#215
Title: Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?: A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics, & Professional Hedonism
Author: Thomas Kohnstamm
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Year: 2008
285 pages
Kohnstamm's memoir is not so much about writing his first guidebook for Lonely Planet as it is a self-congratulatory screed lauding substance abuse, poor choices, dubious sexual encounters, and generally unpleasant behavior. Kohnstamm seems to think he's charming and attractive, yet there's little in his self-description to incline the reader in that direction. I was willing to hold my distaste in abeyance until he sold drugs to supplement his income, at which point I read more from determination to finish than from interest. Kohnstamm seems to need life to be dramatic to be meaningful, and appears to view only drugs and bad behavior as authentic. In his list of categories of travel writers, he omits "unhappy drunk ," though he illustrates it nicely throughout. Two stars for the parts that are interesting, though it's like wiping away someone else's vomit to get to them.
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