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The Best American Travel Writing 2004
Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind.
The Best American Travel Writing 2004 transports readers from Patagonia to Ivory Coast to small-town Vermont. Readers are treated to car and truck trips across America, can fall "in lust" in the South Pacific, and go into the heart of the Congo to rescue gorillas. This year's volume is edited by Pico Iyer, who writes in his fascinating introduction, "Restlessness is part of the American way. It's part of what brought many of the rest of us to America." The Best American Travel Writing 2004 displays American restlessness at its most tantalizing and entertaining.
The Best American Travel Writing 2004 transports readers from Patagonia to Ivory Coast to small-town Vermont. Readers are treated to car and truck trips across America, can fall "in lust" in the South Pacific, and go into the heart of the Congo to rescue gorillas. This year's volume is edited by Pico Iyer, who writes in his fascinating introduction, "Restlessness is part of the American way. It's part of what brought many of the rest of us to America." The Best American Travel Writing 2004 displays American restlessness at its most tantalizing and entertaining.
332 pages, Paperback
Published October 14, 2004
7 people are currently reading
235 people want to read
About the author
Pico Iyer
126 books1,106 followersPico Iyer is a British-born essayist and novelist of Indian descent. As an acclaimed travel writer, he began his career documenting a neglected aspect of travel -- the sometimes surreal disconnect between local tradition and imported global pop culture. Since then, he has written ten books, exploring also the cultural consequences of isolation, whether writing about the exiled spiritual leaders of Tibet or the embargoed society of Cuba.
Iyer’s latest focus is on yet another overlooked aspect of travel: how can it help us regain our sense of stillness and focus in a world where our devices and digital networks increasing distract us? As he says: "Almost everybody I know has this sense of overdosing on information and getting dizzy living at post-human speeds. Nearly everybody I know does something to try to remove herself to clear her head and to have enough time and space to think. ... All of us instinctively feel that something inside us is crying out for more spaciousness and stillness to offset the exhilarations of this movement and the fun and diversion of the modern world."
Iyer’s latest focus is on yet another overlooked aspect of travel: how can it help us regain our sense of stillness and focus in a world where our devices and digital networks increasing distract us? As he says: "Almost everybody I know has this sense of overdosing on information and getting dizzy living at post-human speeds. Nearly everybody I know does something to try to remove herself to clear her head and to have enough time and space to think. ... All of us instinctively feel that something inside us is crying out for more spaciousness and stillness to offset the exhilarations of this movement and the fun and diversion of the modern world."
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
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January 2, 2013Reviewing as I go. Here are my take aways Romance- Not so much a travel piece as a memoir from the 20's-30's. interesting that Angell glosses over the fact that EB White is his stepdad. Test Day- Interesting story from a non traditional source.about a teacher teaching English in Tanzania. It's always amazing to me what isolated cultures think about America. "Is it true you're all given a gun at 18?"
Monuments...- Pretty tepid and overly sentimental piece about DC monuments. Read like a high school book report about the safety patrol trip.
Accidental Explorer...- I'm sure this trip was harrowing and dangerous, but it was really hard to get it across without seeing it Screenwriter's Vacation- Comedy piece about a screenwriter thinking about his vacation as a screenplay. Funny at points. Ahead of the joke most of the time. Canadian Gothic- A history and travelogue of Nova Scotia. Informative without being pedantic History Lesson- A thankfully short Joan Didion piece about a house, in Paris where a woman in ww2, blah blah blah... Under The Sheltering Sky- Traces über traveller Paul Bowles haunts in Tangier. Strange in that Bowles chronicled the place itself while this story chronicles the place only because Paul Bowles and company slept here. Sandbags...- The cute guy I fucked on my vacation. This is horrible. If a man wrote a story like this it would be derided as sexist. Kashmiri Extremism- Interesting story about how terrorism is effecting the skiing business in Pakistan. Who knew there was such an industry? Segways in paris- tad friend and his wife ride through paris on these devices that were novel in 2004. I don't think anyone will remember this story in twenty years The People On The Bus- I find it hard to believe that New Yorker writer/editor Adam Gopnik rides the bus to work everyday. Innocents Abroad- focuses on a Tieppolo fresco in a church in Wurzburg. This story could also be titled "I've read a lot of books." Facing Famine- Ethiopians are still starving and impoverished. Nothing's changed. Chasing The Wall- Most tourists see the Great Wall from a nice photo op spot near Beijing. Hessler followed the wall through the impoverished and ignored villages of China and Mongolia. Really great story. And stop saying The Great Wall can be seen from the moon! There's no evidence. The Ghost Road- This guy is either lying or insane. Mark Jenkins reads about a supply road that was built during ww2 by the US then abandoned due to the war's conclusion. He wants to travel this road. Problem is part of it is in unfriendly Myanmar.This reads like a clichéd action movie but its amazing if its true. Three Cups of Tea has jaded me. Wrong Side...- I'd like to visit this part of South Africa some day. But this story felt like a "we got here before it was cool" tale. Small World- Interesting in that it was written in 2004. Now it seems like every other magazine article is about eating local and how Clear Channel will own us all.
