Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World

published	May 28th 2002 by Three Rivers Press
binding	Paperback
isbn	0609809547 (isbn13: 9780609809549)
pages	320
description	When Rita Golden Gelman traveled to Mexico during a two-month separation from her husband, she hoped to satisfy an old craving for adventure and, in t...more [close] When Rita Golden Gelman traveled to Mexico during a two-month separation from her husband, she hoped to satisfy an old craving for adventure and, in the process, rejuvenate herself and her marriage. Little did she know it was the beginning of a new life, not just as a divorcée, but as a nomad of the world. Since 1986, Gelman has had no permanent address and no possessions except those she can carry. She travels without a plan, guided by instinct, serendipitous opportunities, and a remarkable ability to connect with people. At first her family and friends accused her of running away, but Gelman knew she had embarked on a journey of self-discovery and a way of life that is inspiring and enviable. We know Gelman is not your typical middle-aged housewife from LA when, on that first trip to Mexico, she randomly picks a Zapotec village and decides to live there for a month, knowing nothing about the culture or the language. When she arrives, the villagers run away from her, terrified. By the time she leaves, there are hugs and tears. From there she travels to Guatemala and Nicaragua, Israel and the Galapagos Islands. But the heart of the book--and her 15-year journey--is Indonesia, where she lives for eight years. It is Bali that forever changes how she looks at the world, facilitated by her friendship with an aging prince. Tu Aji not only invites her to live with his family but decides that the education of Rita will be his final duty in life. Wherever she goes, Gelman has an uncanny ability to slip into other ways of life and become part of a community. And she is a person for whom doors open widely--her seatmate on the plane to Bali scrawls the prince's name on a piece of paper, she talks her way into a sojourn at Camp Leakey in Borneo where orangutans are studied, and an entire village in a remote part of Irian Jaya prays for the clouds to clear so her plane can land--and they do! Gelmen's secret is her passion for people. That being the case, the book is short on descriptions of place, but long on the rarer inside view of the peoples and customs of those places. This in itself is treat enough, but Gelman's animated and intimate story comes with a kicker--it's never too late to fulfill those dreams. --Lesley Reed [close]
date added	02-09-07 edit book

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Taylor rated it:

07/29/07

bookshelves: favorites, given, non-fiction, own

Read in July, 2007

recommends it for: women, travelers, anthropologists

At the age of forty, Rita Golden Gelman has something of an epiphany. She no longer wants to live the life of luxury that she has been - fancy dinner parties, awards ceremonies, etc. She decides it's never what she wanted in the first place. She begins to pursue a degree in anthropology, which begins to put a strain on an already not so stable marriage.

At the end of the program, she has to go live in a community for awhile, and she and her husband decide to take a two month break while she d...more At the age of forty, Rita Golden Gelman has something of an epiphany. She no longer wants to live the life of luxury that she has been - fancy dinner parties, awards ceremonies, etc. She decides it's never what she wanted in the first place. She begins to pursue a degree in anthropology, which begins to put a strain on an already not so stable marriage.

At the end of the program, she has to go live in a community for awhile, and she and her husband decide to take a two month break while she does this. She decides that she wants to live in a Zapotec village in Mexico. She, of course, goes through the initial fears that anyone has traveling alone, as well as fears about her marriage. But she comes to love the village and finds living a life of teaching english, cooking, hiking, dancing, speaking with the people in the village to be all that she hoped it would.

After two months, her husband asks for two more, and she goes to Guatemala. After those two months, she returns home changed, but willing to make her marriage work, only to hear the first words out of her husband's mouth are that he wants a divorce and he's already called a lawyer. She takes this time to sell all of her belongings to him (they come up with a monetary value for all their possessions and he gives her half of that), set up a separate bank account and automatic bill pay, hire a bookkeeper, and begin her life as a nomad.

She visits a slew of countries - the politically torn Nicaragua, many islands in Indonesia (she uses Bali as a primary base for 8 years), Thailand, New Zealand, and her stories make you want to visit all of them, and make you want to meet some of the same people that she does. I can't even name a favorite anecdote from the book, because there are lots of great ones. I really liked learning about how Balinese people handle a death. I also liked that the people in Bali have a community - everyone in the community is there to support everyone, they're there to help cook, clean, construct, be there for anyone in the community. Everyone is obligated to help out others, and when their time of need comes, everyone else is obligated to help them. It's like a big neighborhood support group for a variety of occasions, and I love that idea.

It's a pretty quick read - because she's normally a children's author, the language she uses is rather simple and easy to digest, but not devoid of interest. She has great description skills, particularly in relation to her surroundings - though I do wish she had spent more time describing the people, but the book came out in 2001 and she did all this in the '80s and '90s, so I'm sure some people's faces started to dissolve.

Other than that, my only other complaint was that there were some places she visited that she didn't write much about, I would've liked to hear more. However, she apparently writes about them on the website she's set up for documenting her continuous travels (right now she's in Seattle!, where her daughter lives). She also set up an e-mail address and says that she will respond to every e-mail. amazing!...less

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Elizabeth rated it:

05/18/08

bookshelves: world-travel

Read in May, 2008

Great read in the same vein as Eat, Love, Pray-a lady newly on her own travels the world and has a great time (and spends a lot of time in Bali). RGG does a wonderful job of making the places come alive and truthfully shares her fumbles and triumphs. I read this in anticapation of going to Yucatan Mexico but she doesn't stay there long. It also made me thankful that my husband loves adventure and travel (though not on this full time basis).
My little soap box-She calls herself a nonjudgmenta...more

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Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World

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