Customer Reviews

Car Camping: The Book of Desert Adventures

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Never since I have read Mark Twain has a book so engrossed me in its adventure, its philosophy and ironic comedy. Sundeen has an incredible grasp of the ideosyncracies of the new west. River rats, psuedo-hippies or trustafarians, yuppies wanting to be hip in the new outdoor motif called extreme sports, latte and all. My hat is off to this bold and inspiring new writer. Let there be more!!! Mark, know there is a great fan base here in Gunnison.

Wow! Talk about adventures, or should I say misadventures. I was parched until I read Car Camping. Now, I thirst no more, even though your humor is as dry as the desert. Your stories are as real as they come. This book will take you on a ride to places that will make you wish you were there getting in on the action first hand. Car Camping is a lesson in life - try and get away from it all and you'll find yourself knee deep in the hoopla anyway. Highly entertaining and part history lesson, Car Camping is a fantastic collection of short stories. Kudos to you Mark Sundeen. Keep on camping and keep on writing. I can't wait for your next book.

Sundeen's writing style is engrossing, and after two pages, I was sucked into his world, and could not put it down. I loved the descriptive way he characterizes nature and people, at the same time. He shows us many similarities between the two, offering his amazing and amusing insight. My favorite part was the last few chapters, when he was living in an old bunker that an old Nazi built. It was the funniest part, but most of all, I loved the common theme that was woven throughout the book - how some of us strive to be alone, but we never truly are. At times, we are engrossed and repulsed by human actions every day, and Sundeen paints an accurate picture of that feeling.

I can't believe some people that reviewed this book didn't like it because they thought it was a travel book like Fodor's Guide to the Desert or something like that. How did they get that idea? Just read the back flap and you know what the book is about. If you want a Fodor's guide, go somewhere else. But if you want a great novel in the vein of On the Road or Travel's With Charley, buy this book!

I was recommended this book by a person who had the author as one of his guides on an Outward Bound wilderness adventure in Alaska. I was engrossed and delighted immediately, and must admit to laughing out loud more than once. Sundeen has a perfectly honed voice that is at once energetic, sarcastic, world-weary and full of life. Sound corny? It's not, by any stretch of the imagination. These stories of do it yourself adventure and an insatiable lust for life are almost perfectly wrought, bringing to mind Aaron Cometbus if he wasn't hung up on punk rock juvenalia or perhaps Kerouac if humor had played a more central role in his "narratives".
While Sundeen's second book, "The Making of Toro", seems to have recieved more press, and is a noteworthy endeavor in its own right, "Car Camping" is the greater achievement of the two. It left me with an inexplicable sadness at the absence of adventure in most of our lives, but also a sense of tremendous excitement toward the enormous reservoir of possibility beneath the seemingly mundane details of the spaces we inhabit.
I'll go overboard a bit and risk sounding like a fool when I say Sundeen strikes me as being, perhaps, a visionary. Read this book!

A friend from Los Angeles passed this book along to me up here in the Great Northeast. I must admit that while it was snowing outside I could almost feel the heat of the desert rising up from the sandy descriptions on the pages. I thoroughly enjoyed the writings of Mr. Sundeen and hope he follows this book up with more writings of his adventures. My favorite part of travel writing is to be able to close my eyes and picture the scenes that the author is describing. Mr. Sundeen's words jumped up and played charades, letting me peak inside his world and enjoy myself alongside him. Reading this book was an excellent way to pass a snowy weekend.

This is an exceptional book filled with dry wit and humorous observations on human nature. Kick back, prop up your feet and speed through Mark's desert "abenteures". My only complaint is that is was too short.

it's amazing how obscure this book and this author is. he is an obvious talent, one of those writers whose words are so effortless to read that the reader gets completely absorbed. his travel adventures do evoke comparisons; the best of jon krakauer, bill bryson, and david sedaris. he mixes that whole existentialism of travel with history as well as a very personal tale. he is self-deprecating about himself, calls out the hypocrisy of rich tourist towns, and recognizes 'truth' when he encounters it. i highly recommend this book, especially if you love travel books like i do, although i may be biased in several counts as i always been drawn to the desert as he has.

This is an "On the Road" for the 1990's. Semi-autobiographical, Sundeen tools around the desert southwest in his beat-up Subaru having adventures and climbing on stuff. He also meets people and rolls his car onto its roof in a cataract canyon. A great ride!
(That anyone thought this was going to be a Fodor's-like guide for car camping is the funniest thing, though.)

"Car Camping" takes you on a true journey into the emotional wilds of the American West, and has just the right dryness to match the desert. A wonderful hot day's read that manages to be wittily ironic and marvellously heartfelt at the same time. Sundeen is an American original.

"Car Camping" takes you on a true journey into the emotional wilds of the American West, and has just the right dryness to match the desert. A wonderful hot day's read that manages to be wittily ironic and marvellously heartfelt at the same time. Sundeen is an American original.