- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Pandora (4 Mar 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0044409613
- ISBN-13: 978-0044409618
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 13.4 x 2 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 760,011 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Product Description
Seventeen internationally celebrated women writers recall their most memorable voyages. From the Galapagos to the Australian outback, from Pakistan’s Indus Gorge to Finland these moving, witty, serious, engaging and sometimes alarming accounts are gems for all lovers of literature and travel.
Contributors include Margaret Attwood, Carol Shields, Alice Walker and E. Annie Proulx.
From the Back Cover
In 'Without A Guide' 17 internationally celebrated women writers recall their most memorable voyages. Their tales will take you on an exhilarating 1,700 mile camel trek across the rugged Australian outback; through the natural splendour of Darwin’s Galapagos Islands; to the startling heights of Pakistan’s River gorge and into the day-long utter darkness of a northern Finland winter.. Seductive, sometimes harrowing, and always enlightening, 'Without A Guide' is a gem for all lovers of literature and travel.
Stories by:
Margaret Atwood • Hanan Al-Shaykh • Clare Boylan • Wendy Law-Yone • Ann Beattie • Ysenda Maxtone Graham • Katherine Govier • Bapsi Sidhwa • Susan Musgrave • Robyn Davidson • Irene Guilford • Michelene Adams • Kirsti Simonsuuri • Janice Kulyk Keefer • Alice Walker • E. Annie Proulx • Carol Shields
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3 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Real-life travel
15 Oct 2001
Format:Paperback
It's no coincidence that the women who wrote these selections do not belong to the travel writing genre per se. The essays are honest and are a picture of realistic travel. It's not the typical travel stuff that sells--not the waving palm trees and lush tropical islands--it's the nit and grit. What a relief. I was beginning to think there was something wrong with me until I read this book. My travels just did not fit in with the Shangri-la, all-enlightening journeys that mainstream travel authors write about to appeal to an American audience. This is a great book, though I admit, it won't necessarily conjour up pictures of paradises that don't exist.
This is not a travel collection. It's better than that.
11 Oct 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Just today found my lost copy of Without a Guide. Lost for 10 years in a packed box, it had been a gift I'd treasured before heading off to parenthood and a series of moves.
I could not remember the title. Could not remember the authors. Could remember the stories, however; and have spent hours typing in various keywords on Google trying to identify the lost book. Now, with the original copy back in hand, I came to Amazon to buy more and found a mediocre review that requires a response. "2 stars" and whinging about issues of gender while regarding this little book?! Get a complete Margaret Atwood anthology and be done with it.
This is not just a set of travel stories, nor is it a femlit collection. It is a Canadian anthology of short stories written by female authors that happen to regard foreign places. It is a brilliant collection and I'm so glad to have found it again. Some stories are poignant, some are incredibly funny. The first person characters and places stay with you (truly). My favs were Through a Barren Land by Graham; In Fez without a Guide by Govier; and the haunting, haunting Highway to the Black Mountain by Sidhwa.
I could not remember the title. Could not remember the authors. Could remember the stories, however; and have spent hours typing in various keywords on Google trying to identify the lost book. Now, with the original copy back in hand, I came to Amazon to buy more and found a mediocre review that requires a response. "2 stars" and whinging about issues of gender while regarding this little book?! Get a complete Margaret Atwood anthology and be done with it.
This is not just a set of travel stories, nor is it a femlit collection. It is a Canadian anthology of short stories written by female authors that happen to regard foreign places. It is a brilliant collection and I'm so glad to have found it again. Some stories are poignant, some are incredibly funny. The first person characters and places stay with you (truly). My favs were Through a Barren Land by Graham; In Fez without a Guide by Govier; and the haunting, haunting Highway to the Black Mountain by Sidhwa.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Contentious Discussion at Book Club
22 July 2000
Format:Paperback
This is a group review, and we are far from agreement. The person who recommended this book loved it because she loves to travel and approaches travel as an adventure. For her, reading the book was like going to another country where she didn't understand the culture but was transported there by the stories. However, the remaining three members of the group read this book from a different frame of reference, and they had less favorable reactions. These readers admit they probably had higher expectations of quality from authors of this caliber. From a literary standpoint, many of the stories didn't measure up. In more than a few of the stories, the writers do not provide adequate context and detail. The stories did not transcend the level of travelogue to become a more meaningful exploration of either the place or the author's experience there. Furthermore, the issue of gender as it relates to travel is not clearly articulated. In these ways the editor's goal for the book were not met. However, there were several stories we liked: Robyn Davidson's "Alone Across the Outback," Ysenda Maxtone Graham's "Through a Barren Land," Wendy Law-Yone's "The Year of the Pigeon," and "Highway to the Black Mountains" by Bapsi Sidhwa. These stories moved us, providing more details and reflection on the meaning of the experience to the writer. Through our discussion of this book, we realized how difficult it is to write insightfully about travel. It was interesting to us to read about different places and different perspectives, but we wondered if there should be more to travel writing than this.
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