Ern's Monthly Page Turners (November 2008)

Hey, it's the beginning of the last month of the year. Just a few more weeks until Christmas. Once again I won't be spending it with my family in the States, but hey, I'm there in spirit. I will however be heading up to my wife's home town of Aomori for the New Year's Holiday. That will be pretty exciting. But enough about my personal life, let me introduce you to the books I've read for the month of November. Lots of armchair traveling, eating banned foods, getting a glimpse of what a travel writer's life is like as well as what it was like to grow up as the daughter of a Yakuza boss. A writer talks about his love for long distance running and one early holiday story. Also have another book on deck waiting to be read, Houghton Mifflin's annual "The Best American Travel Writing 2008" and hopefully Janet Brown's "Tone Deaf in Thailand". Now read below and enjoy:

1. THE DEVIL'S PICNIC: AROUND THE WORLD IN PURSUIT OF FORBIDDEN FRUIT by Taras Grescoe - Recently I had read Tom Parker Bowles "The Year of Eating Dangerously" in which he travels the world and eat what are Western palates may consider dangerous - puffer fish in Japan, dog stew in Korea, goose neck barnacles in Spain, elvers in the U.K., etc. and followed that book with reading Jay Rayner's "The Man Who Ate the World" in which he travels the world eating at Michelin three star restaurants and checking out other Celebrity Chefs and their restaurants. Now, I've come across a book where the author travels the world in search of culinary items that are either illegal or banned in some countries (some items are banned in their own countries such as ortolans in France and casa marzu (maggot cheese) in Italy). He starts his tour in Norway to go in search of hjemmebrent (Norwegian moonshine), similar to Everclear but may be considered a little more dangerous. He then smuggles Poppy Seed Crackers into Singapore (where they are banned), reminding me of a T-shirt I saw there that said, "Singapore is a fine city, We have a fine for everything!). Then it's off to France to find some real epoisses (cheese made from raw milk - banned in the U.S., along with any other raw milk cheeses). Hey, it's not casa marzu but what do I know about U.S. FDA regulations? Next stop - Spain for some criadillas (bull's testicles). The U.S. has "Rocky Mountain Oysters" so I guess it isn't so strange. Next, it's smoking the Cohiba Esplindido in the States (Cuban cigars are still illegal in the U.S. but Grescoe is Canadian and lives in Montreal where he managed to buy his. From smoking illegals cigars in New York City, he then travels to Switzerland to find and taste the origins of absinthe (also banned in the States). Back to France to see why there are so many regulations against importing cacao beans and what it means for the chocolatiers there. Next it's down to Bolivia for some mate de coca made from the coca where cocaine is derived from. And finally back to Switzerland for one item the author will not partake in - pentobarbital sodium (a cocktail to end one's life). One of the few places in the world where assisted suicide is not considered a crime. Excellent read!!

2. DO TRAVEL WRITERS GO TO HELL? A SWASHBUCKLING TALE OF HIGH ADVENTURES, QUESTIONABLE ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL HEDONISM by Thomas Kohnstamm - If you are any kind of traveler, be it a backpacker, a vacationer, or a package tourist, chances are that you purchased a guidebook to wherever it is you were going. I myself have used a countless number of travel guides - Lonely Planet (who Kohnstamm begins to work for), Rough Guide, Fodor's, Frommer's, Sekai no Arukikata (okay, the last one is a Japanese travel guide series), but you get my point. But have you ever considered what kind of person writes these guide books? The ones who do the prior traveling trying to find the best bargains for hotels, restaurants, and whatnot. Here is a book that answers some of those questions. I'm sure any one of us who love to travel secretly dream of becoming a travel writer - one the world's dream jobs. You will definitely have second thoughts about that career choice once you read this. They are given a vast area to cover (in Kohnstamm's case, Northeastern Brazil with square mileage of some small state), a looming deadline (usually about a month), and are chronically underpaid. Another book to add to your collection of industry tell-alls such as Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" and Imogen Edward-Jones' "Hotel Babylon". Excellent book.

