Customer Reviews

Adventures in Formosa

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An enjoyable set of loosely linked stories and articles about the author's life in Taiwan as an adventure writer. Not exactly highbrow literature, but easy to keep reading. Graceffo clearly exaggerates and plays up the quirky characters, the eccentricities of Taiwanese culture and his own overreactions (at one point he even seems jaded with the formula - do something adventurous, make jokes about being unprepared, make fun of a goofy Taiwanese person), but no harm done. Having spent some time in Taiwan myself I can vouch for the many cultural oddities from a Westerner's point of view. The tone of the book switches abruptly from comical (mis)adventure to sincere enjoyment of group experiences to martial arts training to describing Graceffo's struggles as a writer. Depending on what you're looking for, you might skim quickly through parts of the book.

Geez, though, Antonio, learn to use a spell-checker. The lack of editing gets to the point where it's distracting - typos almost every page. At one point he refers to "blue skies, decorated with white crowds". I think Thor Horendall is Thor Heyerdahl, and Steven Severen is Tim Severin, but who knows?

ADVENTURES IN FORMOSA BY ANTONIO GRACEFFO details the author's adventurs in Formosa (Taiwan) where he left his life as a New York stock broker to live a very different life in Asia, where he enjoys kick boxing and spiritual practices. He is an excellent and fascinating writer. Order from Amazon.com