'Come Away with me' is supposedly a collection of short stories describing travels of Australian travel writers. Countries covered include Russia, Portugal, France, England Japan, US, Vietnam, China and Sri Lanka. While some stories qualify as travel writing the others are just rantings of writers who could have been in anywhere while they wrote their piece of nonsense. Here is a ranking of the stories in order of (my) liking.
1. A battle with English Equipment – It’s a description of the author’s travel to England for a book launch. It isn’t travel writing in the strictest sense. But I found the self-deprecating humor and casual writing style brilliant. I am sure I’ll love the other books written by Nick Earls
2. From Russia with Love, Sweat & steam – The writer describes 3 key experiences while she stayed in Russia (1) Public baths in Russia where she is beaten with birch twigs, smeared with coffee and honey all in the spirit of a good exfoliating bath (2) A high-end gym which is frequented by socialites and mafia men (3) Her introduction to Russian Deep tissue massage where she befriends the masseuse.
3. Sri Lanka – An informative piece on the writer’s experience when he came to Sri Lanka to interview the leader of Tamil tigers.
4. Same Same but different – An engaging story of the writer’s bike trip to the Mekong Delta in Vietnam
5. Be it ever so humble – An Australian of Chinese origin decides to make a trip to discover the China that she knows about about through her father’s stories. She finds herself to be an outsider and the real China to be vastly different from what she expected. Informative.
The remaining 5 stories are extremely boring and hence tiring to read. These 2 easily qualify as the worst.
2. From Russia with Love, Sweat & steam – The writer describes 3 key experiences while she stayed in Russia (1) Public baths in Russia where she is beaten with birch twigs, smeared with coffee and honey all in the spirit of a good exfoliating bath (2) A high-end gym which is frequented by socialites and mafia men (3) Her introduction to Russian Deep tissue massage where she befriends the masseuse.
3. Sri Lanka – An informative piece on the writer’s experience when he came to Sri Lanka to interview the leader of Tamil tigers.
4. Same Same but different – An engaging story of the writer’s bike trip to the Mekong Delta in Vietnam
5. Be it ever so humble – An Australian of Chinese origin decides to make a trip to discover the China that she knows about about through her father’s stories. She finds herself to be an outsider and the real China to be vastly different from what she expected. Informative.
The remaining 5 stories are extremely boring and hence tiring to read. These 2 easily qualify as the worst.
1. Nikki Gammell’s self-indulgent tale of visiting Disneyland Paris with her children and how they behaved themselves in this fairy-tale location. I don’t think Disneyland or angelic children qualify as France!
2. Sarah Macdonald’s Australian story of birth of her child. Childbirths happen anywhere & everywhere. Just because the writer happened to be in Australia during the time does not make it an Australian travel piece.
2. Sarah Macdonald’s Australian story of birth of her child. Childbirths happen anywhere & everywhere. Just because the writer happened to be in Australia during the time does not make it an Australian travel piece.
In the end, I just wish it could have been a compilation of fewer, quality stories instead of challenging the reader to separate the good ones from the rest.
Rating - * * *
2 comments:
yo mak!!....u seem to be on a role...:-)...now these books r on my next-to-read list...:-))...
hey meghs, you can borrow the books from me anytime !
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