3. DEAD MEN DON'T LEAVE TIPS: ADVENTURE X AFRICA by Brandon Wilson - Now this is truly adventure writing at its best. Brandon, along with his wife Cheryl, decided (against their better judgment) to take a break from their lives and travel from one end of Africa to the other with an overland tour group You would think that it would be the dream trip of a lifetime (which I'm sure it was for them), but with all the good comes a series of horrors as well - dealing with touts and con-men in Morocco, having their truck break down in a small desert town in Algeria and waiting a week for a part to come, dealing with African bureaucracy, bribery, malaria and other tropical diseases, boredom among other things. They also traveled when the Democratic Republic of Conga was still called Zaire and South Africa still had an apartheid government. Excellent armchair traveling. Starting from England with a stop in Belgium (getting visas for a number of African countries can truly test your patience it seems). Then, the actual travel route from Belgium – France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Zaire, Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa, back to Zimbabwe, and a final flight out of Africa to Cyprus for a more relaxing vacation. Oh, but for their exciting adventures – climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, going on a safari on horseback, riding the rapids down the Zambezi river, hunting dik-diks with pygmies, checking out Victoria Falls, reaching Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope were some of their highlights.

4. THE SHEPHERD, THE ANGEL, AND WALTER THE MIRACLE CHRISTMAS DOG by Dave Barry – I got an early start on Christmas by reading this light adventure by my favorite humor columnist Dave Barry. The story is set in 1960. Junior high-schooler Doug Barnes is to take part in the town’s annual Christmas pageant. This year Doug is one of the shepherds, while Mary is played by the girl he has a big crush on. It’s Christmas Eve and the family dog Frank has just died. The family not wanting to spoil Christmas for Doug’s little sister, do not tell her anything. But this particular Christmas Eve is full of surprises as the everything seems to head towards disaster, an actual miracle occurs. It would have been even better if I could have read this on a rocking chair sitting by a fire while drinking eggnog. It would even be a great book to read aloud to your kids (if you have any).

5. YAKUZA MOON: MEMOIRS OF A GANGSTER’S DAUGHTER by Shoko Tendo – I imagine most of my readers knowledge of the Yakuza is what they learned from Hollywood films (or if they were a little more daring in their choices), from any number of Takeshi Kitano’s movies. This book would also be a great addition to my friend’s “Asia by the Book” blog but I digress. Tendo presents us with a view of the yakuza world from someone who’s been a part of it for all her life. Her father was a Yakuza boss. From the time she was in elementary school, being bullied by others who referred to her as the “Yakuza kid”, her teachers would praise her drawings but behind her back would say, “…you can’t teach that idiot anything.”, not realizing that Tendo was in the room to hear them. Thus she got her first lesson in the Japanese trait of “tatemae” and “honne” – which is presenting a good face as opposed to expressing your true feelings. As she gets older, she enters the world of being a yanki (slang term for kids from the other side of the tracks), then becoming a glue-sniffer, a speed addict, surviving a near rape from one her father’s underlings, to being beaten up by other members of her gang – it’s not a pleasant life to read about. She’s sent to reform school, has an affair with a married man (who refuses to divorce his wife and has a kid while still dating (or rather using) Tendo.). But ultimately, it’s a story of change and survival. Of cutting her ties with the world of the Yakuza and becoming an upstanding citizen of the community. At times intense, but very hard to put down. It’s not often you get a chance to read about the underworld from someone who’s been there, especially, a daughter of a yakuza boss.

6. WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING: A MEMOIR by Haruki Murakami – If you’re a big fan of Murakami’s fiction, this might not be for you. And even though I have no interesting in long distance running, Murakami’s writing style draws you in on subjects you thought you had no interest in. I was fascinated by Murakami’s desire to become a marathon runner, as well as a writer. Murakami was running a successful bar when one day he decided, he would become a writer (against the advice of his friends and family). And now with his long distance running as well, no one forced him into it. He wasn’t running for his health. He just decided to go running one day and found that it fit his personality to a tee. Murakami uses long distance running as a metaphor for his life as a writer and his life in general. He borrows the title of his book from Raymond Chandler’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” (with the permission from the Chandler Estate) as Chandler was a big influence to his writing. You may be inspired to find that Murakami challenges himself to run a 62 mile ultra marathon or running solo the historic and original marathon course in Greece. So don’t expect a “Wild Sheep Chase” or “Hard-Boiled Wonderland” but do read it and you will not be disappointed.