Monuments...- Pretty tepid and overly sentimental piece about DC monuments. Read like a high school book report about the safety patrol trip.
Accidental Explorer...- I'm sure this trip was harrowing and dangerous, but it was really hard to get it across without seeing it Screenwriter's Vacation- Comedy piece about a screenwriter thinking about his vacation as a screenplay. Funny at points. Ahead of the joke most of the time. Canadian Gothic- A history and travelogue of Nova Scotia. Informative without being pedantic History Lesson- A thankfully short Joan Didion piece about a house, in Paris where a woman in ww2, blah blah blah... Under The Sheltering Sky- Traces über traveller Paul Bowles haunts in Tangier. Strange in that Bowles chronicled the place itself while this story chronicles the place only because Paul Bowles and company slept here. Sandbags...- The cute guy I fucked on my vacation. This is horrible. If a man wrote a story like this it would be derided as sexist. Kashmiri Extremism- Interesting story about how terrorism is effecting the skiing business in Pakistan. Who knew there was such an industry? Segways in paris- tad friend and his wife ride through paris on these devices that were novel in 2004. I don't think anyone will remember this story in twenty years The People On The Bus- I find it hard to believe that New Yorker writer/editor Adam Gopnik rides the bus to work everyday. Innocents Abroad- focuses on a Tieppolo fresco in a church in Wurzburg. This story could also be titled "I've read a lot of books." Facing Famine- Ethiopians are still starving and impoverished. Nothing's changed. Chasing The Wall- Most tourists see the Great Wall from a nice photo op spot near Beijing. Hessler followed the wall through the impoverished and ignored villages of China and Mongolia. Really great story. And stop saying The Great Wall can be seen from the moon! There's no evidence. The Ghost Road- This guy is either lying or insane. Mark Jenkins reads about a supply road that was built during ww2 by the US then abandoned due to the war's conclusion. He wants to travel this road. Problem is part of it is in unfriendly Myanmar.This reads like a clichéd action movie but its amazing if its true. Three Cups of Tea has jaded me. Wrong Side...- I'd like to visit this part of South Africa some day. But this story felt like a "we got here before it was cool" tale. Small World- Interesting in that it was written in 2004. Now it seems like every other magazine article is about eating local and how Clear Channel will own us all.
March 4, 2015
I was not as crazy about this as I was about the 2005 edition, but it still had a number of excellent pieces. A large number of them take place within the USA, and I am more interested in international travel essays. Iyer (the editor) seems to like muscular writing and visits to places that are aching from battles and strife. He also selects mediocre pieces by big names like Adam Gopnik, Tad Friend, Bill McKibben, and John McPhee.
Of course, there were several fine pieces that I enjoyed very much. Bill Donahue revisits Paul Bowles's Tangiers in one. In another, Heather Eliot describes a fling with a local stud on a Pacific island. Kevin Fedarko visits some dreamers who run a ski resort in conflicted Kashmir. Tom Haines checks in with some seriously hungry villagers in Somalia. Peter Hessler does a superb job of exposing the myth of the Great Wall of China. Apparently the wall was always several walls that do not follow an exact line, and which are not visible from outer space, as everyone seems to believe. In my favorite piece, Mark Jenkins tries to trace the old Stilwell/Burma Road, but runs into the dangerous political repression occurring in contemporary Myanmar. Rian Malan, an excellent writer, contributes a piece about buying a house and settling down in Cape Town, South Africa. George Packer checks out the troubled youth and political conflicts in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, and he really gets in with the locals, who have odd ideas about America as a potential saviour of some kind. Kira Salak goes to the rural Congo, where some gorillas are being threatened by local militia conflicts. Patrick Symmes contributes two fine pieces - one about a visit to Butch and Sundance's old house in Patagonia, and the other a quick look at Kabul, Afghanistan, along with the destroyed Buddhist statues in Bamiyan. Undoubtedly worth reading for people who like this kind of stuff.
