Thinner (1984),
is a novel by Stephen King. In this thriller, an overweight executive appears
to get away with vehicular manslaughter of an old man. The man’s surviving son,
a traveling gypsy, touches the killer’s cheek and utters a curse: ‘‘Thinner.’’
Moscow 2042 (1986),
is a dystopian time-travel novel by Vladimir Voinovich. Time travel reveals the
bleak future of the Soviet Union, in a dystopian parody written during the
glasnost (openness) period.
Lawrence Durrell’s island novels, or
landscape books, are drawn from the Greek world, but they are far more than
travelogues or catalogues of places to visit. Much like the travel literature
of Norman Douglas and D. H. Lawrence, they recreate the ambience of places loved,
the characters of people known, and the history and mythology of each unique
island world. Bitter Lemons of Cyprus in special, takes the icing on the cake on
Durrell’s oeuvre, describing the three years (1953–1956) he spent on the island
of Cyprus.
Along the Ganges
is an exhilarating travelogue by Ilija Trojanow. Ilija Trojanow is a German
novelist and travel writer. Trojanow, being well-versed in Hindi, is the
perfect mix of insider and outsider, who can see for himself, what makes India
tick! In this gripping travelogue, Ilija Trojanow travels along the River Ganges,
right from its originating source, where it breaks free from the eternal ice in
the Himalayas, meandering its way to the great cities; he follows the river
alternately by boat, by bus, and also on overcrowded trains.
Arabian Sands
is a 1959 book by explorer and travel writer Wilfred Thesiger. According to Sir
John Glubb, ‘Wilfred Thesiger is perhaps the last, and certainly one of the greatest,
of the British travellers among the Arabs . . . The narrative is vividly
written, with a thousand little anecdotes and touches which bring back to any
who have seen these countries every scene with the colour of real life.’
Not getting accustomed to the monotonous drudgery
of everyday life in the West, and repulsed by the softness, and rigidity of Western life, especially ‘the
machines, the calling cards, the meticulously aligned streets,’ Thesiger, (in
the spirit of T. E. Lawrence,) sets out to explore the deserts of Arabia,
traveling among peoples who had never seen a European. His now-classic account
is invaluable to understanding the modern Middle East.
The Bird Man and the Lap Dancer: Close
Encounters with Strangers by Eric Hansen is a
fascinating read, with ‘perfect-pitch stories, mischievous, daring—perfect for
the armchair traveler who wouldn't dare’!
Eric Hansen is an intrepid traveler with
a keenly perceptive eye and an appreciation for the odd and unusual. He will go
anywhere and try anything. Through it all he manages to capture the most
revealing conversations and the most transporting moments in his travels, from
the Maldives to Sacramento, from Cannes to Borneo and far beyond.
Hansen writes about the mind-altering
experience of drinking kava in Vanuatu and about heartrending moments working
at Mother Teresa's Home for the Dying Destitute in Calcutta. He joins a
grieving husband searching for his dead wife's wedding ring at a crash site in
the Borneo rain forest. He recounts his miraculous survival of Cyclone Tracy on
a fishing boat off the north coast of Australia, and he befriends an elderly
Russian woman who would prepare catered dinners for George Balanchine and Igor
Stravinsky in her tiny Manhattan kitchen while drug dealers were shot to death
in the downstairs lobby.
He spends time with an ornithologist who
studies endangered ants and the sex lives of banana slugs--and takes topless
dancers on bird-watching expeditions. Each essay is a passionate experience of
life refracted through the eyes and voice of a singularly evocative and
original writer.
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by
Rebecca West was first published in 1942. This epic masterpiece is widely
regarded as the most illuminating book to have been written on the former state
of Yugoslavia.
Written on the brink of World War II,
Rebecca West's classic examination of the history, people, and politics of
Yugoslavia illuminates a region that is still a focus of international concern.
A magnificent blend of travel journal,
cultural commentary, and historical insight, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon probes
the troubled history of the Balkans and the uneasy relationships among its
ethnic groups. The landscape and the people of Yugoslavia are brilliantly
observed as West untangles the tensions that rule the country's history as well
as its daily life.
Chasing The Monsoon
by Alexander Frater is a rain-travellogue of sorts! On 20th May the Indian
summer monsoon will begin to envelop the country in two great wet arms, one
coming from the east, the other from the west. They are untied over central
India around 10th July, a date that can be calculated within seven or eight
days. Frater aims to follow the monsoon, staying sometimes behind it, sometimes
in front of it, and everywhere watching the impact of this extraordinary
phenomenon.
During the anxious period of waiting, the
weather forecaster is king, consulted by pie-crested cockatoos, and a joyful
period ensues: there is a period of promiscuity, and scandals proliferate.
Frater's journey will take him to Bangkok and the cowboy town on the Thai-Malaysian
border to Rangoon and Akyab in Burma (where the front funnels up between the mountains
and the sea).
The object of his travels is to get a
personal gauge of the Indian monsoon and to culminate his wanderings under the
ceaseless showers of Cherrapunji.
His travelogue is doubtlessly the last
word on literary monsoon manias. Scheduling his travels to suit the imprecision
of wayward nimbus clouds, the writer succeeds with finesse in making a religion
of rain.
From a cocktail of reviews from -
Gale/Routledge/goodreads/Amazon/IndiaToday/googlebooks
Image credits: TravelTriangle.Com
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