Free Book Friday: Imagine – A Vagabond Story
06. Nov, 2009 
16 Comments
When Grant Lingel finds out in his fifth year of college that he wouldn’t be graduating that winter because of some non-transferable credits, he decides to avoid the prospect of finishing school alone by heading to Mexico instead. It’s with this impetus that the travelogue Imagine – A Vagabond Story begins, which unbeknownst to our 23 year old narrator, will be the driving force behind his travels. He flys to Mexico because his friend lives there. He later travels to Belize and Guatemala because some kids are going. He returns to Mexico City to visit his crush. He decides to skip across the Atlantic to Barcelona to tag along on someone else’s adventure. He seems unable to be alone, defining himself completely by the company he keeps. Without realizing it, Grant has written a story about the great nothing of one’s early 20s– the booze, the casual drug use, the hormone-driven sex, the waiting. If he had written this when he was 10 years older, there would be some humor in the retelling. Instead we get an unflinching view of the searcher– the boy before he finds his cause, the hero without courage, the kid trying everything because he’s too scared not too.
To be clear, this is not a well written book. In fact, there are writing and story telling errors that quickly become distracting to the reader. He overwrites (“it was a rather smooth flight”). He uses hyperbole to describe common images (“It was a turquoise so vivid and so clear, as if not a single toe had ever plunged into the water”.) He is consistently vague in his descriptions (“The scenery was picturesque”). He writes cliches on top of cliches (“The afternoon sun was beating down, and it was again hot as hell.”) There are no well defined characters in this book except Grant, and I don’t really get a sense of what makes him tick. There is no story arc, no opposing force, no character development. I could go on, but that’s not why I wrote this review. It’s an amateur book written by an extremely earnest young writer who obviously put a lot of effort into polishing his prose. Despite all it’s short-comings, this book does have an audience.
Full disclosure: I like to read travel non-fiction that I can relate to and that matches my stage of life. As a married 32-year old, full time traveler expecting my first child, I couldn’t be farther away from where Grant was in 2006. But that’s not to say this isn’t the perfect book for someone else. I have traveled in hostels, and specifically to all of the areas he mentions in his book. While he misses the opportunity to offer keen observations, he does accurately portray a style of travel. In fact, it’s probably the way many kids travel around Central America. Hanging out in hostels, partying every night, vaguely remembering where they’ve been and only exploring between hangovers and benders. It’s a real part of travel and if you want to know what it would be like to just hang out on the gringo trail, this book does a good job at describing it.
I also have to give Grant a lot of credit for his approach to travel. While most people his age would save up or borrow money from Mom and Dad, he did it literally with a one way ticket and $300 in pocket. He got a job working at the resorts. He learned a lot of Spanish. He traveled largely without a plan. And by the second half of the story the writing improves as he gets out of his own way and starts showing more than telling.
Ultimately, I’d recommend this book for the would-be backpacker of a younger mindset. It’s a little slice of voyeurism into the lifestyle without all that bothersome plot and character development.
Want a Free Copy?
Leave a comment below and tell me your best drunk story. Don’t have one? Well it’s Friday night. Go get a bottle and report back tomorrow. I’ll choose the winner on next week’s Free Book Friday.
Announcing Last Week’s Winner of Crush It!
Shannon OD who wrote, “I found Gary about a month ago and his message is just so passionate! I love his enthusiasm and follow him closely to keep me motivated as I try to get my site off the ground! I need more of Gary in my life!” Ok Shannon, you’ve got it.
Many thanks Christine, I am looking forward to reading Gary’s book and appreciate this fun Friday promotion!
Shannon OD´s last blog ..A Little Review…Go Green: A Diva Cup for the Ladies
All of my best drunk stories are way too blurry to recall! I’ve yet to read this book but have read a few other reviews as well… as a soon to be backpacker, I think I will probably enjoy it! Thanks for sharing
Love this review. Honest but not cruel. Being in the same position myself (early 40′s, married, long away from the party lifestyle) and having read the free 10 chapters of this book, I can relate to your point of view and agree it’s an interesting read nonetheless.
Scott´s last blog ..Top 9 Things to See in Toronto
Hi Christine,
First, I appreciate this promotion thing here on your blog. Have been reading you for quite sometime.
I don’t drink. So what do I do?
I have read this book’s review on a blog & an interview with the author. I so much want to read this one because it’s very different.
First, I have never been to those places it talks about.
Second, never done most of the things described in it.
Third, it’s culturally very different.
It will definitely give me a different perspective from what I have experienced till now.
Nisha´s last blog ..Influence of Tamil
And btw, congrats & best wishes for your child. You must have planned a place to welcome him/her or is it going to be a surprise for you as well ?
Nisha´s last blog ..Influence of Tamil
I had one Yeungling (?!) and I sang horrible during Rock Band… does that count?!
