title: Bad Trips: A Sometimes Terrifying, Sometimes Hilarious Collection of Writing on the Perils of the Road
author: Keath Fraser
description: Half the pleasure of reading the stories collected together in <i>Bad Trips</i>, an anthology of travel writing, is imagining the authors so wonderfully out of place! Picture Indian author Anita Desai in wintry Norway or proper British writer Jonathan Raban in a seamy Louisiana pool hall. Italian semiotician Umberto Eco in Southern California? David Mamet in the Caribbean? Before you've even started, you know it's going to be good. The stories range from laugh-out-loud funny (Martin Amis on the start of a harrowing flight from London: "When it comes to flying, I am a nervous passenger but a confident drinker and Valium-swallower. And although I wasn't exactly goosing the stewardesses or singing 'Viva Espana'... I was certainly in holiday mood....") to the poignant. (James Trevor describing his worst journey, the trip he took back to an Irish boarding school when he was 12: "By the time we reached Bunclody the odour of long-boiled cabbage that hung about the school's kitchen and dining room was beginning to mingle with the bus's exhaust fumes. By Kildavin, the noise of the play yard echoed; by Tullow, Monsieur Bertain was striking the blackboard in a fury. 'Tell us why, if you would,' the sarcastic science master invited in Rathvilly. 'Tell us why you lack intelligence.'")
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  COMMENTS FROM OTHER WRITERS
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “This is so well done, .... the imagery is vibrant!!! …. What a great way to
  tell a great story, …. Kind of like we're travelin' down the road with
  him..... This series is a blueprint for a classic western movie....nicely
  done.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Reviewed by Canadian author, Annabel Sheila,
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Author of Sketches of Destiny and numerous short stories as well as hundreds
  of poems.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  View samples of her work at:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  http://www.authorsden.com/visit/author.asp?AuthorID=85604
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “expansively satisfying…. the 'casual elegance' of such blatant honesty in the
  character's voice…. Lyrical, ballad-like, chaps-smacking-fun honesty comes off
  these lines from this character's telling of his tale…. the voice that rakes
  like face stubble and shakes dust from road boots. It is quibbly, snarky,
  jovial, sly, tabaccoish… full of playful danger and assumed heroism…”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Reviewed 