Monday, 25 February 2013

Fish Camping and Other Travel Stories by Matthias Leue



This is a book that I won in a Goodreads First Reads contest.

Essentially we have a travelogue of one person's holidays over the period 1996 to 2002 split into separate stories. For example the titular story "Fish Camping" is about camping in an aquarium for the night.

The pattern of the stories is summers in France, and the rest of time the occasional trip somewhere in the States, with visits being fleeting and food being prominent.

The best bits are the bits like "The grandeur of creation lets one fall silent with awe", less so the bits like "I don't recall what we had for dinner that night, and since Tom is on the road in an 18-wheeler somewhere right now, he is unavailable to jog my memory; and so, dear reader, I must apologize for depriving you of the evening's menu."

There are occasional pictures throughout, which I assume are the author's art, but no photos even though the author mentions many times about how photos were taken. However it may be because the book is black and white that they were excluded for that reason.

There were also some interesting bits missed out I think. The author talks of living in a church because he has no home, then a loft where "the landlords were willing to accept me despite my ruined credit" but that is all the detail we get, although off topic the reasons behind this would have been interesting.

Overall then the book is ok, the author is pleasant enough, but the places visited are passed through swiftly and the book becomes a bit repetitive as you go through it.

This book is listed on Amazon UK here.

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