Let's Get Lost: Adventures in the Great Wide Open [Hardcover]

Craig Nelson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1999

Craig Nelson has experienced places most people only dream about, and now, in this book that echoes the allure of the bestseller A Year in Provence, he chronicles his incredible worldwide journeys with wit, charm, and his own special brand of insight. He is Craig Nelson, traveler extraordinaire, he shares his global jaunts and haunts with armchair travelers everywhere.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this overenthusiastic and sometimes overwritten collection of travel adventures, Nelson (Finding True Love in a Man-Eat-Man World: The Intelligent Guide to Gay Dating, Sex, Romance, and Eternal Love) proves his main rule of the road: that he "can safely go anywhere in the world, and make real contact with people who are completely alien to me in their culture, in their language and in their civilization." Nelson survives a Chinese "friendship tour," which touches down in Tiananmen Square and Shanghai, takes the hallucinogenic drug ayahuasca in the Amazon with a shaman and explores the spiritual side of Egypt's Aswan Dam. Along the way, he contemplates the theory of the "momentous stumble" in India when he finds Khajuraho, a gorgeous Brahmin temple about which no one seems to know. Nelson prides himself on how well he can adapt to nature: he learns to live with hyenas, flamingos, tsetse flies and other sub-Saharan African beasts. At his best, Nelson's keen eye for detail captures those moments that offer escape from the dreaded "global homogenization" that he sees almost everywhere else. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

It becomes apparent a few paragraphs into this account of his world travels that Nelson aches to be considered the equal of travel/humor writers like Bill Bryson, Tim Cahill, and Redmond O'Hanlon. Demonstrating an alarming lack of sensitivity and resorting frequently to puerile humor, Nelson wanders the globe (often with tour groups) making a big deal of his minor escapades at the must-sees (the Great Wall, the Taj Mahal). Anecdotes of dubious veracity are passed off as fact, and lists take the place of interested observation. On several occasions, Nelson refers to being in the "travel bubble"Aa convenient form of isolation many tourists expect and enjoy. Although one does have to credit Nelson with doing his homeworkAhe provides a ten-page Source List from which he gleaned much of the historical detail included in the bookAthe result leaves the reader feeling as if he produced the book as a tax write-off to finance his travels. Nelson's flippant attitude is far from funny, and few will find him an enjoyable travel companion.AJanet Ross, Sparks Branch Lib., NV
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 359 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books; 1st ed edition (August 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446523666
• ISBN-13: 978-0446523660
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,628,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

CRAIG NELSON is the author of Rocket Men, The First Heroes, Thomas Paine (winner of the 2007 Henry Adams Prize), and Let's Get Lost (short-listed for W.H. Smith's Book of the Year).

His writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, Salon, The New England Review, Reader's Digest, The New York Observer, Popular Science, and a host of other publications; he has been profiled in Variety, Interview, Publishers Weekly, and Time Out.

Besides working at a zoo, in Hollywood, and being an Eagle Scout and a Fuller Brush Man, he was a vice president and executive editor of Harper & Row, Hyperion, and Random House, where he oversaw the publishing of twenty New York Times' bestsellers.

He lives in Greenwich Village.

photo: Helvio Faria

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laughing out loud, December 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Let's Get Lost: Adventures in the Great Wide Open (Hardcover)

For those of you who have all condemned Craig's book, do any of you have senses of humor? Why would you want to read a travel book in which the writer simply says everything is nice, clean, interesting, pleasant and he loves every single person he encounters? I think this would make for an absolute bore. Craig writes as if he is an old friend telling you funny and beautiful tales of his travels and he lets you into his private thoughts that many would be to afraid to share because they may not be very PC. It you want a candy coated travel experience, go to a travel agent. If you want the truth, (at least as he sees it), go to a real traveler.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Avoid this book !, April 2, 2004

By 

Tim (Worcester, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Let's Get Lost: Adventures in the Great Wide Open (Paperback)

Although I haven't read every travel book that has been published, I would be stunned if there was a worse one than this. Nelson tries (vainly) to pass off his tourist sight-seeing as "adventures" and himself as some kind of intrepid, trail blazing pioneer. He prides himself on his ability to "survive" and yet he is never in any real danger (he books all of his "adventures" through American travel agencies and always seems to have a pre-booked hotel room or lodge and drivers, interpreters & guides at his disposal on his arrival. He never caters for himself nor makes his own arrangements - that's not "living on the edge" by anyone's definition !!) His "insights" are neither witty nor particularly interesting and he relies far too heavily on exaggeration & superlatives("biggest", "best" etc.) rather than attempting to properly describe what he is seeing.
His attitudes to people and their cultures are also alarmingly one-sided; throughout the book, you are left with the impression that all Europeans are evil and exploitative and that all other non-Europeans are noble and spiritual, and to be admired. However, he reserves his own particular racism for the British - never missing an opportunity to "inform" his readers just how much everybody else in the world hates the Brits.
This book flatters to deceive even before you open the cover; the text on the jacket gives you the impression that you are about to meet Indiana Jones crossed with Bill Bryson, the result is neither. His exploits are neither original nor exciting and the writing is crass and unfunny.
Before you consider buying this book, please read the "Library Journal" & "Kirkus Reviews" in Amazon's "Editorial Reviews" section !!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars How fast can he get lost....for good this time!?, August 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Let's Get Lost: Adventures in the Great Wide Open (Hardcover)

Better than Paul Theroux? Who's that writing -- the author himself "disguised" as a regular reader. Give me a break. The writing here isn't even as good as the jacket copy on a Theroux book. If you want to read about a place before you go there, you are better off reading an AAA travel guide -- it's more informative, more honest and better written.