Customer Reviews
The guy despises everyone he meets! - By: J. Drange, 02 Mar 2010 
I bought this book because I dream (or dreamt) of visiting Oceania. After just a few pages I realised this man, who has the best jobin the world, hates it just as much as we hate our 9 to 5 cubicule jobs. And he despises everyone he meets - Australians are agressive & stupid alcoholics, Tongans are stupid & steal everything, Samoans hate & pester you, & throw stones at you, & yes, they also are stupid, & so on & so on.
The book reads well, but after reading it, visiting Oceania is the very last thing you want to do, as you get brain-washed to hate & despise all the Oceanian nations, Australians & Kiwis included.
did he go to the same place as me? - By: nomad, 19 Oct 2009 I read this book a few months ago as I was planning a trip to Fiji. He made the place sound so unappealing I nearly didn't go but I'm so glad I did. The people have to be some of the nicest people on this planet & the islands I visited were paradise. It makes me wonder how jaundiced his descriptions of the other places he visited must be?
A dismal whinge - By: Mike Daplyn, 27 Apr 2006 
This book is a prolonged snivel about the pain of voluntarily going to places the author then found tacky, hostile or boring. By his own account he had not a moment's pleasure from his travels until he reached Hawaii, where it was all American & OK & Not Foreign. The only puzzle is why he did not at a much earlier stage of the trip get on a plane & go there direct; presumably he'd taken an advance from his publisher & had to deliver a book of some sort. The whole thing carries a moral for modern travellers: if you can't engage constructively with the places you go to, then please, please, stay at home - that way you'll be happier, the foreign people will be happier, & you won't needlessley contribute to airline CO2 emissions.
Wonderful Corrective to Lonely Planet Overkill - By: , 21 Feb 2002 
I found this a well-written, very funny antidote to the endlessly sunny, ultimately irritating "travel copy" containedin my Lonely Planet guidebook. Theroux is the best antidote to being stuck on some never-ending bus-ferry-train journeyin the depths of the Third World where there are no Pyramids, Taj Mahals or Great Walls, within a thousand miles, the people are not warm & gracious but poor & grasping & the governmentsin charge are not victims of the West but inept imbezzelers & tin pot tyrants.
Theroux rejuvenates the weary long distance traveller with his unfailing wit, good sense & stubborn determination to be beholden to no one.
I particulary likedin this book his account of Australia & New Zealand struggling with their identitiesin a post 1973 (Britain joining the EU) world. Good writing, & it corresponded with what I was seeingin these countries at the times. His account of the NZ Prime Minister making a pig of herself with her food after running down John F. Kennedy for his personal habits is a bit of satirical writing worthy of Gore Vidal.
His depiction of the the modern squalor & boredom of much of Pacific island life matched my experiencesin places as diverse as Kuwait, Hong Kong & Singapore (of which Theroux writes about with such accuracy & wit - be sure to try his Kowloon Tong & Saint Jack if you like this one).
And despite the sad realities, Theroux almost always likes the places he visits!
Theroux spins out - By: , 13 Jul 2001 This is Theroux at his best. Obviously bitter from his failed marriage, he sets out to paddle around the Pacific Islands. Altough at 750 pages this looks a long book, it isin fact a gripping & enlightining look at a region which receives little coveragein many parts of the globe.
Theroux is even more cynical than usual which actually raises the laugh quota. Although sometimes the views seem a little harsh,he is always perceptive & entertaining.
