All over the map: Sojourns in Southeast Asia and beyond

by Morgan McFinn

A year after the publication of his 'paradise journal' Out of the Loop, slacker extraordinaire Morgan McFinn finally relinquishes his hammock on the glorious shores of Koh Samui in the Gulf of Siam. In an attempt to widen his orbit of earthly experiences, McFinn sets off to other exotic locales around Southeast Asia and even further afield. Taking up residence in a series of charming hotels, he attempts, as usual, to make himself as comfortable as possible ...

Several sojourns take our man to Phnom Penh, where he stays at the Hotel Paradise, hobnobs with members of the expat community, and undertakes a daunting philanthropic enterprise. On an island in Greece, he stays at the Hotel Rex, visits his old friend the "hermit-poet" of Patmos, and wades through the choppy waters of two holiday romances. At the Hotel Rockholm by the Arabian Sea in Southwest India, McFinn does his best to rekindle the pleasures of a bygone era when the British Raj were the toast of the town. And in the midst of all this, our boy even manages to inject some action and suspense into his idle and idyllic lifestyle - by planning a murder in Marrakech.

Genres: Travel

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Diane in Australia]

In a nutshell:
*I didn't learn anything new about any of these countries, or their people
*I didn't read anything intriguing (or even vaguely interesting) about his travels
*I felt totally bored, and couldn't wait for the book to be done
*I do not enjoy Morgan McFinn's style of writing
*It was all about him, and trust me, he is not someone I want to spend 288 pages with!

1 Star = Yuck. I wish I hadn't wasted my time reading it.

[Whistler's Mom]

I'm not really my brother's keeper, am I?

I read this author's OUT OF THE LOOP and his AN ECLECTIC JOURNAL: CAMBODIA and liked both of them very much. Those are the first and fourth in a series of books about McFinn's life in Southeast Asia. ALL OVER THE MAP is the second in the series and I didn't enjoy it as much as the other two, although in some ways it's a deeper, more thoughtful book.

In OUT OF THE LOOP, the author is living in a seaside shanty on the Thai resort island of Koh Samui. He's living a very basic life - eating, drinking, swimming in the ocean, drinking, chatting with eccentric expats, drinking, chasing girls, and (you guessed it) drinking. He's happy. In AN ECLECTIC JOURNAL: CAMBODIA, he's married to a young Cambodian woman, living in a small Khmer village, chatting with eccentric expats, and drinking (but not as much.) He's happy.

ALL OVER THE MAP covers part of the time between these two eras in McFinn's life and he wasn't so happy, hence it's a more disturbing book. Just warning you.

He's concerned because his writing isn't selling. A mentor says that more varied experiences will make his writing more interesting. And so he breaks out of his rut (Koh Samui, with periodic trips to Cambodia to get a new visa so he can go back to Koh Samui.) He goes to Morocco and India and the Greek island of Patmos and France and Cambodia and back to Patmos and gets in several trips to Bangkok. He still wants to live in Asia, but can't quite figure out what he should be doing there. He loves the slow pace and the low cost of living and the easy accessibility to recreational sex and the other expats. He enjoys overhearing and repeating the conversations of tourists. (Some of his funniest material, BTW.)

What he doesn't like is the poverty. He's a Jesuit-trained boy and he can't seem to take the blithe attitude of other expats, including most of the well-paid "charity" workers. He feels that he should be doing SOMETHING, but he can't figure out what. When he makes efforts to alleviate the suffering, he feels better, but sometimes his efforts are money down the drain. He's an atheist, so he can't adopt Mother Theresa's philosophy that poverty doesn't matter as long as the souls are saved. So?

This is a good book, although sometimes an uncomfortable one. There's a great deal of McFinn's usual whimsical humor and some fascinating characters. And it does make you think about the whole First World/Third World thing. He doesn't have many answers (except that most of the money we're putting in now is wasted) but at least he bothers to ask the questions. God love him for that.

P.S. Skip the second trip to Patmos. He's deeply depressed and it's a real downer. He even repeats (verbatim) a beach party from the first trip. Time to go home and sober up, buddy.

[Carolyn]

I found this author puzzling. I have no idea what he was driving at although his description of the places he visited was quite good