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Smile When You're Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer [Paperback]

Chuck Thompson
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)

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Book Description

November 27, 2007
From Bangkok to Bogotá, a hilarious behind-the-brochures tour of picture-perfect locales, dangerous destinations, and overrated hellholes from a guy who knows the truth about travel

Travel writer, editor, and photographer Chuck Thompson has spent more than a decade traipsing through thirty-five (and counting) countries across the globe, and he’s had enough. Enough of the half-truths demanded by magazine editors, enough of the endlessly recycled clichés regarded as good travel writing, and enough of the ugly secrets fiercely guarded by the travel industry. But mostly, he’s had enough of returning home from assignments and leaving the most interesting stories and the most provocative insights on the editing-room floor. From getting swindled in Thailand to running afoul of customs inspectors in Belarus, from defusing hostile Swedish rockers backstage in Germany to a closed-door meeting with travel execs telling him why he’s about to be fired once again, Thompson’s no-holds-barred style is refreshing, invigorating, and all those other adjectives travel writers use to describe spa vacations where the main attraction is a daily colonic.

Smile When You’re Lying takes readers on an irresistible series of adventures in Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and beyond; details the effects of globalization on the casual traveler and ponders the future of travel as we know it; and offers up a treasure trove of travel-industry secrets collected throughout a decidedly speckled career.

Frequently Bought Together

Smile When You're Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer + To Hellholes and Back: Bribes, Lies, and the Art of Extreme Tourism + Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?: A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics, and Professional Hedonism
Price for all three: $34.63

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Travel writers lie, argues Thompson, and their editors not only know and excuse it, but demand it. As laid out in this vivid and ribald memoir by veteran travel writer Thompson—a former editor of Maxim and Travelocity.com's short-lived print magazine—the industry is packed to the rafters with hacks churning out the same reheated swill for thinly disguised advertorial copy in glossy magazines. Sick of leaving the most interesting material on the cutting-room floor, Thompson slashes through the clichés of the travel industry's snake-oil salesmen with unmitigated glee. The Caribbean is a miasmic hellscape. The supposed narcoterrorist danger zone, Colombia, is a wonderful place with wonderful people (But who buys magazines to read that?). And the widely respected Lonely Planet guidebooks have ruined more travel destinations than have the tourists its writers sermonize against. If all Thompson was aiming for had been caustic observations about the industry he knows from the inside out, the book would have been an amusing but limited experience. But Thompson weaves his take on the travel racket and the damage it does into an engagingly personal narrative about his own nomadic life, tossing out raucous anecdotes about teaching ESL in a remote Japanese town or snorting cocaine with fellow staffers in the Alaska House of Representatives. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“[Thompson] knows the score and he tallies it accurately. ... A dead-on demolition job. ... The book is a savagely funny act of revenge.”—The New York Times

“Impassioned, funny, and uniquely honest.”—Esquire

“Consistently irreverent, Thompson is wickedly entertaining ... reminiscent of Chuck Klosterman and David Foster Wallace. ... The unvarnished reality in these pages might just make you more eager than ever to hit the road.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“If there is such a pastime as extreme tourism, Chuck Thompson is surely its guru.”—Boston Globe

“Thompson is the real thing, a travel writer in the sense that Mark Twain or Hunter S. Thompson was, and Redmond O'Hanlon is. He’s a travel writer like Anthony Bourdain is a food writer. He’s a travel writer for people who don't much like travel writing.”—The Oregonian

“A rare victim’s-eye view into the world of travel marketing and the nervous, unmoored corporate weenies who populate it. ... fascinating reading, in a plane-crash sort of way.”—Washington Post

Smile When You're Lying could do for the travel industry what The Tipping Point did for the tipping point industry.”—Joe Queenan

“(Thompson’s) prose is quick and witty; it’s like sitting down over a beer with the most experienced traveler you’ll ever meet.”—Aspen Times Weekly

