Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?: A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics, and Professional Hedonism [Paperback]

Thomas Kohnstamm (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 22, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0307394654 | ISBN-13: 978-0307394651

For those who think that travel guidebooks are the gospel truth.

WANTED: Travel Writer for Brazil
QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED
Decisiveness: the ability to desert your entire previous life–including well-salaried office job, attractive girlfriend, and basic sanity for less than minimum wage
Attention to detail: the skill to research northeastern Brazil, including transportation, restaurants, hotels, culture, customs, and language, while juggling sleep deprivation, nonstop nightlife, and excessive alcohol consumption
Creativity: the imagination to write about places you never actually visit
Resourcefulness: utilizing persuasion, seduction, and threats, when necessary, to secure a place to stay for the evening once your pitiable advance has been (mis)spent
Resilience: determination to overcome setbacks such as bankruptcy, disillusionment, and an ill-fated one-night stand with an Austrian flight attendant

As Kohnstamm comes to personal terms with each of these job requirements, he unveils the underside of the travel industry and its often-harrowing effect on writers, travelers, and the destinations themselves. Moreover, he invites us into his world of compromising and scandalous situations in one of the most exciting countries as he races against an impossible deadline.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Invoking Hunter S. Thompson is a risky proposition for young writers, who can be gulled into thinking that chemical intake and sketchy reporting are substitutes for the gonzo great’s keen insight and lacerating wit. Fortunately, although Kohnstamm plays the Thompson card on his first hand, documenting a monumental pub crawl with a coke buddy called “the Doctor,” he soon finds his own voice. Scratching a bite from the travel bug, Kohnstamm walks away from a Wall Street cubicle to accept a poorly paid, impossibly deadlined job updating the Lonely Planet guide to Brazil. Sharp writing and self-deprecating wit add spice to a chronicle of the sometimes absurd world of guidebook writing. (In one memorable scene, he gets thrown out of a hotel he is researching because he looks—accurately—too poor to stay there.) There’s food for thought, too, about Lonely Planet’s journey from backpacker tip sheet to faux-hobo itinerary and the aftereffects of the travel it promotes. Kohnstamm’s hedonism is heroic, but it’s his willingness to think about hedonism’s consequences that makes this worth reading. --Keir Graff

Review

"A comic rogue who seems to have modeled his life and prose on Hunter S. Thompson’s… I could not get enough of the most depraved travel book of the year."
—The New York Times

"Hilarious"
—The New York Times Book Review

"the shot heard 'round the travel world…"
—The Washington Post

"A guidebook writer reveals the truth about his trade, in detail that will shock and awe."
—Outside

"It’s Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, but with tourism"
—The New York Observer

"Kohnstamm is nobody's model travel journalist, except maybe Hunter Thompson's… [he’s the] sudden enfant terrible of his field… Do Travel Writers Go To Hell? is the best-written, funniest book of travel literature since Phaic Tan."
—The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Sharp writing and self-deprecating wit add spice to a chronicle of the sometimes absurd world of guidebook writing."
—Booklist

"Readers will relish the countless stories of the author's misadventures, but Kohnstamm brings more than just anecdotes: He offers a solid understanding of the mechanics of the travel-writing industry and a unique ability to illuminate that world to readers. Notable for its spirited prose and insightful exploration of the less-romantic side of travel writing. Kohnstamm is one to watch."
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (April 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307394654
• ISBN-13: 978-0307394651
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (90 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #413,316 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Did He Really Do That? April 28, 2008

By Jackson McQuigg

Format:Paperback

Several weeks ago, I was shocked to hear the news media reporting that Lonely Planet author Thomas Kohnstamm fabricated his research for LP's travel guides and had now written a tell-all book.

Moreover, I was flatly angry. I used the 2005 Lonely Planet Brazil guide which Kohnstamm contributed to for two trips to that country. I even followed his thoughtful (albeit a bit preachy) regimen for "responsible travel" while there.

And now all his contributions to the Lonely Planet Brazil guide were turning out to be a pack of lies? What a jerk!

Needless to say, I simply had to read Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? If nothing else, I felt compelled to read it in order to justify my anger, or perhaps redouble it.

The book wasn't what I had expected. As it turns out, Kohnstamm turns out to be an extremely conflicted guy. His standards are high, but he is disillusioned by the business of travel writing-- its deadlines and budgets in particular. He tries to build himself up as the cool guy who gets all of the women, yet his description of many of them is overwhelmingly sentimental (see the passages on ex-girlfriend Sydney in the introduction, if you doubt me).

So, did Kohnstamm fabricate some of his work? Did he take free meals and lodging? Yes, and yes, although not nearly to the extent that the media has reported. That's right: the press got it wrong!