Anthony´s last blog ..Out of "Time"
I would say one of the more original stories I have involves playing drinking games on an overnight train from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Perhaps I got too excited over the cheap vodka, at the time I was studying abroad in Stockholm so alcohol was quite expensive, but I ended up having way too much to drink and locked myself into the bathroom on the train. My friend had to get an employee to unlock it from the outside to fetch me and get me to bed. But not before picking me up off the bathroom floor (eww!) and accidentally spilling a bottle of water on my head as she tried to tie back my hair as I purged the excess alcohol out of my system into the train toilet.
My best drunk story had to be recited back to me because I don’t remember. I woke up and all my personal belongings were in a manila envelope, my head hurt like hell and when I looked down at my hands all my finger tips were covered in some kind of black ink. Even with the pounding headache I knew full well what those little yellow slips of paper were inside the envelope. I got 4 (or it might have been 5) tickets, ranging from MIP (Minor In Possession of Alcohol), Drunken Disorder, to Resisting Arrest.
From what friends told me, I had a hell of a night and was really upset (to the point of cursing) that someone wanted to make me stop. Guess telling a cop that he was a nerd in high school and that the only reason he was a cop now was to make up for his low self esteem and his small peni….well you get the point.
Yeah, that god for the American legal system, in which even a 20 year old kid can screw up but can afford to get a loan from a bank to pay for a cricked lawyer to settle everything. Well not quit afford as it took me a lot of community hours and about year and a 1/2 to pay that loan back. I learned my lesson on that one “Cops aren’t funny and drinking beer before whiskey will only make you sicker (and broke).”
T-roy´s last blog ..Faces of Peru: 001
Here goes:
I was at a party at my friend’s house. Some random shady dudes rolled into their house and started talking sh*t about everyone there.
We’re not typically violent people, but my friend had just won a bottle of Jack in a beer pong tournament so we were all a little fired up.
We tell these guys to leave politely and they respond with fists. We suddenly have a five on five brawl going down.
We’re in the middle of battling these guys and trying to push them all out the door when this really big girl starts yelling at us to stop.
My friend looks over and says, “Get out of here you fat b*tch.”
One of the random dudes we were fighting stops for a second and says, “That’s not cool man, she’s pregnant.”
That was the end of the fight. Everyone dispersed.
Derek´s last blog ..My Favorite Blogs (At The Moment)
I was in Punta Cana for my senior year in high school and I was very lucky to not have become Natalie Holloway. This was in 2001, so it would have been the precursor to the tragedy that Natalie Holloway became.
Carolina´s last blog ..Get Healthy and Fit, Part 3 – Exercise Edition
I got really drunk with you at Tini Bigs and you and you stole my cell phone, dialed my wife and then handed the phone back to me. Then you said, “Tell her she needs to come out drinking with us! Tell HER!!!!”.
Later we went to the diner across the street to “sober up” and ate apple pie and drank coffee. Fully caffeinated and still drunk on way too much gin, I drove home and discussed the pros and cons of drunk dialing spouses with Amy. Mostly what I remember are the cons.
Ok, so not my best drinking story, but my best one that directly involves everyones favorite almost fearless travel writer…
The year was 2004, Monotesticular Lance Armstrong won his 6th Tour de France, Greece are the surprise winners of European Championships and Manchester United are the not so surprise winners of the FA Cup. Another amazing sporting achievements was me, as my year as a regular member of the Ten Pin Bowling team meant that I was a fully paid up member of the Atheletic Union, and was invited to nights out and all sorts of evenings with girly footballing men and manly lacrosse playing women.
The highlight of the year was an evening dinner and a ball in one of Liverpool’s top function halls. This year, it was the turn of The Gladstone hotel near Lime Street, Liverpool’s main station.
The problems began when – being one of the most popular clubs in the Atheltic Union, we straddled two tables of 8 of us. The price of the three course meal was £25, which included four bottles of wine per table, two red and two white.
The problems began when on our table I was the only person who could stomach white wine, not that I was complaining at the time. So taking the two bottles of Chardonnay underneath my arm, I proceeded to drink, on an empty stomach. I was a student, it was illegal to refuse free booze.
So yeah, drinking on an empty stomach meant I didn’t really remember too much of my meal. In fact, the rest of the evening was a blur, but according to all sources, I disappeared at around 11:30pm.
The next thing I remember was 6am, waking up on a cool April morning, being rudely awaken by a train. Gathering my barings and letting my hangover kick in, I realised where I was.
Chester Station. 40 miles away, and technically in ANOTHER country.
I mentioned the story to the people I was spending the evening with, and asked me what happened. Apparently the story goes that I was speaking to a mate after meeting his parents for the first time that day. Between our drunken selves we said that we would head back to Colwyn Bay to meet my mum as a surprise visit the next day. I got up and said “I know! Lets do this now!”. My mate backed off, I bought a ticket back to Colwyn Bay, but only got as far as Chester.
Rhys´s last blog ..The Top 3 Mistakes Rubbish SEOers Make
Pete:
I can neither confirm nor deny any of the details you’ve described.
PS: Tell Amy I’m sorry.
PPS: I thought for sure you were going to mention a story of YOURS about a certain tattoo.
Yes, well…*AHEM*…don’t all good drunk stories involve regrettable tattoos?
This week’s winner was Derek! Thanks to everyone for their very amusing stories.