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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well Done, April 29, 2003
This review is from: Backpack (Paperback)
Backpack is a very well-done and funny novel which is a bit of a departure from the chick lit novels we all know and love. For starters, the opening chapter has the heroine, Tansy, waking up in a hospital bed after having her stomach pumped on the day of her alcoholic mother's funeral. The rest of the novel is like that, a bit more gritty and real than your standard romantic comedy. Tansy's life in London, including her relationship with her boyfriend, begins to come apart and to escape it all, she travels to Asia, where she initially rejects the term "backpacker" although, that is what she is. Her experiences are very evocative of traveling, as a twenty-somthing, in a third world nation. The novel is funny and adds a bit of suspense with a murder mystery subplot that wasn't entirely necessary. Tansy--who began the novel as an annoying, coke addicted witch--grows up in a believable way as the novel progresses. Backpack makes for fun, breezy, enjoyable reading.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
whiny cokehead makes good (reading), July 20, 2002
This review is from: Backpack (Paperback)
Backpack is marketed as a comic novel in the Britchick genre, but it's much more a book of self-discovery. It details the misadventures of Tansy, a party girl whose horrifying alcoholic mother has recently died from one drink too many, as she goes alone a year-long trip to Asia that was supposed to happen with her on/off boyfriend. She begins as an extremely whiny and unlikeable character, full of bad attitude, with an idea of how fashionably zen her trip will make her appear to others. Once on the road, however, she begins to lose her bad attitude and open up to the things she sees and the new friends she makes: notably, a kind Australian "little people" couple, Ally and Andy, and a fellow Brit, backpacker Max, with whom Tansy begins a relationship that quickly becomes more serious than she expected. With their support - and perspective gained from being far away from her London lifestyle and partying friends - she begins to become a better and more interesting person, and to explore the effects of her mother's death. There is a murder mystery subplot in this book, and I don't think it's entirely successful - the last few chapters are poorly-written in comparison to what has come before (and in a general sense - the killer's dialogue is laughably bad), and the end is anticlimactic, which is why I've given it only four stars. This is not a light book, but it is an interesting take on how a young woman learns to balance her life and come into her own while she is a long way away from what had been an unhealthy home.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Engaging and interesting, February 27, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Backpack (Paperback)
Backpack is a nice change of pace from the dearth of British single girl fiction. While the protagonist, Tansy, is newly single, instead of moping around London she heads to Asia. To say Tansy is unprepared to travel for a year and that she endures culture shock, is an understatement. Who else would pack designer clothes, including white linen, in a backpack. By the end of her first day, many finger marks from children beggars are all over the bottom of her shirt. Reluctantly, she buys more practical clothes -- including tye-dye t-shirts. These t-shirts are like those worn by the backpackers that she tries not to associate herself with "I'm a traveller, not a backpacker." Even as Tansy starts spending more and more time with backpackers, and continually growing to feel like genuine friends with them, she is still hesitant to label herself as one. Regardless of this, the more she travels the more her personality and outlook are effected. Barr does a very good job of showing how immersion in a foreign culture, with or without travel partners, will alter your outlook on life. While the location descriptions aren't always very distinct or tangible, the reader is provided with a reasonably good sense of Tansy's location. It was my impression that this story could have been set anywhere where Tansy didn't know the local language. But that just reinforces the idea that this is Tansy's story, with Asia as a backdrop instead of Asia as a central point to the story. Where other single Brit girl books have their protagonists swilling chardonnay and eating milk trays, Tansy is drinking Dragon beer and worrying about ordering vegetarian food properly. The murder mystery angle is interesting and, at times, provides more pull to the overall storyline than Tansy's 'what will I do about my boyfriend back home' and 'what will I do about my lover here' frequent musings. And this storyline also nicely ties together Tansy's friends and family back home, and provides a strong undercurrent amongst Tansy and her travelling companions. All in all, this is a solid first novel and I will be interested to read Barr's next novel. In taking a familiar theme and character-type and dumping them in Asia, Barr has nicely drawn a parallel between the shock of the loss of a romantic partner and the shock and bewilderment you feel when you're suddenly immersed in a culture you know little about. It is the setting of Asia that makes this novel refreshingly stand out from its genre.
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