7. ALONG THE TEMPLAR TRAIL: SEVEN MILLION STEPS FOR PEACE by Brandon Wilson – After reading Wilson’s “Dead Men Don’t Leave Tips” I was hungry for more. Wilson, who has also walked the Camino de Santiago (twice) had met an elderly French man on the trail who had mentioned his dream of walking from his home in Dijon, France to Jerusalem with his wife. But a few years down the road, he gets a letter from the Frenchman who says his wife is unable to make the journey, would Wilson be interested in joining him. Wilson of course jumps at the chance to walk along the old Templar trail – a trail who’s main historic purpose was for war. As Wilson and Emile (the 68 year old Frenchman) start their journey and are interviewed along the way, they state from the beginning that they are walking for peace. That deep down, we are all the same, that we all want the same things – peace and happiness. Their journey covers 11 countries and takes nearly 7 months to complete. At times they are joined by friends and family, but mostly the rely on the kindness of strangers. Their route starts from Emile’s home town of Dijon, France and takes them through a border town in Switzerland, German, Austria (where they take an extended break in Vienna), a short jaunt through Slovakia, across Hungary (with an extended stay in Budapest), then continuing on through Serbia (a country that’s seen more than their fair share of war and misery), with another extended stay in Belgrade. From Serbia through the land of yogurt, Bulgaria and Turkey (with another long stay in Istanbul). It’s here where Emile gives up his dream to continue on to Jerusalem and returns to France with his wife. Wilson himself is at odds with continuing or not. Their original plan was to walk from Turkey to Syria but this was at a time when Syria bombarded Israel with rockets from Lebanon and no one could guarantee Wilson’s safety and when the U.S. was on the verge of attacking Iraq. Wilson decides to continue the journey to Jerusalem but opts to walk across Turkey and catch a cargo ship to Cyprus, traveling across Northern Cyprus, crossing the Green Line into Greek held Southern Cyprus, then taking a boat across to Israel and walking along Israel’s National Trail and coming to the end of his pilgrimage in Jerusalem. Excellent armchair traveling book. It makes you want to make a pilgrimage of your own (or at least to walk along some of the more famous trails – the Camino de Santiago in Spain, the Via Francengina (Canterbury to Rome), St. Olav’s Way in Norway, just to name a few.). There is also the pilgrimage of visiting the 88 temples in Shikoku here in Japan. Very excellent reading.

8. NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND by Bill Bryson – Normally, I love Bryson’s travelogues and the humor he incorporates into it, but for some reason, this particular book left me a little disappointed. You know, I loved his “Lost Continent” as he returns to the U.S. after being abroad for twenty years and travels the southern states. After all those years in Great Britain, Bryson and his family were planning on moving to the “Land of Plenty” – the United States, and Bryson wanted to one last jaunt through his adopted country. Now, I don’t know if it was because I read Wilson’s pilgrimage before this or maybe Bryson had just been in the U.K. too long but I found his constant whining irritating and his condescending attitude towards the populace of small communities just as annoying. It seems he had more to complain about the small towns, British Railways, the monotony of seeing the same stores, the depressing weather (hey, I used to live in Seattle so I can relate to that), the desecration of Victorian buildings with a monotonous architectural style (this he can be forgiven for as well). But really, why take out his anger on a poor part-time worker at McDonald’s who’s required to ask him for items he didn’t order – come on, how petty can you get? So, I’ll recommend his “Lost Continent” and “In a Sunburned Land” but I can’t in good conscience recommend this to my fellow readers.


And so ends another month of Ern’s Page Turners. I hope you had a good time. I already have my next book on deck – Houghton Mifflin’s annual “The Best American Travel Writing 2008” with guest editor Anthony Bourdain. I also did read one other book in Japanese, I just haven’t featured it yet as I’ve been giving the Japanese books a post of their own. Also looking forward to reading Janet Brown’s “Tone Deaf in Thailand”. I’m sure there are a couple of other travelogues (I just can’t enough of them) that are waiting to be read as well. Maybe I’ll even read another Christmas tale or two.

Happy Reading!!