hilarious anthology...". However this is not a humorous book, let alone a hilarious one. The stories, written in the literary equivalent of a monotone, are simply dreary tales of other people's misfortunes, which after a few chapters become tedious. One particularly unmemorable story was entirely devoted to the author's encounters with human excrement in Nepal. The book's anthology format - a different "great writer" for each chapter - works against it. There is no consistent style, unless one considers bland writing a style. It _is_ possible to take travel misadventures and put a humorous spin on them (Carl Franz, "The People's Guide to Mexico", which is a great guide to boot) or even turn them into high comedy (Dave Barry "Dave Barry Does Japan"), but the authors of this book fell far short of the mark.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Humorous Spins on Disasterous Trips,
By Renee Thorpe (Karangasem, Bali) - See all my reviews
This review is from: I Should Have Stayed Home: The Worst Trips of Great Writers (Paperback)
This is a must-read for anyone who has ever bought a ticket for the wrong bus, ordered a tractor on toast, or mistaken a brothel for a bargain pensione.One hilarious, laugh-out-loud episode after another! A great companion reader to have along on your next vacation abroad. Good variety of locales, plots, and writing styles.
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