“My three favorite travel writers of all time are Robert Louis Stevenson, Graham Greene, and Chuck Thompson. Smile When You're Lying not only tells the truth about the travel-writing racket, it gets to the heart of some of the travel industry’s best-kept secrets.”—Kinky Friedman

“More than confessions of a veteran gallivanter … an indictment of those who would prettify the world … full of trenchant truisms.”—Los Angeles Times

“An aggressively funny account of the world from an acerbic, energetic professional traveler who tells it like he sees it and has no reservations about sharing his stockpile of outrageous (mis)adventures and advice…. At his best, this Thompson will remind readers of Hunter S.—provocative and thoroughly engaging, with a manic liveliness.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Thompson’s weapons are wit, a well-oiled subversive reflex and a defiantly unbuttoned prose style.”—The New York Observer

“Vivid and ribald…. If all Thompson was aiming for had been caustic observations about the industry he knows from the inside out, the book would have been an amusing but limited experience. But Thompson weaves his take on the travel racket and the damage it does into an engagingly personal narrative about his own nomadic life…”—Publishers Weekly

“Thought-provoking … laughing at [Thompson’s] stories caused pain.”—Salt Lake Tribune

“Bitingly funny … as much as Thompson loves to play the curmudgeon, a reader can tell that through it all, he still loves to travel, despite, or perhaps because of, all the challenges.”—The Columbus Dispatch

“A great storyteller with an unusual tolerance level for adventure.”—The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin)

“Witty prose entertains as it educates...the perfect read for a long plane ride.”—Seattle Magazine

“Highly recommended.”—Calgary Herald

“Fascinating and frequently hilarious, thanks to Thompson’s wicked sense of humor.”—Portland Mercury

“Reading Thompson is like listening to a buddy who shoots from the hip. Although readers may not always agree with Thompson's conclusions ... they will recognize an authentic voice on the subject of travel when they encounter it.”—Booklist

“Thought provoking political commentary … will keep you entertained even as it makes you think.”—Ramblingtraveler.com

 


Product Details

  • Paperback: 324 pages
  • Publisher: Holt Paperbacks; First Edition edition (November 27, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0805082093
  • ISBN-13: 978-0805082098
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #515,943 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chuck Thompson is the author of several books, including the comic travel memoirs Smile When You're Lying and To Hellholes and Back. His writing and photography have appeared in numerous publications, including Outside, Men's Journal, Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, and Maxim.

Customer Reviews

I read it in about 3 hours, so, no complaints there. Jay Stevens  |  8 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a very funny, insightful, and highly literate book. It's really not just about travel. It's part humor, part polemic, part memoir and it is this variation of narrative that served to hold my interest from start to finish. It's also peopled with some great characters--which gives it a depth that very few travel books have.

Thompson can be savage at times, but his targets in just about every case deserve what he dishes out. For example, The Lonely Planeteers have had it coming for a long time for a level of smugnesss that borders on dementia--and Thompson gives it to 'em good!

The section on hackneyed travel writing was one of my favorite parts ("a bewitching blend of the ancient and modern") and should be mandatory reading not just for travel writers, but for ALL writers-- sort of a humorous "Politics and the English Language" for travel writing.

But it's not just venom. Other parts show a real affection for the people and places that the writer has encountered outside of the disneyfied destinations that disappoint us all.

Highly recommended on any level but especially great for a long plane trip.
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars real travel stories December 15, 2007
Format:Paperback
Excerpts from a review I posted on my site, www.ramblingtraveler.com:

After years of writing sugarcoated articles about his travels, Chuck Thompson is rebelling against travel's airbrushed image with Smile When You're Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer. His confessions include brutally honest opinions of the travel industry, tourists, and expats, all wrapped up in a reality that you won't find in glossy travel magazines.

