New Travel Book: ‘A Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean’
Travel Blog • Elyse Franko • 07.08.08 | 5:15 PM ET
Full title: “A Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean: A Grump in Paradise Discovers that Anyplace it’s Legal to Carry a Machete is Comedy Just Waiting to Happen”
Author: Gary Buslik
Released: June 2008
Travel genre: Bad-natured travel, island travel
Territory covered: The Caribbean
Promo copy: “‘A Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean’ ... is an irreverent, no-holds-barred collection of travel essays about one man’s desperate struggle not to fit in—and the result is total hilarity. Each chapter of this rollicking travelog recounts another island-hopping, culture-clashing crisis that puts the homesick author against Idi Amin, flesh-eating monkeys, customs agents, and, occasionally, his longtime travel companion, his wife.”
Critical verdict: “Even when it’s somewhat offensive, it’s still pretty funny. The reader may be put off by racial and national stereotypes, by Spanish rendered as unintelligible baby-talk, by the general tone of condescension toward locals and Europeans, or by turning cultural differences into comedy. ... Or perhaps none of these things will bother the reader in the least, because Americans really do tend to behave badly overseas (never mind here at home) and it’s pretty amusing to read about someone who is even more arrogant, insensitive, and grumpy than they are.” (Clifford Garstang, Blogcritic) “P.J. O’Rourke and Paul Theroux in a blender.” (Luis Alberto Urrea, back cover blurb)