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Summary: wandering around with Greenwald is at least educational
Review: a riveting tour ( only sometimes "de force"), careening around the world, learning about Greenwald, observing him, watching him watch himself and others in both slow motion and fast paced moments.
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Summary: The Best Travel Narrative Ever Written!
Review: After Reading Jeff Greenwald's The Size Of the World I was exhausted! I felt as if I had personally travelled with him to all of the exciting places he had ventured to...his honesty of what it is really like as a foreign traveler was very refreshing. Too many writers try to mystify a place, when in actuality it is often a hard road to travel in foreign territory. Jeff Greenwald tells it like it really is, without destroying the unique beauty of a place or its people. This book made me laugh so hard, made me cry, and made me a little homesick -For anyone who has been attacked by the travel-bug, or anyone seriously considering doing any extensive travel overseas, or anyone wanting to try traveling "off the beaten path"...this is it! Throw away your Lonely Planet Guide and take jeff along with you!- this is the book to cure your itch! A definite keeper!
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Summary: A Humorous Voyage Beyond Self-Importance
Review: He sets himself up for a karmic tumble and of course his fall from grace is hysterical. Fortunately there wasn't far to fall so he survives with some great stories to tell. I enjoyed this book so much I gave it to my husband and kids (of the adult variety)in turn. For a month, it seemed someone was always erupting in laughter somewhere in our house. Unlike Paul Theroux (whom I enjoy in spite of his crankiness), Jeff Greenwald's most humorous revelations are usually at his own expense. As generally happens, travel highlights the contrast between the romance of the idea with the reality of the voyage and visa versa. This isn't a trip I'd take myself, but I'm very glad Mr. Greenwald did!
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Summary: A Humorous Voyage Beyond Self-Importance
Review: He sets himself up for a karmic tumble and of course his fall from grace is hysterical. Fortunately there wasn't far to fall so he survives with some great stories to tell. I enjoyed this book so much I gave it to my husband and kids (of the adult variety)in turn. For a month, it seemed someone was always erupting in laughter somewhere in our house. Unlike Paul Theroux (whom I enjoy in spite of his crankiness), Jeff Greenwald's most humorous revelations are usually at his own expense. As generally happens, travel highlights the contrast between the romance of the idea with the reality of the voyage and visa versa. This isn't a trip I'd take myself, but I'm very glad Mr. Greenwald did!
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Summary: Self pity as travelogue
Review: How original and provocative. A self-absorbed, flaky baby boomer flirting with Eastern Religion on his RTW trip in an attempt to contextualize his life. Aside from his time in Tangier with Paul Bowles, Greenwald offers us little insight, heaps of pseudo mysticism and a phenomenally irritating Australian girlfriend. I've read scores of travelogues but never actually wished the narrator to be struck by a careening Third World bus. If you want urbanity try Pico Iyer; if you like provocative, dogmatic observation and effortless writing go with Paul Theroux; if you revel in the insipid, the obvious, and the sycophantic you'll love Jeff Greenwald. Fortunately for Greenwald many do.
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Summary: Thoroughly Enjoyable
Review: I think it's interesting that the reviews of Size of the World presented here are either 5 stars or 2 stars, indicating that people respond very strongly to this book, in either a very positive or negative way. Personally, I loved it. It was great taking a journey with a travel writer who seemed so much more like a real person than the usual omniscient guides in more traditional books. Jeff Greenwald the author has flaws, true, but don't we all. He's not presenting himself to be an all-knowing master guide to the Universe. He acknowledges the discomfort and loneliness as well as the joy and wonder of his travel experiences and communicates them without that holier-than-thou attitude so many travel writers seem to wallow in. As a result, I think people who respond to real, sincere, honest writing will love this book. If you're looking for someone cool and hip that will help make you feel cool and hip, go read someone else. I think this book has probably touched many lives in a deep and spirtual way. It's also hilariously funny and as I stated in my one line review, thoroughly entertaining. Please don't let some of the negative reviews expressed here prevent you from checking this book out. Patty S.
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Summary: I thought this book was about going around the world....
Review: I thought this book was about going around the world, and enjoj all the adventures of what was to come, but only offered a little of that... Greenwald is a very good writer, but spends too much time in his self pity about his G/F's he left behind and the one in India with papaji.. He shouldnt have rushed his experience about "having to get to Mt. Kilowas" for the excursion, he was just trying to get his girlfriend back.. although this book has its moments, I recommend Danzingers Travels ...
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Summary: Stirs the wanderlust in us!
Review: Jeff Greenwald brings the enormousness of the world to our minds and imagination. His personal perspective and his tribulations and dilemmas are very well shared without him sounding too self-centered and absorbed with his own opinions. The best part of the book was his unannounced visit to the American expatriate-writer Paul Bowles in Tangier, Morocco. His visit (not his first) to Nepal and Tibet was a little overstated, but given his personal convictions, this is understandable. We may not all have the same degree of time, resource, and ardor that Jeff has for traveling, but this book is a beautiful reminder of the mystery, intrigue, and wonder the world out there has in store for us who are willing to appreciate it. And all this talk about global village, cyberspace, communication by email, internet, fax, cell phone, and quick transportation by airplanes have not diminished the lure of travel and the delicious danger that may lie ahead!
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Summary: Alternately interesting and tedious.
Review: Several interesting things happen to Greenwald on his marathon, round-the-world trip. Unfortunately, Greenwald surrounds his amusing anecdotes with long-winded navel gazing and obscure references to Eastern philosophy and religion. Even boring stretches, like cargo-ship rides across the ocean, don't deter him from describing them in eye-glazing detail. Periodically, the author engages himself in wishy-washy self-talk about where to go next. How about somewhere where something actually happens, preferably with a little dialogue? Perhaps a better editor would have helped him cut to the chase. This book is like a photo album of a family trip where half the pictures are of interstate rest stops and kids fighting in the back seat.
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Summary: Around the world with out a plane
Review: The author decides to take a trip around the world without ever setting foot aboard an airplane. He takes a ship, hikes, hitchhikes, takes trains, ect... Greenwald shows the good, the bad and the dirty of long-term travel.
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