A Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean: A Grump in Paradise Discovers that Anyplace it's Legal to Carry a Machete is Comedy Just Waiting to Happen (Travelers' Tales) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "WE WERE IN MUSTIQUE, AN EASTERN CARIBBEAN "hideaway" island, and our taxi driver had just given us a drive-by of Mick Jagger's estate, Princess Margaret's..." (more)
Key Phrases: fire mountain, Gary Buslik, Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean, West Indian (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is wicked...compulsively readable."
– Travellady.com

"Irreverent travel writing at its twisted best."
– Travel Goods Showcase Magazine

Product Description

"If you look at a map, you will see that the island chain known as the Caribbean, or, to confuse you, the West Indies, lies between Florida and South America and resembles a string of gems or possibly drool." And so begins author Gary Buslik's tale of tropical adventure. Each chapter of this often hilarious and sometimes poignant travelogue recounts another island-hopping, culture-clashing crisis that pits the homesick author against falling coconuts, hospitals that remove wrong organs, insects as big and dangerous as stealth bombers, ticket agents that put him on hold for hours, mysteriously calculated currency exchanges, over-proofed rum, livestock, singing Rastafarians, garbage-bin sex, peanut-crazed children, Idi Amin, flesh-eating monkeys, dentists, cricket, steel drum bands, and the French. Fortunately, even when making fun of his West Indian hosts, the curmudgeonly author's essential good nature and devotion to his wife twinkle through, and in the end his stubborn geocentricity gives way to a heartfelt appreciation of his island hosts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Travelers' Tales (May 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932361588
• ISBN-13: 978-1932361582
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #126,455 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars marvelous book-maven, May 19, 2008

By	marvelous book-maven "marvy" (San Jose,CA) - See all my reviews

Although this book certainly is rip-roaringly funny, Buslik does himself a disservice by considering himself first and foremost a comic writer. There is a misleading modesty here, because Buslik is a highly skilled prose stylist: a master of controlled language, tone, and the ability to invoke deep emotions, felt and remembered long after the last page. The essays in this collections are occasionally played just for laughs but more often set readers up with humor and endlessly silly digressions, only, at the finish, to spring powerful emotional traps. The final piece, "Where Satan Works," is nonstop hilarity for eleven pages, only to end with the saddest and most spot-on observations about 9/11 I have ever read. This may be the best writing ever about that horrible day. His poignant "Flow," "Nasdaq 5000," "Weed Killer," and "Sometimes It's the Other Way Around" are literary feasts. Don't kid yourself: this author is not only a keen observer of human behavior but of human nature. The publisher might be selling this book mainly to tourists now, but my guess is that in a few years they'll be selling it to University English departments.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two Thumbs Up. This is one Funny book, June 2, 2008

By	Peter Ginelli "Bookster" (CA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There wasn't enough room for me to thrash about the breakfast table as I read this book. Truly one of the funniest books I have ever read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beer spewing out of your nose funny, May 31, 2008

By	Mike Hollywood "Papa Mike" (Goleta, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Writing funny stories is hard work. I know as I attempt it in my writing. My idols are Dave Barry, PJ O'Rourke and Carl Hiassen and now you can add Gary Buslik to that list. It is easy to sit in a bar and tell a story, everybody laughs and slaps you on the back. Bars have an endless supply of semi inebriated less than scholarly types, who will laugh at almost anything. Try writing the story down and you are faced with a cast of intellectuals who keep track of things like quotation marks and indents (whatever that is), they talk in terms of "first person" and "present tense" words that have never been uttered in bars. The point is humor is hard to write and seldom turns out funny. Every story in this book is, "beer spewing out of your nose" funny. You will find yourself laughing so hard; people will come up to you to find out what in the hell is so funny.

Some will take offense to the depiction of certain nationalities and religious groups. Get over it, it's humor, the over the top depiction of Europeans and local Islanders is intentional and adds to the humor. I don't think any intelligent reader finds the exaggeration of stereotypes anything more than amusing. I share Gary's love of the town of Plymouth on Montserrat and found the reference in the book to be quite touching. The story Papa's Ghost adds a great touch to the Hemingway legend. Pick up this book a bottle of rum and enjoy the trip, beats the hell out of the hockey playoffs.