Books Distilled » Contemporary Literature » Book Review AND GIVEAWAY: Wanderlust
Book Review AND GIVEAWAY: Wanderlust
Welcome to my first TLC Book Tours review (which coincides happily with my birthday)! I have to confess something seriously dorky: Wanderlust, by Elisabeth Eaves, was the first book I received in the mail from a publisher–my first review copy. Free books in the mail for me to read and review! It felt almost too good to be true. I almost saved the envelope from Seal Press, but managed to restrain myself. Don’t forget to check out my interview with Elisabeth Eaves if you missed it!
Travel Memoir
Wanderlust tracks Eaves across more than a decade, and five continents, of travel. We follow her from her native Vancouver to college in Seattle, where she is bored out of her mind; on escapes working as an au pair for a summer in Spain; attending school for a year in Cairo, with a side adventure in Yemen; working as a foreign correspondent in London; traveling Australia, including sailing in a storm that lasts seven days and nights; hiking the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea; and living in Paris with a State Department boyfriend (and those are just the highlights!).
I most enjoyed about this novel Eaves’s ability to place her insatiable thirst for travel in a larger context, one that makes her desire to become an outsider, to place herself as an Other, necessary to her sense of adventure. She compares herself (maybe a tad self-importantly) to Houdini, for whom “the point wasn’t so much to be free as to get free” (217). She thinks deeply, especially at the start, of both how her presence affects the foreign surroundings in which she finds herself, and how those surroundings affect her.
A Double Life
These musings degenerate at times into a rote description of the many lovers Eaves enjoys while traveling. She exhibits this desire to free herself time and time again, usually as she’s trying to escape a serious relationship that she has encouraged. This was the most frustrating part of the book–she seems not to learn from her mistakes, constantly falling in love with men abroad, the affair made more exciting by the fact that they could never make a relationship work; then trying to force the relationship to work, feeling claustrophobic, and escaping by means of another similar affair.
I did find interesting Eaves’s assertion, as she struggles to balance a long-term relationship with a man in New York against a brief affair with a Swede in London, that “travel doesn’t beget a double life. The appeal of the double life begets travel. With two lives, you’re always escaping back and forth” (251).
She ruthlessly examines her own escapism. Eaves’s escapism in many ways serves the reader’s own desire for escape well (especially on a porch with a glass of iced tea in hand).
Going Home
At the start of the novel Eaves proclaims that one morning in Paris she woke up wanting to go home, without knowing where home was. In the end she’s come full circle, leaving Paris to return to her parents’ home in Vancouver for Christmas.
We know only from the author bio that Eaves now lives in New York, the city during the course of the book in which she felt most at home. I would have loved to hear more about that homecoming, that decision to stay in one place, at least for a time. The only closure we get as readers is Eaves’s assertion that “I followed my wanderlust … Now that my thirst is slaked, I get to start anew” (301).
Check out how the other bloggers for this tour reviewed Wanderlust here.
Giveaway!
Win a free copy of Wanderlust! All you have to do is leave a note in the comments. Tell me: what’s your favorite vacation destination, OR where are you dying to travel to next? [Contest closed on Monday, June 27.]
Filed under: Contemporary Literature · Tags: elisabeth eaves, tlc book tours, travel, wanderlust
15 Responses to "Book Review AND GIVEAWAY: Wanderlust"
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About Me
Ever stand in the bookstore or library, gazing around blankly, overwhelmed by choices, jealous of the other purposeful browsers? This blog is for you.
I read. A lot.
Happy Birthday B!
I want to go to Barcelona. Or Ireland. Or France.
Dang. I just want to GO.
xoxoxo!
I’d love to go back to Hawaii.. I’ve only been once but felt like the trip was too short and there was so much more to explore. Great review! Thank you for being on the tour!
[...] Wednesday, June 22nd: Books Distilled [...]
My favorite destination is this hotel on the Kona coast of Hawaii that my family has been going to since what feels like the dawn of time. Unfortunately, the hotel was severely damaged by the tsunami following the Japanese earthquake and is indefinitely closed. I know it’ll open again someday, but I also know that it will never be the same — my longing for it is increased by the knowledge that it’s unattainable.
I really want to go to Spain. Or Argentina. Or both!
I love all of these so far! I really want to go to Italy, Australia and Asia (China, Japan, Singapore).
I would like to go to Bali! Especially to the part they show in the movie Eat Pray Love. I always wanted to live near the water and not have walls in my house!
Happy Birthday!
I’d love to go to the UK–especially Edinburgh, Scotland. Other destinations include France, Italy and Germany.
Sounds lovely! I’ve been to Loch Lomond but never made it to Edinburgh.
[...] Wednesday, June 22nd: Books Distilled [...]
I am most looking forward to the baltic cruise that I am taking in August for my honeymoon. We will be hitting Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, and Russia!
I’m with Caroline: I want to go anywhere! But right now, I’m feeling Spain, Argentina, Brazil…somewhere that’s beautiful and can be relaxing but also has cultural/adventure opportunities!
I’d like to take a polar cruise through Anartica. Sure, you have to sign multiple release forms and travel on a ship with an “ice-strengthened hull,” but I bet if you try hard enough, you can smuggle a smallish penguin back to the States.
I have always wanted to visit India, but I’m intimidated by India.
My favorite place that I’ve visited is Paris and (fingers crossed) I will be headed there again in the spring.
I’m very interested in this book and even if I don’t win your giveaway I’m going to pick it up somehow,somewhere. Thanks for reviewing it. And Happy Birthday!
bibliosue (at) hotmail (dot) com
happy belated and congrats on your first pub copy and review for TLC–i love trish and lisa! as for travel, i do enjoy it and have a few trips lined up in upcoming months. to be honest, though? i’d take a round trip ticket to trenton, nj just for kicks. i love to go anywhere at all! our upcoming trips are vermont in july for my b-day and ireland in october for our 10-year anniversary.
I’m actually more a “stay-cation” kinda gal. But if I were to go anywhere, it would be a mountain spot. Perhaps back to Washington State again, or out in Colorado.
nfmgirl AT gmail DOT com