Tales of a Female Nomad : Living at Large in the World

Rating:
Summary: Adventure of a lifetime!
Review: I was fortunate to have the author as a guest in my home. How delightful to hear her accounts first hand! To have the courage and gumption to carry out such a dream that so many of us would find more than daunting is remarkable. She also has a genuine compassion for the people she meets and sensitivity to these unique cultures that are fast disappearing in this world of globalisation. I like to think she is a positive role model for my teen-age girls not to mention my toddler twins who have wore out three copies of More Spaghetti , I Say! and truly sympathize with Minnie in Why Can't I Fly? Rita's favorite word is serendipity and her life is a perfect demonstration of what the word means. Carry on, Rita! We love ya! ... and write another book about your latest adventures!

Rating:
Summary: Interesting travel tale by an annoying woman
Review: Everyone knows one of those people... the ones who come to some epiphany late in life and think they're superior for it. Those people who condescendingly spew their wisdom while everyone else is thinking "wow, it took you till NOW to realize this??"

The author of this book is one of those people. It took Rita Golden Gelman till the age of 47 to realize that there was more to life than material pleasures, so she sold the vast majority of her belongings and set off to travel the world. Bravo. But instead of physical baggage, she took along a whole heap of psychological baggage- mostly a very twisted, self-centered world view. She thinks that everyone should be just DYING to meet her and love her and if they dont... well, there must be something wrong with them. She doesn't just tell about the lessons she learned along the way, she doesn't make subtle metaphors, she beats her intentions into your head with a 2x4 and comes off as completely condescending. I'm willing to forgive this to an extent since Golden Gelman is used to writing in a style for children where you have to be blunt, but after a couple hundred pages it gets quite tedious.

Over the course of her travels, the author encounters enough exotic people and places to make the book worth reading. It's sure to make you want to dust off your suitcases and go off adventuring, and also sure to make you eternally grateful that Rita Golden Gelman will not be your travel companion.

Rating:
Summary: Courageous
Review: Reading this book made me feel just a little more brave and a little more free. Which I think are really the same thing.

Rating:
Summary: Overall, a great modern travel story
Review: I love reading true stories of people who aren't afraid to break out of their comfort zones. I admire and respect the author of this book - Rita Golden Gelman. And I hope she continues to "go for it"! A quick summary of the book - Rita got divorced and just felt unsettled/dis-satisfied in her routine upper-middle class life. So she started by taking a 2-month trip to Mexico. And this began what turned into 15 years of being a nomad - traveling all over the world. She had no permanent address! She traveled economically by the way. Often managing to live on 12,000 US Dollars a year.

Overall, this is a great modern travel story. But I did have two mild criticisms:

#1: I found some of the writing a bit choppy. (There seemed to be lots of short sentences.) Perhaps this is because the author only wrote children's books before this...

#2: I also don't agree with the author's "world view" (political/sociological) view of things. That is not a reason to dislike her or her book! But I found she contradicted herself sometimes. For instance, she emphasized repeatedly (and I mean repeatedly!) that we must not judge another culture in any way. And we should never attempt to change/alter another culture in any way. We must observe only. But she herself was judgmental at times!

For instance, she usually tried to blend in to the culture she was in by speaking their language, eating their food, etc....But in Bali she refused to learn the local language because the language was steeped in the caste system. (Just talking to someone in the language would involve having to speak "up" and "down" to them.) Rita says in the book that she did not want "to go around insulting people" so she therefore refused to make any attempts to communicate with these people in their own language. I would say this is definitely passing judgment, and making a pretty strong statement to these people that she disagreed with their caste system!!

Rita seemed inconsistent in applying her belief that "we must not judge". Whether she "judged" or not seemed to depend on the particular issue that was involved...

My "world view" is different...Yes, cultures should be allowed to maintain their basic beliefs and systems. However, there are standards of right and wrong in the world. Sometimes a judgement must be made... If a practice is barbaric or dangerous, something needs to be done to alter it. (A recent example that comes to my mind is the infamous Taliban of Afghanistan that was grossly mis-treating women.)

But I have digressed! ...I really did enjoy this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes modern travel stories.


Rating:
Summary: Loved this Book!
Review: I took this book to Starbucks, and laughed so much at the oddities that connected the dots along this wonderful story of a woman who thought she was on the next step of her career, but was really testing her metal and meeting herself all over again. Though I'm a single twenty-something, this incredible book taught me that there is strength in womanhood, and confirmed a lot of my own hopes about how it pays to take a chance on yourself. This book ended up showing me that no matter where you travel, certain truths about humanity prevail.

