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Route Number 11: Argentina, Angels & Alcohol

Harry Whitewolf

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Dec 19, 2014 Daniel Clausen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: indie-authors-goodreads

I started reading “Route 11” at a time when I needed a good travel book. What is Route 11 -- part Gonzo journalism, part spiritual quest, stream of consciousness. Beatnik writing? Perhaps. The book jumps from scene to scene -- not quite poetry, but not stable enough to be prose. The book attempts to be what travel is. Random. Sometimes surprising. Sometimes loose threads that never meet. Disappointments, sure. But also, unexpected discoveries.

The book stretches like one big zipper down the midd I started reading “Route 11” at a time when I needed a good travel book. What is Route 11 -- part Gonzo journalism, part spiritual quest, stream of consciousness. Beatnik writing? Perhaps. The book jumps from scene to scene -- not quite poetry, but not stable enough to be prose. The book attempts to be what travel is. Random. Sometimes surprising. Sometimes loose threads that never meet. Disappointments, sure. But also, unexpected discoveries.

The book stretches like one big zipper down the middle of the page with sections that are vague, yet vivid. Passages like these: “Three whole non-stop weeks of Devil City dancing and drinking. A blurry bubble of time without boundaries.”

A cast of wild characters -- believable in their unbelievability.

I suppose it’s not a travel book unless you’re drunk, decadent, and constantly stumbling into interesting characters. Though, I do sometimes wonder if there could be a good travel book written about taking a package tour and just seeing the usual sites.

Sex, drugs, drink, girls, party, repeat...things happen... you’re young. Things don’t make sense. You’re young. You try to figure things out -- things don’t make sense.

I’m pissed now and trying to read this book. Somehow, I think if I were in Busan like I was supposed to be that I might see chapters of the book scribbled onto a bathroom wall while I try to piss. It’s not that the book is crap-- it’s not! It’s fantastic!-- it’s just that it’s that kind of book -- it’s the kind book that works on a pdf or scribbled on a bathroom stall door.

The book makes me think I should read “On the Road” someday soon. I did read “Angel Strings” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), and I keep having one night stands with these vagrant books that turn out to be great in bed.

So the book is also about getting over your ex and falling in love overseas as a means to getting over your ex. Truth be told, going overseas is probably the best thing you can do to help get over a girl.

So you lose your soulmate, find a dude named Sean who is an endless beer-drinker, skirt-chaser, party-upon-party-upon-party type of guy who somehow gets you into trouble so deep you temporarily forget about the girl.

At certain points in the book, an important questions is brought up -- can Hedonism be a kind of spiritual path?

The estrangement the author feels at times comes out clear and intense -- he can’t speak Spanish; he is alone; he has been dumped. He feels at the very bottom and yet he is an enchanting foreign land -- the best bottom there could be. ...more

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