- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Books; 1 edition (April 1991)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0679729089
- ISBN-13: 978-0679729082
- Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 2.1 x 20.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,470,652 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
The entries in this collection take us to the farthest extremes of travel with tales of danger, disorientation and bemused discomfort; combines reportage, fiction and poetry representing some of the best-known writers of our time.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Humorous and well written, as would be expected, given the talent of the authors. I was also left looking at my own travels in a new light, and it had me reevaluating some of my own mishaps, which generally are, after all, what maskes travelling interesting (as long as the outcome wasn't too dire). Through this it has added to the enjoyment of my own memories. High praise, I think.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
*Sad* Trips, not Bad Trips
3 Mar 2001
Format:Paperback
This anthology's title is off by one letter: it should be called Sad Trips, not Bad Trips. The phrase 'bad trips' (and especially the book's front cover description: "A sometimes terrifying, sometimes hilarious collection of writing on the perils of the road") suggests to me the journeys that are hell to live through but fun to look back on, like, say, the time I spent three days trapped in the Boise, Idaho airport with what seemed to be the entire population of the state of Idaho. Those are the kinds of stories I expected from this anthology.
But in Bad Trips, the editor gives us a few funny stories along with tales alternately grim, gruesome, and depressing beyond all description. Just a few examples of the topics covered: a walk through a refugee village full of starving children, the torture, death, and dismemberment of civilians in El Salvador, the city of Hue shortly after it was destroyed by the Vietcong and American armies. These are important tales, and they need to be told, but they seem somewhat inappropriate for a book purporting to be a light-hearted, funny, travel anthology.
The editor made a few other strange decisions in assembling this collection, and while one works, most don't. I laud his attempt to include the work of some great writers, and this pays off: the selections by David Mamet, Anita Desai, Martin Amis, and John Updike are wonderful, and there's a poem by Al Purdy that every off-the-beaten-track traveler should read. But the book also includes a number of extracts from works of fiction, which jars - part of the joy of travel stories is that they're *true*.
Overall, the strength of some of the individual selections doesn't make up for the strange choices the editor has made. Look for it used, or check it out of the library.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
good variety, albeit kind of lackluster overall
29 Mar 2000
Format:Paperback
This was a book I started, got bored with, and came back to later when the book pile was about exhausted. That should tell you something: most of the stories simply weren't too enthralling. I didn't notice a lot of humour; in fact, I found very little. When I came back to finish it, I liked it a little better but not too much. Most of the stories are too short to really satisfy.
On the positive side, quite the cast of authors has been assembled, and they can indeed write. The variety of places and circumstances is impressive. I found at least half the stories interesting and worth reading.
As adventure travel, it doesn't compare to anything by Tim Cahill for excitement and uniqueness, or to William Least Heat-Moon for depth and powers of observation, but it'll do.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
A Book for Travelers to a More Than Planned Vacation
10 Feb 2000
Format:Paperback
Bad Trips is divided into various short stories by notoriously famous authors. Mamet, Geldof, Greene, and Updike, to name a few create very funny short essays of their unusual and sometimes precarious trips throughout the world. I would recommend this book to someone taking a cross-country trip for example from Seattle to Atlanta in a big van carrying unneccessary items on bald tires traveling through the winter months and sleeping in friends of friends houses while trying to use outdated maps. Anyone who has ever taken a "not as planned trip" will enjoy this book!
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