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BIG LIKE: CASCADE INTO AN ODYSSEY Kindle Edition
BIG LIKE is the startling, funny, euphoric, cynical, and culturally intense account of an almost regular guy who ends up on a deliciously slippery slope. There’s his time with Ginger in Fiji’s mix of Third World and tropical paradise. Then in New Zealand, they rappel into a sinkhole, crawl through caves, and bungee jump into a canyon. But even Ginger’s deadpan humor can’t overcome the undercurrents of their lives: she wants to start a family; he wants to roam. Solo, he hooks through Australia and Bali on the backpacker trail. When he makes it to Tokyo, he smacks into Japan’s insular culture, impenetrable language, and obsession with unspoken rules. He struggles with inscrutable complexities: love hotels, packed trains, Korean roommates, irresistible food. Everything is hard, even buying hemorrhoid ointment. That’s the backdrop to the utterly confounding experience of a gaijin who wants to roam the world but gets tangled up with a Japanese girl. And the slippery slope turns into a life-changing odyssey.
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateOctober 29, 2011
- File size404 KB
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
He has twenty years of C-level operations experience, including turnarounds and startups. He lived in six countries, but has now come to rest in San Francisco, where he founded Wolf Street Corp and WOLFSTREET.com.
He earned his BA, MA, and MBA in Oklahoma and Texas, worked in both states for years, including a decade as General Manager of a large Ford dealership and its subsidiaries. But one day, he quit and went to France to open himself up to new possibilities, which degenerated into a life-altering three-year journey across 100 countries on all continents, much of it overland, which almost swallowed him up.
Product details
- ASIN : B00613TA56
- Publisher : Wolf Richter (October 29, 2011)
- Publication date : October 29, 2011
- Language : English
- File size : 404 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 299 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,150,034 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #96 in Australia Travel
- #302 in Japanese Travel
- #1,243 in Asian & Asian Americans Biographies
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Wolf Richter is the publisher of WOLFSTREET.com, where he muses in his tongue-in-cheek manner on economic, financial, and business issues and entanglements in the US, Europe, Japan, and China. His articles are frequently republished by other media outlets. He appears regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.
He has twenty years of C-level operations experience, including turnarounds and startups. He lived in six countries, but has now come to rest in San Francisco, where he founded Wolf Street Corp and WOLFSTREET.com.
He earned his BA, MA, and MBA in Oklahoma and Texas, worked in both states for years, including a decade as General Manager of a large Ford dealership and its subsidiaries. But one day, he quit and went to France to open himself up to new possibilities, which degenerated into a life-altering three-year journey across 100 countries on all continents, much of it overland, which almost swallowed him up.
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This travel memoir is the story of a mature man who is coming to grips with relationship issues. Occasionally, he hints at struggles in his childhood and youth. His dramas with girls are recounted sometimes in the foreground, sometimes in the background, a drumbeat of sorts, and steamy romances intertwine with colorful travel experiences. While his travel accounts are fascinating per se, the book also shows how the mid-career executive gradually succumbs to the life of a traveler.
Early on, we learn that he quit his job to allow himself to be "free" and "spontaneous" for the first time in his life. And yet, the author faces a dilemma--between his desire to travel, or to "roam" as he says, and his desire to stay with a girl he loves. This adds reality and depth that is sometimes sorrowful, sometimes loaded with self-deprecating humor.
The travel part starts in Europe, his home turf, so to speak (he was born in Germany and came to the US as a teenager). In France, he meets Izumi from Tokyo, an event that opens his mind and kicks off his journey to Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Bali, and Japan--where the last two thirds of the book take place.
His companion in Fiji and New Zealand is Ginger, a hot tough chick who loves doing "crazy things" (jumping into canyons) and wants to start a family with him. New Zealand is full of action, with gripping accounts of white-water rafting, rappelling into a sinkhole, and bungee-jumping into a canyon. And throughout, there is the drama with Ginger, whom he adores, but who ends up flying home alone.
In the Australia chapters, he meets backpackers who inspire his still largely hidden desire to travel. One of them is Wouter the Dutch guy, a backpacker. Their non-sticky, guy-to-guy bond adds a nice twist to the story, and the traveler wisdom Wouter passes on has a lingering effect on the author.
The Japan chapters are culturally astonishing, hilarious, thrilling in many ways, and in a good way exhausting. If you've ever been to Japan as tourist, or lived in Japan as expat or student, you would definitely chime in with his observations and accounts of his difficulties. Japan isn't an easy place for a foreigner (I've lived in Japan for years). And while he experiences Japan, Izumi becomes the core of the story as he rides the rollercoaster of euphoria, loss, and confusion of a gaijin in love. His efforts to be a good gaijin while struggling to learn Japanese and deal with day-to-day stuff and his occasional faux pas (inevitable as a gaijin) are not exaggerated, yet the reader experiences the full range of his emotions. And then there is an incredible climax. Let me just say that it's full of cultural complexity, passion, and shock. And it's funny, too.
The book ends with a hilarious scene with a prostitute in Korea--clearly he goes on traveling (and I'm looking forward to reading his next book).
Big Like would particularly appeal to open-minded men and women who can see different parts of the world with an appreciative eye ... and anybody who enjoys cultural experiences, adventures, tangled-up relationships, and human dramas. This book is a great antidote to everyday life.
The author is a successful man in his prime. As he states that he came to the US as a student to escape the debacle at home in Germany. Soon he learns his parents' tragic death in an airplane crash, which ironically frees him for good and allows him to pursue whatever he wants in life. The first decade he was in survival mode, and the next, he was in success mode. But then, he realizes the fleeting nature of life in ceaseless reproductive cycles and questions, "what if I die at fifty?" or worse, "what if I die at forty?" He leaves his job and ventures into an unknown world where fascinating event after event challenges him to the extent that this man of firm belief, discipline, and principle is frustrated every day. In Tokyo, he is treated almost as non-existent, cannot learn the language fast enough, and cannot figure out how people can actually live there every single day. My favorite part of the book was the juxtaposition of his being and the being of Tokyo, and the ultimate shift between the two. He strikes back after having mastered some of the rules and regulations that people there observe, and he assumes control over his life in Tokyo with a gorgeous girl named Izumi. The bittersweet story of their romance is symbolic in the story of his triumph in Tokyo, yet the author tactfully suspends the readers from anticipating their reunion when he leaves Japan. Cannot wait to read the sequel.
Big Like is highly recommended for those who wonder about "what if...?" questions, who ponder about what might be sitting there on the other side of the universe. We get to live our lives once, and who knows, when it might abruptly end.
Top reviews from other countries
Wolf Richter ist ein begnadigter Erzähler und er schafft es, den Leser mit Tempo, Witz und sehr viel Situationskomik unwiderstehlich zu fesseln. In den Text eingearbeitetes Wissenswertes über Länder wie Australien, Neuseeland und natürlich Japan sowie über die Eigenarten der jeweiligen Einwohner des Landes geben das Ganze noch eine extra Dimension. 5 Sterne!


