Customer Reviews

When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It's Time to Go Home

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Erma Bombeck has crafted a glorious travel book that explains just why you should keep your behind firmly planted indoors. Over the course of the book, she goes to Mass in a church where people go topless (and yes, I mean the women), goes to Europe with the weirdest bunch of people ever to go on a tour, tackles the hard rolls from hell, and buys the tiniest mobile home in history.

She dryly comments on every weird detail of travelling further than five miles, from languages to airplanes to foreign bathrooms to travel snobs to stuffing yourself with food. Oh, and guess the meaning of this if you haven't read the book: "Number One Jesus Man."

BTW if you enjoyed this book, scamper off and check out "Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need" and "If God Had Meant For Us To Travel". These guys are a bit wackier, but just as funny.

This is the first book I've read by Irma Bombeck and I bought it because of the rave reviews from other readers. I was more than pleasantly surprised. I am recovering from a broken ankle and needing a "little cheering up". This book did the trick. I was laughing nonstop. I would highly recommend it!

& this was the best. You can litterally place yourself in her shoes & experience comical things you could never have imagined happening to yourself. The way she narrates really grabs you into the book & won't let you go, & when your finished you need another of her books or you'll go into withdrawl syndrome. It was a horrible loss she died & took her comical genius that no one else has mastered with her.

The title at first hadnt seemed so appealing to me, but the contents of the novel is what matters the most. My mother had urged me to read this book saying it was both witty and funny. A optimistic novel, turning lifes issues into comedy. In her book " When you Look like YouPassport Photo" she writes about her travel experiences which you can both laugh with and at the same time relate to. It starts off with her never having left her home town, to renting the smallest and most unpractical home RV in the world to deciding to leaving her children home to explore Europe. Even if you havent traveled you can laugh at the way she describes even the weirdest things and if you have relate to the tour guides and horrible food services. The memeroable husband always thinking that there are consipiracies going on in the system. The Hotel rationing the same piece of hard roll for every serving. Then there is always your typical bus groups. The health fanatic upfront, the photo mania and your typical drunk always singing at certain stops. I found it funny when she explaned that she had more children than she had window seats and just basically how she compared her life to things. IN her book, she gives tips and rules on travel issues. I havent read a book that made me laugh from page to page liek this one, this is a book no one should miss reading. Her perspective is always fresh, always giving her own ideas her own opinios. " Food for the dangerous" isnt this a catchy yet dangerous phrase. Erma describes all things with a different look. I heard that the authot died a few years ago and i praise her. Having suffering so much illness and even althrough this, having the ability to narate such an optimistic and hilarious book.

Erma Bombeck is the most hillarious writer I have read!Please read this book,the humour is so devine.I couldn't stop laughing at this wonderful tale of travel and the experiences had by Erma and her husband.There's something in here that everyone can relate to even if you have never travelled abroad.Very well written with a laugh in every page.Thanks Erma,for a wonderful book!

Maybe it's just my age, but from the moment I picked up this book and started reading I couldn't top chuckling. Anyone who has every traveled, whether here at home or abroad can appreciate this book. Years ago I read one of her books on motherhood and I didn't find it nearly as funny as this one. Maybe because I am now in my fifties instead of my 20's? Great read if you love to travel.

Defintely a fun book to read! Filled with hilarious adventures that everyone can relate to. You won't want to put it down.
An older book, was a bit discolored...but VERY inexpensive and completely intact. A great buy.

This is not one of Bombeck's funniest, but it is typical of her humorous work, and provides some "laugh out loud" moments. There are also some poignant moments where Bombeck gets serious about connections that were made between her and women of another culture. If you want to know where not to go and what not to do on vacation, check out this book.

Have you travelled? If you have, this book will make you laugh. If you haven't it is great armchair travel (you will still laugh). I have re-read my copy of this several times. Everyone I have given this book to loves it. Reality of travel meets Erma and her unique wit in this very humorous book. You won't regret this buy! Warning - do not read on public transit - you will laugh out loud.

The first few chapters got me laughing, yes. But later on, I felt like I was reading a stand up comedian's script. It made me feel that everytime she goes on a vacation, she turns every moment as an oppurtunity to make it derogatorily funny. A bit too pessimistic for me.
i liked however how she pointed out the 'usual' members of a travel group and the confinement of travelling with a group.
sometimes the accounts are too exagerrated, bordering on slapstick: (when she decided to travel and not be a house-sitter anymore, she held up her hands to declare this, clutching the neighbor's hamster).
This is a book that may be enjoyed by people who travel so that they could be reminded of how things are all better 'back home'. People who genuinely love to travel (for love of culture and other purposes) may find it a waste of time reading this.