This guy is no slouch (he has a Master's in Latin American studies from Stanford), but he does let himself become one at various points in the book. Kohnstamm takes us along for the ride, from Rio to Olinda, and various places in between.

You've got to admire Kohnstamm for putting himself out there like this in such a frank way. There's no trite moral story in this book-- just a travelogue which is part confession, part braggadocio and all well written (in Hunter S. Thompson style, no less).

After reading the book, I can't be angry. First of all, I've never laid myself bare like this. Further, how can I stay mad at a guy who puts pictures of his dog on his MySpace page, quotes Paul Theroux and is fascinated with D.B. Cooper?

I still think Thomas Kohnstamm is a jerk, mind you-- but one who I have come to admire greatly through the pages of this book.

It's good to know that travel writers are real people. If nothing else, Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? proves exactly that. Keep writing, Thomas.

39 of 47 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Quite a trip, alternately tedious and interesting May 25, 2008

By Richard A. Jenkins

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Kohnstamm sets out to expose the soft underbelly of travel writing, but often tells more about himself than about travel, and that's often more than many readers may want to know. Compared to some other reviewers, I didn't find the book that "carnal", although I could have done without knowing the details of Kohnstamm's many hangovers. The book begins with the author departing a tedious job, shredding a relationship with a woman he allegedly cares about and flying to Rio. He basically tells us that he likes traveling on someone else's dime and his life sounds like something more typical of the aimless and affluent 70s than the present day. Later in the book, Kohnstamm tells us that his flight into travel writing is based on ideals. Which is it--chucking responsibility, traveling on someone else's money or "ideals". I tend to doubt the latter.

Kohnstamm actually is at his best describing people and places, which is the bread and butter of travel writing. Despite being an experienced traveler, he seems to get himself into obviously problematic situations. A "model" who's on her way to work in a minor, touristy provincial capital is likely to be in the sex industry. A fellow American with an all cash business is likely to be selling drugs. These aren't difficult to expect and, in addition, Kohnstamm shares various misadventures from past travels which suggest that he's one of those people who "doesn't benefit from experience". Either that or he's embellishing. It's not unreasonable to assume that someone who can't keep his motives straight may not be credible in other ways.

I was drawn to the book partly because I used the Lonely Planet guide which Kohnstamm had helped revise. It was a mess. It failed to mention that a "quiet seaside town" was an international surf mecca and contained messed-up maps that easily led one into a favela while looking for a hotel. Kohnstamm intimates that his predecessor led the same life he did, but all he offers is a tiny, offhand-sounding quote. He talks about a Yahoo site with hundred of Lonely Planet writers, all complaining about the same things; however, I suspect that if it's like most Yahoo forums, the conversation probably is driven by, at most, four or five people, at any given time. OTOH, his description of Lonely Planet's evolution into a guidebook series for midrange travelers rings true. Kohnstamm claims to sympathize with Tony Wheeler's business sense, even though it means that the books have less to offer than they did in the past. So much for those vaunted ideals. The new edition of the Thailand guide (their best seller) has sharply cutback on locales, places to stay, etc., and seems more insipid than many mid-range guides. Kohnstamm seems to be saying he's happy to do that if someone is willing to tolerate his sophomoric behavior.

So, by the end, I was ready for the book to end. It's an entertaining read and occasionally you get some ideas how travel books get written. It's not awful, but it's not the 5-star trophy that others have made it out to be. If Amazon had a 2 1/2 star rating, that's what I'd give it. Will it stop me from using guidebooks? No--the people who say they never use them are usually happy to browse through everyone else's. Would I stay away from Lonely Planet? As it happens they have the only guide for my next trip, but their own business practices got me to look seriously at their competition quite awhile ago. And Kohnstamm--would I read another book--Sure, but only from the library.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars An Insipid Book December 29, 2009

By George Purcell

Format:Paperback

I must say I am surprised by the positive reviews given to this awful book.

I purchased it thinking it would be a good insight into the reality of travel writing. What I got instead was a cartoonish tale of a succession of drunks, brawls, and sordid sex that told me nothing other than the fact that Messr. Kohnstamm was a very poor hire indeed. His thesis seems to be the following:

1) Lonely Planet didn't pay me enough;
2) Lonely Planet didn't give me enough time;
3) Lonely Planet had a change in editorial policy marketing that made the work more difficult than I imagined.

Because of this, the author decided the logical thing to do would be to blow most of his advance on booze and women. Indeed, over 20 percent of the book is devoted to a single night carousing in New York City. He presents virtually no evidence that the constraints he supposedly endured led to his inability to do the job for which he was contracted.

There is a great book to be written by a serious author (Joe Cummings, perhaps?) on the trade-offs made in writing a travel book like Lonely Planet. This joke of a title is not that work, however.