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Women's Fiction
Road Fever

Road Fever

List Price: $13.00
Your Price: $9.75
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One of my all-time favorite books
Review: The book combines travel, places I've been, places I know well, and places I want to visit. The author mentions unusual landmarks that surprise me when I realize I've been to the places which he mentions. The book is very personal (for me); but I believe many people will feel the same. Also -- Mr. Cahill describes travel in a manner I admire. He characterizes himself as the ignorant and often dirty outsider; he isn't condescending in the manner of Scott Thoreaux or other travel writers. This is rather refreshing. The book is fast-paced and interesting; read it, you'll like it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The funniest travel book I have read in years
Review: The story of this great journey by Garry Sowerby and Tim Cahill in driving from the tip of South America to Alaska in 23 1/2 days is told with such humour that any reader will be laughing out loud as they read about their adventures on they way to setting a World Record for this journey. The drive at times is very dangerous as they cope with so many different countries and political regimes on their trip south to north but their spirit and humour keeps them going as they go 'roto' and even catch 'Zippy's' disease along the way.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Road Fever - Tim Cahill
Review: This is one of the most hilarious books I've ever read. I read it three times in Dutch (my mothertongue)over the last 5 years and now I'm almost done reading it in English, and it cracks me up every time again. Having travelled through South-America and the fact that I've lived in Latin America now for 5 years, helps to understand the typical anecdotes Cahill discribes. Everybody who's been in Latin America and loves travel, MUST read this book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Don't Try This at Home
Review: Tim Cahill is one of my favorite writers--he manages to be funny and touching at just the right moments. This book does both, although the emphasis is decidedly on "funny." I'm delighted to have experienced his trip vicariously, and would recommend this (or any of his other books) to anyone with a sense of humor and an interest in travel.

I would take issue with a comment by Rosseroo (below), however: I don't think enjoyment of these books is at all gender-specific; I'm a woman who is only sorry that she's read all of Cahill's books (I wish there were more!). And I haven't shared them with anyone, male or female, who didn't find them hilarious.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Road Race
Review: Very funny book, Cahill manages to come up with witty observations continually. I liked the book for its consistency and it's straight forward tone. No preaching or navel gazing, just a rip roaring road trip across South America. The book dedicated only a fraction of its length to North America. The book fills in some local detail but it's mostly just border stops, road conditions, driving and endurance. Usually this is a cocktail for the hardened reader only but I found it difficult to put down.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fear and Loathing In Latin America
Review: What Hunter S. Thompson did for Las Vegas, Tim Cahill has done for South and Central America...bring it into view from a perspective that's wonderfully warped and painfully clear. The main difference is that Thompson was fueled by booze and other non-glandular chemicals; Cahill runs on pure adrenaline (and spoiled chocolate milk). Cahill is a very funny guy indeed, and this book chronicles his adventures in his quest to wrangle a camper-shelled 4x4 from Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic Ocean in record time. This book will make you want to stop your car on the nearest US interstate, get out, and kiss the pavement in gratitude.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Read It Fast
Review: You probably can't race through it in 23 1/2 minutes, a minute for each day of Cahill and partner Gary Sowerby's Guinness World Record trip from south of Ushuaia, Argentina, (a lovely little city, by personal and Road Fever testimony) to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, but you should speed through the pages as they sped along the roads. The trip was in 1987 and would be impossible today because some of the route through Colombia is under violent guerrilla control. I would have liked much more of the trip and much less of the preparations. The logistics of preparing for long-distance race driving are staggering, but -- alas -- they are also not very interesting and well over a third of the less than 300 pages cover the getting ready. Once on the road some of Cahill's descriptions of the people and terrains through which they drive are terrific, especially the accounts of the Atacama desert in northern Chile and especially scary driving through Central America. I'd have liked more of that, but too much of the writing is of the "by five o'clock we reached x where we stopped for gas and got directions out of town" variety. Kind of like reading your MapQuest driving directions; they fill space, (usually) get you there, but are more functional than interesting. In the end, while I enjoyed Road Fever I thought it would be more fun than it was. Final note: absence of a map or maps is inexplicable.


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