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HomeShop at BookSurgeHealth & FitnessExerciseWanderlust: A Naïve Adventurer In Europe and Asia |
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Funny, fabulously entertaining and unforgettable. Jul 28, 2009
You don't have to leave your arm chair to experience the wacky and wonderful adventures of Monique Citron Stampleman as she treks, trains, trips and buses around the world with her not always very companionable companion and boyfriend. Anyone who has ever had to adapt to a foreign land and culture will identify with her culture shock. You will delight with and actually drool over her descriptions of the cusine she encounters. And you will be on the edge of that same arm chair when you wonder if this couple make it without killing each other, will they end up happily ever after or, most unlikely of all, will they ever agree on how much one needs to pack for a trip around the world? Don't leave home. Just read this book.
Much more than a travelogue Jul 24, 2009
I was expecting a breezy anecdote-filled travelogue. And it was, partly. But the more important thing was that it was an introspective journey through what seems to have been the middle of a relationship. Do the author and her boyfriend have a future? Was either of them a villain in the relationship? Or do things just go wrong sometimes? I was inspired by the author's willingness to share responsibility for the parts that were going wrong, and impressed by her willingness to keep on trying to make it work despite the bumps in their figurative and literal road.
I could actually visualize the places she describes, from extreme poverty to middle-class and wealth viewed along the way. And the title describes the book perfectly. The author was naive and was an adventurer with the good sense (and possibly a little craziness thrown in) to make this six-month trip happen before she was really a grown-up. What a wondrous adventure to look back on, bumps and all.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
A laugh-out-loud, poignant, timely book Jul 24, 2009
Anyone who has traveled outside the US on the cheap (or wished they had) will find much to love in this tale. It was fascinating to read about so many places that have been in the news lately (Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc.) and to see what they were like 30 years ago, through the eyes of a perceptive young woman traveling with her ill-matched boyfriend. The book is filled with poignant observations, memorable characters, interesting self-reflections, hilarious vignettes, and vibrant descriptions of signts, sounds, smells, and tactile experiences.
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