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Rating: 
Summary: Having a great time........wish you were here!
Review: Champ's odyssey through countries as diverse as Greece, China, Mexico, Russia, France and the U.S., is an anecdotally entertaining diversion. Although about half the book centers on Mexico (a place this reviewer avoids at all costs), it is not only instructive in that it offers cautions for fellow travelers to that loudly mystical land, but also entertains those of us who occupy armchairs rather than airplane seats. Champ is especially telling in his recounting of the expatriate communities he finds generally wanting, not just in Mexico but elsewhere. One senses that if he set out to take up the expat life, he was quickly disabused of those American and British enclaves with their greed, pettiness and gossip-mongering. The author is obviously and seriously at home on the road, having mastered several languages, and he must have kept a meticulous journal, since the accounts of his adventures are most often funnily specific and detailed -- all told with an easy charm and written with elan. Anyone who can evoke the feeling produced by Southwestern France's Le Gouffre de Padriac's chasm with this kind of turn of phrase -- "suggests those very fears expressed by people with serious earthquake anxiety who feel they'll be swallowed up in some geotectonic orgy of massive Richterian registration" is worth spending some agreeable time with. You'll find the time spent in Champ's cosmos well rewarded.
Rating:
Summary: Travelling the World with Civility:A Pleasing, Relaxing Read
Review: Champ's odyssey through countries as diverse as Greece, China, Mexico, Russia, France and the U.S., is an anecdotally entertaining diversion. Although about half the book centers on Mexico (a place this reviewer avoids at all costs), it is not only instructive in that it offers cautions for fellow travelers to that loudly mystical land, but also entertains those of us who occupy armchairs rather than airplane seats. Champ is especially telling in his recounting of the expatriate communities he finds generally wanting, not just in Mexico but elsewhere. One senses that if he set out to take up the expat life, he was quickly disabused of those American and British enclaves with their greed, pettiness and gossip-mongering. The author is obviously and seriously at home on the road, having mastered several languages, and he must have kept a meticulous journal, since the accounts of his adventures are most often funnily specific and detailed -- all told with an easy charm and written with elan. Anyone who can evoke the feeling produced by Southwestern France's Le Gouffre de Padriac's chasm with this kind of turn of phrase -- "suggests those very fears expressed by people with serious earthquake anxiety who feel they'll be swallowed up in some geotectonic orgy of massive Richterian registration" is worth spending some agreeable time with. You'll find the time spent in Champ's cosmos well rewarded.
Rating: 
Summary: TERRIBLE
Review: I read Mr. Champ's book with considerable pleasure. Since I don't travel very extensively because of a basic fear of flying and simple lack of time, I depend on the Jan Morrises, Bruce Chatwins, and Roberts Champs of this world to do much of it for me. I can read in the comfort of my armchair and imaginatively follow their perigrinations about this world of ourse without the discomforts that travel so often entails...What I look for in any travel book is the ability of the author to transmit his or her experience to me in an imaginative way, with an eye for the telling detail that can bring it to life. Mr. Champ has that ability, i.e. he is a good storyteller. He has apparently traveled widely and is also a devotee of varied national cuisines. To be able to almost motivate a reader to get up and go out and seek the kind of food of which he speaks is something of a knack in itself -again, the result of good imaginative writing. The author subtitled his book, "Traveling the World with a Gay Sensibility" but there is remarkably little in the book that would be amiss in any travel book to a heterosexual reader. I think gay men and women look at the world with their own angle of vision,which is why gender differences -I feel- can be valuable in the total view of things. But there is no wearisome dragging one through the various gay fleshpots of the locales he visits. I would object to that as much as I would to a straight tour of similar "joints." When the "romance" of travel is spoken of, it is always implicit, I feel, that the possibility of sexual/amorous adventure is a given. And it adds a certain frisson to the read of those close encounters and how they sometimes resolve themselves - or just friendships that sometimes become lifelong. In that sense, surely, travel really does broaden us and brings us more in tune with our fellow human beings. Mr. Champ has apparently spent considerable time in Mexico and is somewhat critical of what used to be so often referred to as the Ugly American. Alas, they still exist. He notes how Mexicans are invariably friendly in the smaller cities especially, never thinking of passing a stranger on the street without a Buenas Dias. Ex-pat Americans and Canadians, on the other hand, think nothing of ignoring such greetings although there are doubtless happy exceptions. It reminds me of Alec Wilder's reference to "the present ice age." Let's hope its glacial effects don't change what is still a human and a warmly human place to visit.
