Customer Reviews

Backpack

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Backpack is the story of a lost British girl named Tansy. After her mother dies and she meets her long lost brother she decides to go on a backpacking trip through Asia with her boyfriend. Of course the boyfriend dumps her before the trip and she decides to go without him (in hopes that he will join or be impressed). Basically she is a big city girl who isn't interested in the backpacker lifestyle but finds herself in Asia wishing she were anywhere else. Tansy does a lot of growing and learning while on her travels.

Meanwhile murders start happing all over Asia and Tansy feels they are somehow connected to her. An interesting story with a loveable leading lady.

Backpack by Emily Barr wants to be a an insightful character study of a bright young Londoner who represses the effects of her pain-filled youth. It also wants to be a murder mystery, and quite possibly has aspirations of being a hip travelogue. Anyone of these would have worked, but the resulting hodgepodge of genres results in many underdeveloped characters and subplots. The murderer is obvious, as is the romance.
However, parts of this book are very funny, especially before Tansy becomes a kinder, gentler person. If you are stuck in an airport, reading this book is better than staring at the TV screen, but otherwise, you have better things to do with your time.

This book was an absolute hoot! Emily Barr has written a refreshing take on the life of a late twenty-something girl searching for true love and happiness - amidst a backpacking lifestyle. Especially enjoyable was the part when Tansy first arrives in Saigon - I nearly fell out of my chair laughing at her crabby exchange with some local children. This book is for anyone who has backpacked, dealt with broken families, had a jerk of a boyfriend (or girlfriend), or hated the person sitting next to them on an overseas flight. Hilarious and sensitive in all the right places. I eagerly await the next Barr book.

Part travelogue, part murder-mystery, part Brit Chick-Lit, this novel was amazing. It's about Tansy, a party girl Londoner who plans to spend a year in Asia with her problematic-at-best boyfriend only to have him back out last minute. Tansy reluctantly goes on her own and finds herself in love and danger. I don't want to write much more because giving away anything could severely damage the page-turning experience.

Emily Barr does a fantastic job at describing the backpacker's life & having been in Chengdu, I know that at least that part of her description is right on (which means that all the other vivid depictions of location are probably on the money as well). The characters are very real. If you've backpacked at all, you know these people. And if you've been in China, you'll admire how she paints about as perfect a picture of toilets in there as there can be.

Oh, wow. There are some terrible reviews for this book, but I really enjoyed it! I liked the taste of other countries and the friendships that developed. I guess I can picture myself in her shoes. Many people don't like Tansy (the main character), I assume because she's crabby? I love characters like that, though. She says what she thinks and is fallible. And, she comes out of it gradually. Give this book a try.

My only complaint is that I felt it could've been much longer! Sometimes the jumps in time left me feeling cheated, because I wanted more of it all.

This book really made me want to hit the road on my own to a foreign country & see what happens! I thought it was wonderful that Tansy still went to Vietnam alone, though her "boyfriend" bailed out! She was quite brave to go it alone & I enjoyed her transition from scared tourist to backpacker. The descriptions of the places she went were right-on (I've never been to SE Asia, but friends who have said they knew the places she described).

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to travel alone for the adventure or who dreams of doing so. The only part I didn't like was the end - seemed to wrap things up a bit too nicely.

This was definitely a refreshing change from the dizzy Brit girl persona characterized in so many recent novels. However, one thing that really turned me off from giving this book four stars (which I would have, if only for the interesting twist of a murder mystery in addition to the typical meet-Mr.-right scenario)is Tansy's use of cocaine. I really felt that Barr was glorifying drugs for at least a good portion of this book, and that is just offputting to me.

Other than that, there were a few editorial bloopers but nothing compared to those in, say, "Jemima J." or "Bad Boy". One thing I will say is that the identity of the murderer is disappointingly easy to figure out early on in the book. Also, I wondered why Tansy didn't report to anyone the fact that the murderer was likely leaving behind items stolen from her. Overall, a nice twist on the Bridget Jones-era copycats but still somewhat lacking in the fact that, though Tansy is from a different mold, she is still selfish and self-absorbed at the end of the story (she definitely still is not deserving of Max at all) and that brought the rating down to a three.