An easy read that will keep you entertained even as it makes you think, Smile When You're Lying is a good book for anyone who likes to travel and doesn't get put off by some colorful language or explicit stories. If some of his rants get too negative or cynical, he does a good job of balancing them out with humorous stories. One of my favorite quotes from the book is "... a Zen-like acceptance of travel as a highly unpredictable animal is the most effective way of approaching it." The same could be said of this book.
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19 of 23 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars No Holds Barred December 22, 2007
Format:Paperback
Every once in a long while a razor sharp writer comes along worthy of being added to that short list of smart, hilarious, one-of-a-kinds in the mainly hacked to death travel lit arena. Chuck Thompson is my vote for 2008. Smile When You're Lying is not for the faint-hearted. You probably won't see Thompson on Oprah this year, and if you're looking for a warm, fuzzy, found-myself-in-Bhutan-and-Tuscany holiday read, you're in for a shock. But if you want to laugh your head off while being led behind the iron curtain of travel industry gloss by a guy who's logged his share of dollar-a-word time in junket boot camp - you'd be very wise to read this book. And you'll be even wiser after reading it. Thompson's well-argued manifesto about the pallid fantasy of travel journalism is contrarian but self-deprecating, soap-box free and most importantly very very funny. And supported by his own wildly varied experiences in the field. His whac-a-mole, memoir-style route around the globe (Alaska, Philippines, some hellhole in Germany etc.) is filled with savvy insights you won't find in a library of Lonely Planets (which get their due here too). A wildly refreshing read from a seasoned traveler with the cojones to compare teaching English in Japan to making panda babies (just read the book and you'll get it) and opining that all the Caribbean really needs is a fresh coat of paint and ten years without tourists. Highly recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read!
Thompson provides an intelligent, funny and at times (i thought) cynical account of his travels abroad. Read more
Published 2 months ago by SantamariaA
4.0 out of 5 stars rant --- not a travel quide
SMILE WHEN U R LYING--chuck thompson-324 pgs-2007.

good places to go-UTAH,QUEENS-ORANGE COUNTY,INTERSTATES,
EL PASO/JUAREZ,CARACAS,MANILA & VOLGOGRAD. Read more
Published 4 months ago by BbP
4.0 out of 5 stars great writer
the writer is witty and entertaining. however i gave it 4/5 stars because at times it seems the author seems like such a prude and then eludes to his own hypocracy.... Read more
Published 4 months ago by L. M. D'Ambrosio
5.0 out of 5 stars I think this guy's a kindred spirit.
I thoroughly enjoyed this romp of anecdotes through subjects related to travel and writing. It turns out Chuck and I have commonalities; we've seen the same bands in Oregon, we're... Read more
Published 5 months ago by John Dunagan
4.0 out of 5 stars I'm smiling...
After reading things like "Breakfast at the Exit Cafe" and "Walk to New York" - books written by middle-aged bores - seeing how Thompson throws himself into his stories makes him... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Hieronymus Utter Bosch
5.0 out of 5 stars Chagrined to agree
As a travel writer since 1998 and a freelancer for longer, Thompson is Spot. On. His assessment of hack writing, the "holier than thou" writers (and travelers), and of course, the... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Conner Gorry
3.0 out of 5 stars half a book
The stuff about the travel writing industry is classic insider slags of the way the industry panders to the almighty dollar, yen, pound, etc. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Brian Maitland
2.0 out of 5 stars Hard to smile while you're reading this book
In recent months, I've gotten into reading travelogues: books by world travelers about the exotic places they've been to and the interesting people they get to know there. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Scott A. Kegley
1.0 out of 5 stars we get it you know everything
Chucky Thompson doesn't buy into corporations maaaan! He doesn't go along with mainstream society maaaaaaaan! Read more
Published 20 months ago by ctishurting
2.0 out of 5 stars travelers beware
This book was marketed as a funny, truthful journey through the eyes of a seasoned travel writer. It is more of a personal rant--a vendetta against the travel industry in general,... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Mari
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