Rating:
Summary: Pretentious, yet whiny
Review: I applaud Ms. Gelman for putting herself in the position to explore the world. But his needy, self-absorbed travelogue utterly lacked inspiration. I am astounded that a professional writer who has the audacity to criticize others work puts forth such pointless writing. Endless triviality does not equate to fulfilling experiences. I actually believe her stories are better than what are portrayed in this book, but as it stands I'm angry I spent the money.

Rating:
Summary: 5 for content, but a 2 in organization and sentence fluency
Review: I (finally) finished this book, it dragged its little textual feet for me there at the end. I adore the idea of this book, this is a perfect example of the I-find-no-satisfaction-with-the-material-world scenario, and a brilliant execution of a solution. Though this sort of lifestyle certainly wouldn't work for many people, (reaching out of comfort zones, being open minded to both other cultures, along with "playing along" as it were: using your outsider status appropriately, not letting your will get in the way of people's set lives), I can certainly identify with the urge to have such freedom, live so humbly, learn so much.

That said, I was disappointed with the quality of the writing in this book. There were a few sentences here and there that made me happy, but often they would be used repetitively soon after; in general the style seemed tired and sloppy. I excepted better writing from a WRITER. (Be fair, she mainly does children's books, but still.) I found myself unable to come along with her when she went on her quasi-mystical moments, because they just weren't presented very effectively.

I wanted to like this book so badly. In the end I treat it as technical writing: a step by step account of glorious people and lives, the scents and colors, and let the intended format slip away as it does by itself anyway.

Rating:
Summary: True reflection of a woman's spirit
Review: I disagree with many of the reviews. I could not put this book down and I am easily bored. I found Rita's account not only insightful of the places and people she visited (I could see them clearly from her descriptions) but the fasinating story that is the underlying theme of this book is Rita. If you read between the lines you get a real sense of who she is and what drives her. I am amazed at her determination, her zest for life and the trust she puts into the world and universe. It makes you think about the person you are and if you could embrace live and love others in the way Rita does. Her gift of acceptance and loving others and the experiences of life is foundation of her strength. I believe the reason she has been so successful is because others sense that in her. She uses her talents and her faith to succeed in life and teaches us through her example that you don't have to be rich, extrememly brillant (although I think Rita is pretty smart!), or amazingly talented in multiple ways to create a successful and fulfilling life. Thank you Rita!

Rating:
Summary: Flawed, but still better than most reviews would suggest..
Review: This book has a number of serious flaws, but I still think it is an interesting and worthwhile account of a brave tale of serious wanderlust.

Firstly, as many reviewers have suggested, it does get slightly repetitive and boring, and tends to become increasingly so in the section after Rita visits Israel and settles in Bali. I also noticed that some parts of the work are quite poorly edited, with details and facts repeatedly mentioned, though I did not necessarily see any problems with the writing style itself. The work was however, slightly too long. By the end, my interest was undoubtedly declining.

Additionally, as another non-American has mentioned, this is quite an America-centric tale with a very America voice and the obvious assumption that every reader is American. It becomes quite annoying as a result. I think this became particularly noticable and irritable when Rita was in New Zealand, and harped on the differences in speech and made a point of stopping her teaching to ask exactly how something was pronounced. How infuriating.

Another point I want to make is that Rita continously ignores the fact that the people she visits and becomes 'friends' with, are from poverty-striken nations, and that their poverty is directly proportional to how much Western nations (like America) have pillaged from the resources of their country. I guess I was somewhat skeptical about how close the ties actually were between Rita and Mexicans etc in the eyes of the non-Americans, but that is only my judgement.

However, there are some redeeming features of the work, which partly stem from her very clear passion for travel and for people. I particularly thought the section in Mexico and other South/Central American nations was fascinating. I also thought that her Vancover section was quite interesting, though I do wish she had explored a little of what the city etc is like, rather than continously harping on her number of friends and her need to travel again.

Rating:
Summary: DID I MISS SOMETHING?
Review: A book that started with so much promise, then crashes...am I missing something here? The author must have lead a very sheltered life before she began her journey. She knew little. As her journey lengthens, it becomes obvious she is picking up little wisdom along the way. There was something, I am not sure what it was, that really annoyed me about the book..again, perhaps I am missing somehthing.