Customer Reviews

The Best American Travel Writing 2004

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Whether or not you like this collection of essays will depend on your definition of travel writing. D.Cooper's "Canadian Gothic", J.McPhee's "A Fleet of One" and B.Donahue's "Under the Sheltering Sky" are all excellent. However many of the pieces chosen are little more than self-indulgent fluff. Was 2004 such a mediocre year for travel writing? M.Byers "Monuments to Our Better Nature" and R.Chevat's incoherent "Screenwriters Vacation" and M.Gorra's "Innocents Abroad?" are hardly memorable.

As another review has pointed out the selections seem to come from a rather limited field: The New Yorker, National Geographic, Travel&Leisure. There are thousands of publication venues, yet Pico Iyer decided to treat us to an anthology that is top heavy with selections from the main stream "Big Media" press. The publisher of this series, Houghton-Mifflin hasn't strayed far from the ground that it feels most comfortable with-established main stream authors. Even the piece by Tim Cahill does not represent his best writing. Most of the selections in this book seem like warmed-up left-overs.

As another reviewer has mentioned, only 4 of the 24 selected authors are women writers. This just boggles the mind... were there no women writers of merit in 2004?

My main concern is that few of these selections are really "travel stories". Some are set in foreign locales, but deal with subjects like teaching English in Tanzania, riding the bus in NYC, famine in Ethiopia ,and political repression in Burma. There is also an irritating post-9/11 angst in several of the essays. While this maybe a reflection of the mood of American writers in 2004 coming to grips with their new found feeling of insecurity in their comfortable middle-class lives, it does not reflect the daily pre-occupations of the other 5 billion souls on the planet. There is a self-centered navel gazing in this collection of essays that reflects some of the worst, not the best of recent travel writing.

Nowhere in this collection will you find the brilliant writing of W. Thesinger, Freya Stark, Norman Lewis, Eric Hansen, or Jan Morris. You will find a lot of boring and recondite references to Henry James however.

This collection of essays is to travel writing what Starbucks is to a bistro . If you can't tell the difference from the real thing, you might enjoy it. Maybe.

I would give this book a big miss, and send a message to Houghton-Mifflin . Donald Rumsfeld famously referred to the "old Europe". This collection of essays isn't even "old-style travel writing". It is a mis-directed bore, brought to you from the same corporate folks that convinced you that chicken McNuggets is really food. This isn't travel literature. It isn't even literature. Most of the collection is dross.

In the introduction to this annual collection, Pico Iyer writes ".. .travel writing can arise out of the least dramatic places and episodes... when one falls between the craks of one's itinerary and tumbles out of the guidebook altogether."

Indeed, screenwriter Richie Chevat turns a routine vacation to the beach into riotous screenplay, while Adam Gopnik weaves anthropoligical critique and historical perspective into an engaging essay about riding the bus in Manhattan.

In "Ghost Road" one of the strongest pieces of the anthology (and there are many), Mark Jenkins chronicles his obsession with traveling the Stillwell Road in Burma, and his ultimate decision to abandon the "arrogant" quest given the danger to the Burmese he enlists to assist him. "Real adventure-- self-determined, self-motivated, often risky-- forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world... Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind-- and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both." It is a masterpiece-- a riveting narrative filled with percipience and grace.

My only quibble is the paucity of female voices.

What is the gold standard for a travel article? If it is to put you in the writer's shoes to experience what the writer experiences, then you can say that this book has picked articles that meet that criterion. The book contains articles from magazines, websites, newspapers, and online to present to the reader. The experiences will vary from riding a New York bus to being in mortal danger in SE Asia. You will feel what the writers feel. And your horizons will expand---geographically, culturally, and politically.

My only reservation is that the universe of publications, from which the articles were selected, seems to be limited. You will see a similarity between the 2003 and 2004 publications.

The editor, Pico Iyer, approaches the 2004 edition with a clear purpose: to focus not on the travel destination but the travel experience. With the world becoming smaller and smaller, this edition shows how travel is becoming less and less about the destinations and more and more about how travel can transform the individual. This is a different and interesting way to look at travel. However, travel stories (in my opinion) should bring the reader into new geographical places with a solid dose of history and maybe a hint of personal, inward reflection. But these writings emphasize too heavily the feelings and experience of the traveler and thus ignores the wonder of geography, history and foreign culture. Despite my dislike for the philosophy employed in selection of this edition, I appreciated the introduction written by Iyer. It was well written, humorous and made a fitting introduction for the collection of 26 writings.

1. Romance. (4) An interesting look into American road travel of yesteryear (1930's). The whole romance angle of the story didn't really work though.

2. Test Day. (8) Very funny tale of a Western teacher attempting to teach English in Tanzania. I enjoyed the recollections of frustration in teaching English. On a side note- teaching English has become a huge business in the last decade with many nations gouging themselves on the promise of wealth through knowledge of English. This has transformed the world, often causing cultures to devalue their own culture in order to embrace English and the hope of Western wealth. In many cases teaching English does more damage than good.

3. Monuments to Our Better Nature. (7) This is a short, concise essay describing some of the monuments found in Washington DC.

4. The Accidental Explorer's Guide to Patagonia. (9) This was the best essay in the collection. The author tells of his trip to Patagonia, located in the geographically strange southern tip of South America. This is a truly strange place and this short account is a humorous tale of one travel group's experience in the Patagonia.

5. The Screenwriters Vacation. (7) In a few short pages a normal family vacation is retold through the eyes of a screenwriter. Very funny.

6. Canadian Gothic. (3) "I have made a career out of not enjoying Canada." This was a promising opening line, but this quickly lost my interest. I couldn't figure out what the point was, and the information covered in the essay was very random.

7. History Lesson. (3) Boring, but fortunately very short. This is a story of a French family who faced tragedy through WW2.

8. Under the Sheltering Sky. (2) This is mainly a look at the life of Paul Bowles and one travelers hope that through a "pilgrimage" to Tanzier, Morocco, the home of Bowles, an experience or inspiration would come through tracing the footsteps of the famous author. The traveler comes to the conclusion that such pilgrimages are not profitable.

9. Sandbags in the Archipelago. (1) This is the raunchy retelling of one woman's fling while traveling. Tacky and boring.

10. Kashmiri Extremism. (8) The most extreme skiing in the world is in Kashmir. Not because of the slopes but because it is a war zone. This was well written with just the right sprinkle of history to make a fun read about a faraway land.

11. Segways in Paris. (3) A group of Americans drive little scooters (Segways) around Paris in order to promote them in the French market. The only redeeming factor in this writing is the humor throughout.

12. The People on the Bus. (4) This had potential. Writing about the public buses in New York City, the author tries to wax philosophical. I have no problem with bus philosophy, but it didn't work for me.

13. Innocents Abroad? (1) This tried to show the strange relationship between America and Europe. I didn't care for it.

14. Facing Famine. (8) "Thirst is thirst, hunger is hunger." Famine is not a fun topic to write or read about, but it is a harsh truth. The author does well in conveying the bitter reality of drought and famine.

15. Chasing the Wall. (5) An adventure through China. I found it interesting that the Great Wall was given that name not by Chinese, but by foreigners. I enjoyed the copious amount of history, but it was hard to sort through and understand.

16. Ghost Road- (9) A man hunts for the Stilwell Road, a road made by Americans soldiers during World War II, a road from India to China going through Burma (currently named Myanmar). His journey is daring, illegal and involves lies and forgeries, now this makes for enjoyable reading. The road through Myanmar reveals what many activists claim: the Myanmarian government is suppressing native people groups in the northern region of the country. The author, Mark Jenkins, has an excellent website and this article prompted me to do some more study on Myanmar. Very interesting stuff.

17. The Wrong Side of the Cape- (5) "Cape Town had become, for me, a place where fools sat on sea-view terraces, sipping white wine and congratulating one another for finding a corner of Africa that was somehow immune to the chaos engulfing the rest of the continent." The writer is a native South African who tells of his home country, South Africa.

18. Small World- (6) The author describes some of the small businesses in Vermont that cater to the local society and the local economy. In contrast to the huge corporations taking over America, these small companies provide charm and personal service. More of an economic piece than a travel piece, the author does have some great points about the way the world is "getting smaller."

19. A Fleet of One- (9) "The sun never sets on the languages spoken by American truck drivers." Well-written and full of humor, a writer tells of his travels across America with a trucker.

20. Gangsta War- (8) "Africa- it's a continent of hell." This is a look into the country of Ivory Coast and the unrest that has recently terrorized the nation.

21. The Road to Herat- (2) It was hard for me to find the point here, and though it should have been exciting (Afghanistan during the war), it wasn't. Not written very well.

22. Places of Darkness- (5) About the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this journalist braves danger to learn about the dwindling population of gorillas. The mission is dangerous because of the war-torn jungles.

23. Shattered Sudan- (8) This gave an excellent history of Sudan, and shows how money and politics can cause human suffering. The author had a very original way of traveling Sudan and writing about it- he traced a pipeline through the country.

24. Faces in a Crowd- (7) An experience in San Paulo, Brazil. The author did an excellent job of showing how multi-cultural Brazil has become and this made for some interesting reading.

25. Don't Fence Me In- (6) About Patagonia, South America, I found this piece fun to read. The author writes about Butch and Sundance, the notorious criminals of the early 20th century and how they settled down in this region of the world, which is a fascinating geographical region.

26. The Kabul Express- (7) Great account of Afghanistan in 2003 and the way the country rebounds from the US led war on the Taliban.

As with any compilation of anything, whether or not this volume truly represents the "best" of its chosen subject is a matter of fruitless dispute. Pico Iyer's introduction, describing a supposed theme in this year's offerings of a certain melancholy or weariness to American travel writing as a genre, rings hollow; while the field of publications from which the submissions were gleaned is pretty limited. But once you get past those minor difficulties, this book presents an enjoyable variety of missives from American writers who have traveled to both welcoming tourist attractions and unwelcoming trouble spots where the increasingly bad reputation of America is highly obvious. There are a few self-indulgent clunkers about breathless "discovery" here (those by Heather Eliot and Joan Didion come to mind). But the collection does offer many surprises, such as Adam Kopnik's character sketches of New York City bus riders, or Richie Chevat's droll narrative of his completely typical and predictable family vacation. The great John McPhee travels cross-country with an independent trucker, while Mark Jenkins, Kira Salak, Paul Salopak, and Patrick Symmes report enthrallingly from the darker hellholes of third world war zones and disaster areas. If you're bored with typical travelogues of quaint tourist traps and scenery, you'll get a little of that here, but the best essays in this collection show that Americans traveling around the world these days are much more likely to find trouble and darkness. [~doomsdayer520~]

Travel is no longer just adventure.

The Accidental Explorer's Guide to Patagonia - Putting it in a very trite way, its about an unbelievably beautiful place.

Canadian Gothic - Adds the dimension of local people(famous and everyday) to place known for its locale.

Travel can be by people driven with an agenda to understand a place, its people's struggles, even if the very first step is trouble.

Peter Hessler - Chasing the Wall - best
Mark Jenkins- The Ghost Road - best

A Fleet One - I would never guess, something on trucks could make it to this list.

Travel to places where story of a person at the same time reveals the nation's plight

Elizabeth Rubin - The Road to Herat
Kira Salak - Places of Darkness - saving mountain gorillas
Paul Salopek - Shattered Sudan

I was not as crazy about this as I was about the 2005 edition, but it still had a number of excellent pieces. A large number of them take place within the USA, and I am more interested in international travel essays. Iyer (the editor) seems to like muscular writing and visits to places that are aching from battles and strife. He also selects mediocre pieces by big names, like Adam Gopnik, Tad Friend, Bill McKibben, and John McPhee.

Of course, there were several fine pieces that I enjoyed very much. Bill Donahue revisits Paul Bowles's Tangiers in one. In another, Heather Eliot describes a fling with a local stud on a Pacific island. Kevin Fedarko visits some dreamers who run a ski resort in conflicted Kashmir. Tom Haines checks in with some seriously hungry villagers in Somalia. Peter Hessler does a superb job of exposing the myth of the Great Wall of China. Apparently the wall was always several walls that do not follow an exact line, and which are not visible from outer space, as everyone seems to believe. In my favorite piece, Mark Jenkins tries to trace the old Stilwell/Burma Road, but runs into the dangerous political repression occurring in contemporary Myanmar. Rian Malan, an excellent writer, contributes a piece about buying a house and settling down in Cape Town, South Africa. George Packer checks out the troubled youth and political conflicts in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, and he really gets in with the locals, who have odd ideas about America as a potential saviour of some kind. Kira Salak goes to the rural Congo, where some gorillas are being threatened by local militia conflicts. Patrick Symmes contributes two fine pieces - one about a visit to Butch and Sundance's old house in Patagonia, and the other a quick look at life in Kabul, Afghanistan, along with a visit to the destroyed Buddhist statues in Bamiyan. Undoubtedly worth reading for people who like this kind of stuff.

I love travel writing in all its incarnations. However, this anthology, while well written, is about as exciting as a roll of damp paper towels. I say pass unless you like being lectured to by limp old men (a strange dearth of female writers is noted) on their own sense of self accomplishment.

Another great in the Best American series. Bought it yesterday and have been ploughing through it. Loved Tad Friend's Segway piece as well as the John McPhee essay.

Well chosen stuff, funny as well as insightful.