Rating: 
Summary: Approaching Travel Book Reviews
Review: I read Mr. Champ's book with considerable pleasure. Since I don't travel very extensively because of a basic fear of flying and simple lack of time, I depend on the Jan Morrises, Bruce Chatwins, and Roberts Champs of this world to do much of it for me. I can read in the comfort of my armchair and imaginatively follow their perigrinations about this world of ourse without the discomforts that travel so often entails... What I look for in any travel book is the ability of the author to transmit his or her experience to me in an imaginative way, with an eye for the telling detail that can bring it to life. Mr. Champ has that ability, i.e. he is a good storyteller. He has apparently traveled widely and is also a devotee of varied national cuisines. To be able to almost motivate a reader to get up and go out and seek the kind of food of which he speaks is something of a knack in itself -again, the result of good imaginative writing. The author subtitled his book, "Traveling the World with a Gay Sensibility" but there is remarkably little in the book that would be amiss in any travel book to a heterosexual reader. I think gay men and women look at the world with their own angle of vision,which is why gender differences -I feel- can be valuable in the total view of things. But there is no wearisome dragging one through the various gay fleshpots of the locales he visits. I would object to that as much as I would to a straight tour of similar "joints." When the "romance" of travel is spoken of, it is always implicit, I feel, that the possibility of sexual/amorous adventure is a given. And it adds a certain frisson to the read of those close encounters and how they sometimes resolve themselves - or just friendships that sometimes become lifelong. In that sense, surely, travel really does broaden us and brings us more in tune with our fellow human beings. Mr. Champ has apparently spent considerable time in Mexico and is somewhat critical of what used to be so often referred to as the Ugly American. Alas, they still exist. He notes how Mexicans are invariably friendly in the smaller cities especially, never thinking of passing a stranger on the street without a Buenas Dias. Ex-pat Americans and Canadians, on the other hand, think nothing of ignoring such greetings although there are doubtless happy exceptions. It reminds me of Alec Wilder's reference to "the present ice age." Let's hope its glacial effects don't change what is still a human and a warmly human place to visit.
Rating:
Summary: Having a great time........wish you were here!
Review: This book is a hoot!! I had such a good time reading it and felt as though I was travelling with the author on each of his adventures. For anyone who loves to travel (even if only by armchair) I whole-heartedly recommend this book. You will want to start it all over again after you finish the last page.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging, quirky, beautifully written book
Review: This book put me in mind of Theroux' disappointments with Pacific and other cultures and that writer's despairing take on the seeming inevitability of mankind's baser tendencies. Elegantly written, not at all a guidebook--a fact that may disappoint some--this romp through many beautiful destinations fascinates because of the writer's frequent chafing encounters with fellow expats and local excesses. This is not a "gay book" as such, though frequent allusions to the writer's formative-year experiences and reflections inform his orientational destiny. Anyone looking for racy accounts or a guide to where to find sexual pleasure will be disappointed. The author does convince us, however, of the significance of gay sensibility when he relates often poignant experiences involving gay people. He sends up a Paris lesbian for her reference to "bootch" women; he puts his pen to recalling an affair that begins on a Mexican bus; he laments the failure of old friendships that fall apart on a visit to the Loire valley. This reader was touched by the writer's reproachful observance of the sometimes-ugly presence of foreigners and their impact on the breakdown of traditions in a number of cultures; his well-articulated recounting of the political and religious brutalities that underlie the history of Albi's shimmering Ste. Cecile cathedral; and his resonating adolescent sojourn across America that culminated in a brief stay at a New Mexico jail. Champ seems unable to resist venting considerable spleen against such targets as his very nasty Soviet tour-guide, or, on a visit to the Costa del Sol, a drunken, randy English housewife. But this reader was much-impressed with the book's humor (how, for example, can one forget the barbecue restaurant scene in Kansas City?), its trenchant wit, the often sublime descriptions of art, architecture and food, and the book's often transcendently lovely language.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging, quirky, beautifully written book
