- Hardcover: 190 pages
- Publisher: Alfred a Knopf; 1 Amer ed edition (May 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0679422641
- ISBN-13: 978-0679422648
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 14.8 x 2.4 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,911,166 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Pico Iyer is a traveller who particularly likes places that the rest of us do not always get a chance to visit. This is a book about such places. He visits North Korea, Cuba, Iceland, Bhutan, Vietnam and Australia. The author also wrote "Video Night in Kathmandu" and "The Lady and the Monk".
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
On every trip I took to Havana, the ritual was the name: I would get into a car with two of my friends (into a '56 De Soto most likely), and we would judder off towards Jose Marti International Airport. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
On every trip I took to Havana, the ritual was the name: I would get into a car with two of my friends (into a '56 De Soto most likely), and we would judder off towards Jose Marti International Airport. Read the first page
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18 reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
home is where everything is the same and yet different
12 May 2002
Format:Paperback
Pico Iyer's prose caught my eye in his Time Magazine columns where he did a good job showing us how recognizable the exotic has become. This collection, his first in book form, again reiterates that the most difficult aspect of long distance travel is not any longer how to get there, how to dodge danger or how to find your way back but how to avoid to bump into the same features you left 10,000 miles and 6 timezones earlier. Showing through many examples, sometimes hilarious and sometimes profoundly sad how globalisation regurgitates the same marketing ideas dressed in different flags it really makes its point that the era of the curious gentleman(woman) traveler looking for exotic shores has been overtaken by the vastly less romantic quest to escape the onslaught of canned icons in any neck of the woods.
The book also does a nice job of illuminating the paradoxical quest of the overfed and understimulated prestigious first world traveler trying to find hidden corners where there is still some sort of exploration possible and where not all laws of our structured civilization apply only to be greeted by the not so happy natives who are dying to know how to join the West or in the least purchase its most potent logos.
The book also does a nice job of illuminating the paradoxical quest of the overfed and understimulated prestigious first world traveler trying to find hidden corners where there is still some sort of exploration possible and where not all laws of our structured civilization apply only to be greeted by the not so happy natives who are dying to know how to join the West or in the least purchase its most potent logos.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
A Non-Guide to Non-Tourist Attractions
7 May 2005
Format:Paperback
I have to admit I'm a sucker for all travel narratives. I have a serious travel jones myself, and since I'm not in a position to jet all over the world right now, I have to armchair travel. Pico Iyer was recommended highly to me by a fellow armchair traveler so I set about this book with some high expectations.
The downside of this book is that he's writing about a number of places I'm likely not to visit-North Korea, Cuba, Paraguay-but after a few chapters my disappointment at reading about "lonely places" that will remain unvisited by me gradually fell away as Iyer's style became more comfortable for me.
He refers to classic travel writers frequently, and if you haven't read these authors, some of the references lose their impact, but Iyer's observations are so detailed, so full of atmosphere, that you don't necessarily get a picture of the country he's visiting, but a total feeling that's larger than the individual portraits he presents. I get the feeling he genuinely loves the people and the places he's visited and doesn't see them as part of some journalistic assignment he has to get through.
The downside of this book is that he's writing about a number of places I'm likely not to visit-North Korea, Cuba, Paraguay-but after a few chapters my disappointment at reading about "lonely places" that will remain unvisited by me gradually fell away as Iyer's style became more comfortable for me.
He refers to classic travel writers frequently, and if you haven't read these authors, some of the references lose their impact, but Iyer's observations are so detailed, so full of atmosphere, that you don't necessarily get a picture of the country he's visiting, but a total feeling that's larger than the individual portraits he presents. I get the feeling he genuinely loves the people and the places he's visited and doesn't see them as part of some journalistic assignment he has to get through.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
A great source of esoteric conversation fodder
24 Oct 1998
Format:Paperback
The easiest read of the three books of Iyer's that I have read. Five of his eight destinations were places about which I had never read anything other than a description in the almanac. What makes Iyer's writing so appealing to me is that he accepts with equanimity the poor conditions that other top travel writers, such as Paul Theroux, devote such energy to bemoaning. Even if it weren't so well written, I would recommend this book for the originality of its material.
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