Of course, there were several fine pieces that I enjoyed very much. Bill Donahue revisits Paul Bowles's Tangiers in one. In another, Heather Eliot describes a fling with a local stud on a Pacific island. Kevin Fedarko visits some dreamers who run a ski resort in conflicted Kashmir. Tom Haines checks in with some seriously hungry villagers in Somalia. Peter Hessler does a superb job of exposing the myth of the Great Wall of China. Apparently the wall was always several walls that do not follow an exact line, and which are not visible from outer space, as everyone seems to believe. In my favorite piece, Mark Jenkins tries to trace the old Stilwell/Burma Road, but runs into the dangerous political repression occurring in contemporary Myanmar. Rian Malan, an excellent writer, contributes a piece about buying a house and settling down in Cape Town, South Africa. George Packer checks out the troubled youth and political conflicts in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, and he really gets in with the locals, who have odd ideas about America as a potential saviour of some kind. Kira Salak goes to the rural Congo, where some gorillas are being threatened by local militia conflicts. Patrick Symmes contributes two fine pieces - one about a visit to Butch and Sundance's old house in Patagonia, and the other a quick look at Kabul, Afghanistan, along with the destroyed Buddhist statues in Bamiyan. Undoubtedly worth reading for people who like this kind of stuff.
February 23, 2015
An excellent collection of travel-related writing that makes me want to read "The Best American Travel Writing" for every year. My only quibble is that there were too few women represented here. (Only 4 of the 24 essays are by women.) Are women just not as adventurous or as eloquent as men? It would be interesting to pick the brains of the editors and see what they think. Still, this was a pleasure to read and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to know more about this wide world we inhabit.
November 6, 2009
Liked: There was a great one about a man who makes it a life goal to travel a forgotten military road across Burma. He pulls some crazy stunts just to get in then feels conflicted with his silly quest when he views widespread oppression up close.
Did not like: The one about a dumb girl in the south pacific.
Did not like: The one about a dumb girl in the south pacific.
September 5, 2007
It is always hard to rate an anthology. This one, like most, is hit-or-miss. Some stories, like Bill McKibben's story about a Vermont town, is thought-provoking and great. Others are more forgettable.
January 9, 2011
Read selections of this for travel writing class. Many different types of "travel" writing-- adventure, exploration, discovery, traveling the familiar, transportation. I did a presentation on Heather Eliot's "Sandbays in the Archipelago," which was awesome.
June 8, 2007
I want to be a travel writer.
November 30, 2007
Random pick up at the book thing turned out to be much better than expected. Maybe I'll try some more from "The Best..." series.
November 15, 2022
Reading The Best American Travel Writing edited by Pico Iyer brought me to new cultures, new places. The authors gave histories of the countries, used specific imagery, details that brought emotional depth to the places. In other words, the authors brought the reader along on their journeys.
This edition of The Best American Travel Writing contained the sad state of affairs in quite a few places. In “Shattered Sudan” by Paul Salopek, war-torn Sudan is being exploited by other countries for the oil found within its boundaries. Elizabeth Rubin detailed the political strife in Afghanistan in her essay, “The Road to Herat.” Kira Salak used menacing descriptions of both people and places in “Places of Darkness,” describing the turmoil in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
But there were also enlightening journeys for writers. In “Chasing the Wall” by Peter Hessler, Hessler wanted to follow the Great Wall of China. In doing so, he learned “[i]t’s not enough to simply protect something” his guide told him. “You have to actually use it. If it’s not valued, then sooner or later it will get destroyed.” [p-127]
In “Faces in a Crowd,” Thomas Swick learns from the people he meets in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Yes, education can lead to well-paying jobs, but it also can make it “harder for people to take advantage of you.” [p-285]
The Best American Travel Writing edited by Pico Iyer is an interesting read.
This edition of The Best American Travel Writing contained the sad state of affairs in quite a few places. In “Shattered Sudan” by Paul Salopek, war-torn Sudan is being exploited by other countries for the oil found within its boundaries. Elizabeth Rubin detailed the political strife in Afghanistan in her essay, “The Road to Herat.” Kira Salak used menacing descriptions of both people and places in “Places of Darkness,” describing the turmoil in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
But there were also enlightening journeys for writers. In “Chasing the Wall” by Peter Hessler, Hessler wanted to follow the Great Wall of China. In doing so, he learned “[i]t’s not enough to simply protect something” his guide told him. “You have to actually use it. If it’s not valued, then sooner or later it will get destroyed.” [p-127]
In “Faces in a Crowd,” Thomas Swick learns from the people he meets in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Yes, education can lead to well-paying jobs, but it also can make it “harder for people to take advantage of you.” [p-285]
The Best American Travel Writing edited by Pico Iyer is an interesting read.
May 28, 2021
Impressive writing and incredible stories from all over the world.
March 13, 2008
This is a great collection. It was my friend during some solitary times in Costa Rica.
January 24, 2017
What a mixture of great enticing writing and very difficult to digest stories. I learned a fair bit from some of the stories and the ability to pick this up and put it down was nice but it doesn't draw me in as some writing does.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews