Customer Reviews

The Best American Travel Writing 2007

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

 

 

I've been a big fan of this series since 2003 and was looking forward to the 2007 edition, especially Susan Orlean is the editor. Sorry to say I am disappointed. While some of selected stories have the superb writing and imagery that makes this series on travel writing so good, unfortunately there are also stories included that were too long and unengaging. Is it worth buying? If you haven't read the earlier editions, choose one of those first.

As a fan of the series who has the previous seven editions in a prominent space on the bookshelf, I too was disappointed with this year's collection.

Only about half the entries really held my interest. Unfortunately, the least compelling were also the lengthiest, led by Elizabeth Gilbert's tedious "Lonnnnnnnnnnnng Day's Journey Into Dinner". Most telling about the lack of depth (perhaps there wasn't a lot to choose from this year?) is that the most captivating piece is Nando Parrado's harrowing blow-by-blow account of his personal ordeal in the Andes --- an event that took place 35 years ago and was immortalized in the 1993 movie "Alive". Perhaps Nando was understandably only now able to come to terms and write this essay about the events, but its inclusion in this "current" volume seemed curiously timed.

Kevin Fedarko's "High in Hell" was troubling. He describes Djibouti as a hellhole filled with men constantly having affairs behind their wives' backs..."in a country whose infant mortality rate is 10.4 percent, where half the population is unemployed and 70 percent of children are malnourished." Somehow, this all becomes just backdrop for what redeems the place: getting stoned on khat with a rag-tag group of men who've surrendered their ability to address their responsibilities.

He spends days getting high with this group of idlers, and amazingly begins to see them as charitable do-gooders. His bizarre conclusions:
"...in the process of hating Djibuti so much, I had somehow managed to fall in love with the place." He concludes by summarizing the addict's day-long sessions as the "most triumphantly African of achievements. They have trumped the devil himself. In the center of creation's hellhole, they have managed to chisel out a sliver of paradise."

Jonathan Stern's 4-page spoof of Lonely Planet guides tries to be clever, but never rises above the level of one of those repititious filler pieces found in National Lampoon or Mad Magazine 25 years ago.

A few other pieces do provide real insight on the world today (notably, Andrew Solomon's report on Libya). On its own merit, the mixed bag in this book might earn 3 stars, but compared to the standard set by its predecessors, this disappointing volume gets only a "2" from me.

This has to be the worst "Best American Travel Writing" edition I've seen so far. As a big taveler and a big fan of travel writing, I buy this book every year. There's usually four or five great essays in it, which makes it worth the money for me. But this issue of 2007 is so off the mark. I found almost nothing in it of real interest. I don't know what the editor was thinking. As far as I can tell, Susan Orlean is not known a a traveller. Why she was chosen to put together this year's editon of this book is beyond me. I think it takes one to know one.

This collection is panned by the majority of Amazon Reviews who say it is not up to the standard of previous volumes. I am not a great traveler and not a great Travel reader, and have not read the previous collections so I cannot really comment on that. I will admit that I did not find any of the pieces I read overwhelmingly exciting. I thought the most interesting intellectually was Rick Bass's meditation on the meaning of the West, 'Lost in Space.' I don't think I got it all but clearly this is a person who is profoundly contemplating his own experience, and for whom being in a place has more than simple meaning. Actually the piece I most enjoyed was by a much revered writer whose work I have never loved David Halberstamm. His recalling his early days as correspondent in Saigon and a group of journalists who would dine with him there each day had a certain feeling of Adventure I suspect good travel writing should have. I also thought Steve Friedman's account of a fat- man's cross- country walk quite instructive. Ian Frazier's 'A Kielbasa Too Far' about sickness and travel is the most useful piece in the collection. Reesa Grushka's account of her visit to my own town Jerusalem was in some ways very good, but too had as I feel it, a bit of missing the mark. The beauty and poetry of Jerusalem , the Holy City, and the magic feeling which comes to many Jews at first being here was touched upon in this essay but not as strongly as I would have liked.

I own five of these anthologies, and this was the weakest one by far. The selection really depends on the editor and whether his/her taste matches yours. There are only a few stories that stood out for me. Peter Hessler's Hutong Karma was probably my favorite. There were even two I couldn't finish - and this is short non-fiction. Check out this series, just buy another year. 2000 (Bryson) and 2006 (Cahill) are great.

I first came across Susan Orlean when, after watching the film Adaptation (Superbit Collection), I bought the book upon which it was based, Ms. Orlean's The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession (Ballantine Reader's Circle). Although I found the latter to be wordy, I went on to read two collections of Ms. Orlean's shorter pieces: My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who's Been Everywhere and Saturday Night. In both cases, the topics were (to me) quite interesting, but by some sort of magic, Ms. Orlean managed to make her descriptions of them tedious. [I am aware that she writes for the New Yorker, and that admirers of that magazine now consider me a cretin].

Liking her choice of topics, I bought this book, thinking that she would have managed to choose some interesting travel pieces, but failing to realize (stupid me) that she was most likely to appreciate monotonous writing like her own.

In fact, there are no traditional (or nontraditional, for that matter) travel pieces in this collection, a fact that Ms. Orlean makes clear in her introduction: "My rules (for selecting a piece) were very uncomplicated: one, the stories had to take place somewhere in the physical world, and two, I had to like them a lot." In other words, any essay on any topic would qualify as long as Ms. Orlean liked it.

So, if you've enjoyed Ms. Orlean's writing in the past, you'll probably enjoy this book. On the other hand, if you have not or are not familiar with Ms. Orlean, you'll probably do better elsewhere.

The one piece in the book I found riveting was "High in Hell" by Kevin Fedarko, which appeared in GQ managine. For me, that piece justified the cost of the book, although it did not justify the tedium of reading the other articles.

I've long been a fan of the various Best American books, but this was my first year to read the travel writing, but I figured, Susan Orlean, okay. My mistake. Most of the pieces were tedious, though I did enjoy Jason Anthony, Ian Frazier, Steve Friedman, Nando Parrado (but didn't he already write this), and my two favorites, though I'm not sure I'd call them travel writing, Andrew Solomon and Jonathan Stern. It's because of them two that I'll probably pick up next year's edition.

For those of you looking for travel writing as a form of appealing escapism, avoid this book. Susan Orlean is either clinically depressed or prefers to roll around in the more tragic underbelly of the world's great places. Those of us who travel know that the world is a far from perfect place and that great poverty and cruelty exist in the world, but is it really necessary to throw it in our faces, essay after essay after essay? I mean, seriously, essays children surviving on scavanging on mountain-high mounds of garbage? Drug-induced stupors in Djibouti? Hunger induced cannibalism in the Andes? Even the few fluff pieces she picked are depressing, i.e., surviving off of processed foods on Swan Island. What a depressing entry in an otherwise great series. Someone get that woman a Prozac subscription stat.

This is the fifth in this series that I have read. Only one other (I think it was 2002) was this good. I love this series and give it as Christmas gifts every year. This editor had exactly the right point of view in compiling these stories.

I loved this year's collection, edited by Susan Orlean. Many great essays, but the highlight is definitely Elizabeth Gilbert's report of a two week eating/walking tour through Provence via rural trails.