Review: This book put me in mind of Theroux' disappointments with Pacific and other cultures and that writer's despairing take on the seeming inevitability of mankind's baser tendencies. Elegantly written, not at all a guidebook--a fact that may disappoint some--this romp through many beautiful destinations fascinates because of the writer's frequent chafing encounters with fellow expats and local excesses. This is not a "gay book" as such, though frequent allusions to the writer's formative-year experiences and reflections inform his orientational destiny. Anyone looking for racy accounts or a guide to where to find sexual pleasure will be disappointed. The author does convince us, however, of the significance of gay sensibility when he relates often poignant experiences involving gay people. He sends up a Paris lesbian for her reference to "bootch" women; he puts his pen to recalling an affair that begins on a Mexican bus; he laments the failure of old friendships that fall apart on a visit to the Loire valley. This reader was touched by the writer's reproachful observance of the sometimes-ugly presence of foreigners and their impact on the breakdown of traditions in a number of cultures; his well-articulated recounting of the political and religious brutalities that underlie the history of Albi's shimmering Ste. Cecile cathedral; and his resonating adolescent sojourn across America that culminated in a brief stay at a New Mexico jail. Champ seems unable to resist venting considerable spleen against such targets as his very nasty Soviet tour-guide, or, on a visit to the Costa del Sol, a drunken, randy English housewife. But this reader was much-impressed with the book's humor (how, for example, can one forget the barbecue restaurant scene in Kansas City?), its trenchant wit, the often sublime descriptions of art, architecture and food, and the book's often transcendently lovely language.
Rating:
Summary: TERRIBLE
Review: This was undoubtedly one of the worst books that I have ever read. The author was pretentious, prissy, nasty toward his "friends" and fellow travelers, and condescending toward what he called "natives". Mainly, though, he was just boring. He simply listed the places he traveled through, along with a litany of complaints about the tour guide, accommodations, and anyone unfortunate enough to have bumped into him. His writing was practically unreadable. Someone should have taken his thesaurus away from him, and informed him that attempting to emulate nineteenth century British writing does not make for a good read. I can only imagine that the other reviews on this page were written by the author or his friends, since they are so far off base. There is absolutely nothing "gay" about this book, except for maybe three sentences that appear to have been inserted after the fact, mentioning that a co-traveler was gay, etc. The only thing good that I can say is that reading this book might inspire you to write your own travel book, because if the author managed to get this book published, anyone can.
Rating:
Summary: TERRIBLE
Review: This was undoubtedly one of the worst books that I have ever read. The author was pretentious, prissy, nasty toward his "friends" and fellow travelers, and condescending toward what he called "natives". Mainly, though, he was just boring. He simply listed the places he traveled through, along with a litany of complaints about the tour guide, accommodations, and anyone unfortunate enough to have bumped into him. His writing was practically unreadable. Someone should have taken his thesaurus away from him, and informed him that attempting to emulate nineteenth century British writing does not make for a good read. I can only imagine that the other reviews on this page were written by the author or his friends, since they are so far off base. There is absolutely nothing "gay" about this book, except for maybe three sentences that appear to have been inserted after the fact, mentioning that a co-traveler was gay, etc. The only thing good that I can say is that reading this book might inspire you to write your own travel book, because if the author managed to get this book published, anyone can.
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