Atlas of the Human Heart: A Memoir (Paperback)

~ (Author) "We begin with a setting..." (more)
Key Phrases: unassigned reading, converted wine cellar, bai jiu, Ghost Girl, Hong Kong, Teacher Wang (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In the late 1980s, at age 16, Gore dropped out of high school, took her GED, and bought a one-way ticket to Hong Kong. From there she made her way to China, finagled herself into the Beijing Language Institute, and began a three-year journey of self-discovery that took her to Tibet, Nepal, India, Amsterdam, England, and Italy (to name only a few of her ports of call). This astounding memoir describes her experiences, including stints as a language student, smuggler, pilgrim, squatter, and indie film actress. Along the way, more than one person, upon learning her age, declares, "Your mother is crazy." Few would argue with that assessment, but whatever one may think of teaching self-reliance through benign neglect, it's clear that Gore's adventures make absorbing reading. She didn't end up dead, a fact that will strike most readers as remarkable, but she did end up pregnant in Italy at age 19 by her lout of a boyfriend. Ever resilient, Gore used her experiences as a young mother to good advantage, founding the well-regarded and unapologetically political magazine Hip Mama. Beth Leistensnider
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description

Like Jack Kerouac's intrepid little sister, Ariel Gore spins the spirited story of a vulnerable drifter who takes refuge in fate and the shadowy recesses of a string of glittering, broken relationships. With just a few pennies and her I Ching, a change of clothes and a one-way ticket to Hong Kong, a perceptive, searching sixteen-year-old Gore makes her way from the sterile suffocation of the Silicon Valley through the labyrinthine customs of Cold-War China, wanders through bustling, electric Kathmandu, and hunkers down in an icy London squat with a prostitute and a boyfriend on the dole. Yet it is in the calm, verdant landscape of rural Italy where, pregnant and penniless, nineteen-year-old Gore's adventure truly begins. An illuminating glimpse into the boldly political Gore-creator of HipMama.com and Hip Mama magazine-this unflinching memoir offers a poignant exploration of the meaning of home and surveys the frontiers of both land and heart.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Seal Press; 1ST edition (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580050883
• ISBN-13: 978-1580050883
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #729,192 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ready for an Adventure?, May 8, 2003

By	China Martens (Baltimore) - See all my reviews

If you want to read a book of travel stories - this is the adventure for you. It is a wonderful feeling to hold a good book in your hands, enter it's realm and have the story come alive in your minds eye. Ariel Gore is a cool young protagonist, short on words and long on action-like if Clint Eastwood was a northern California girl child raised by hippies-but the words she chooses pack a heavy punch. How can she say so much in one short paragraph? Or pick the perfect sentence, through out the deepest reference? I certainly never write anything like "We made our way across a rocky field, but when I looked down in the pale predawn light, they weren't rocks under my boots-they were bones." But then I've never been to Tibet!

There are a lot of on the road stories: but these tales of China; Beijing; Hong Kong; New Delhi; Katmandu; Amsterdam; and Europe- shoot! I mean these are some real true wild treks! And the geography couldn't be relayed any better than by the 17 year old poet who is making the journey: like some fairy tale girl who goes on a surreal trip of the soul, turning corners, making choices bases on one wild chance encounter after another. The people she encounters further help us enter a world different than our own and learn about life. But the way she is open to these chance encounters, and flings herself out into the world like a true surrealist traveler-and has the words to tell us about it, is what makes this book. I am very proud to see women of my generation creating a whole new breed of novels, can relate with the early 80's Reagan Years stuff. When I was growing up, most of the coming of age tales like this were written by males. She speaks to me, from a place I can understand; but Ariel Gore also has a distinct unique voice and viewpoint all of her own-making this book stick out. The map illustrations by Maria Fabulosa look very Hobbit like to me and further my enjoyment of making me feel like the eight year old I was when I traveled with Bilbo Bagins.

I know Ariel has written other books on parenting, (always thought she had a righteous attitude) but I never got into them like this. I feel she might be coming into her own as a full bloomed novelist and can't wait to see what she does next.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars magical realism? creative nonfiction? definitely fantastic, May 4, 2003

By	Jackie Regales (Baltimore, MD, USA) - See all my reviews

I can't recommend this book enough. Ariel calls it a novel/memoir, i call it creative nonfiction at it's finest. it's the story of three or so years she spent traveling around europe and asia, alone, from ages 16-19, and the amazing and wonderful and dark adventures she has, from smuggling to panhandling to meditating in tibet. the writing is just beautiful, lyrical and poetic and evocative. the most amazing thing about the book, for me, is that in some ways, very few people have had the kind of life that she has had, but she has a way of distilling some of the essential emotions so that you can relate to what she's feeling, even if you're never been a jewel smuggler (like many people!). if you've ever had a lifechanging experience, and wondered how in the hell you were going to recover and move on, you'll relate to this book.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Move Over, Jack!, June 14, 2003

By	mimi wheatwind (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

I work at a large bookstore, and I get a LOT of advanced reading copies (ARC's) from publishers. When I read on the ARC back cover of Ariel Gore's ATLAS OF THE HUMAN HEART that she was described as "Jack Kerouac's intrepid little sister..." I thought, 'Oh, puhleeeze!'
Thankfully, Gore must have intervened, because that phrase is not on the final cover, and rightfully so. I remember reading Kerouac's ON THE ROAD when I was 19 (before Ariel Gore was born) and I didn't think much of it. Having hitchhiked across the US, Canada and Europe myself--back when it was a far safer mode of travel than it is now--I found Kerouac's book lacking in what I refered to then as "substance." Perhaps what I'd call it today is "Heart."

Well, move over, Jack. Ariel Gore's memoir is NOT just a "chick version" of ON THE ROAD. There's more to ATLAS OF THE HUMAN HEART than drugs, alcoholic binges, and wild rides across state lines, where we're told that Neal or Jack or Allen jabbered non-stop--but we never heard exactly what they talked about. Gore's memoir is about the complexity of finding oneself while in the midst of ever-changing terrain, relationships, and communities. We get more than a wild ride form Ariel Gore; we're shown the lines on her map as clearly and intimately as she might show us the lines in the palm of her hand.

Gore's thoughtful narrative illuminates her own corner of herstory with song lyrics, Tibetan philosophy, insightful musings from "unassigned readings" of literature and poetry, and the ringing bell-tone wisdom of kua's from the I-CHING. Gore gives us not only postcards and snapshots of her life, she takes us along with her on a redemptive journey across a familiar emotional landscape. We travel with a free-spirited teenager, sharing her education, not in the "School of Hard Knocks," but as Earth University Seekers, landing with her Plop--in the muddy world of youthful cohabitation and motherhood. What an intelligent, heartfelt, and honest look at one very intersting and inspiring life!