To Hellholes and Back

To Hellholes and Back:
Bribes, Lies and the Art of Extreme Tourism
by Chuck Thompson
2009
321 pages
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8788-8

Chuck Thompson wants desperately to be the Chuck Klosterman of travel writing. He wants it so badly it hurts... to read.

Actually, that's maybe a bit harsh of an opening. Most of this book is readable in the "travel books are great for afternoons off when I don't want to make my brain tired" sort of way. Thompson travels to three places that are notorious for making travelers nervous: Democratic Republic of Congo, India and Mexico City. Those three sections are mostly a reasonably entertaining accounting of his adventures, with some heavy handed attempts at political and social commentary thrown in. Even when I agree with Thompson, and he makes some points here that I have been making for years, I wish that he would get back to the travel and stay away from the race relations. Such is life.

In the final section, Thompson takes it all to the last place he's afraid of, Disney World. Here he totally lost me, because at that point it's certainly not about travel anymore, and he doesn't have the skills to be a true culture writer. If you want to read this, you would likely do yourself a favor and skip that last section.

In the end, I suppose that I am not the world's greatest fan of travel writing. I tend to find it self-indulgent drivel in 99.9% of the cases. That's not to say that I don't enjoy it when I want to turn off my brain and think about being in exotic places, but it requires a specific mood and a specific time, and even then, I recognize that what I'm reading is just for funsies. This is a book that I would suggest you read if you feel an urgent need to be a tourist in the Congo (why?!), but otherwise, I'm sure there are better uses for your time.

Note: I received this book as an ARC for free from the publisher via the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. Apparently there's a law now that says I have to say that... You know, to prevent you from not realizing that my review is made all the more positive by the fact I didn't pay for the book. Imagine what it would say if I had ;-)