March 29, 2007
Waste of Space
If you really like the book, why oh why on earth do you spend the first 20% of your review blabbing about what bad books in that genre are like?
Rambling, self-absorbed travel writing is published all too often these days. These narratives foreground the writer, not the place; when local color manages to creep into the prose, it often reveals the writer's ignorance. Encounters with locals take the form of sumptuous meals in tourist-friendly restaurants, posited as the reward after a day haggling in the kasbah.
"Rambling?" "self-absorbed?" "All too often?" Agreed.
Posted by Papa-Lu at March 29, 2007 4:01 PM
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