Synopses & Reviews
Ayun Halliday may not make for the most sensible travel companion, but she is certainly one of the most outrageous, with a knack for inserting herself (and her unwitting cohorts) into bizarre situations around the globe. Curator of kitsch and unabashed aficionada of pop culture, Halliday offers bemused, self-deprecating narration of events from guerilla theater in Romania to drug-induced
Apocalypse Now reenactments in Vietnam to a perhaps even more surreal collagen-implant demonstration at a Paris fashion show emceed by Lauren Bacall. On layover in Amsterdam, Halliday finds unlikely trouble in the red-light districteliciting the ire of a tiny, violent madam, and is forced to explain tampons to luggage-searching soldiers in Kashmir: "They're for ladies.
Bleeding ladies." A self-admittedly bumbling tourist, Halliday shareswith razor-sharp wit and to hilarious effectthe travel stories most are too self-conscious to tell.
This second edition includes a new foreword from the author.
Synopsis
Zine queen Ayun Halliday confesses the best-and worst-of her globetrotting misadventures. "I laughed hard on nearly every page of this shockingly intimate memoir and deeply funny book."--STEPHEN COLBERT Ayun Halliday may not make for the most sensible travel companion, but she is certainly one of the zaniest, with a knack for inserting herself (and her unwitting cohorts) into bizarre situations around the globe. Curator of kitsch and unabashed aficionada of pop culture, Halliday offers bemused, self-deprecating narration of events from guerrilla theater in Romania to drug-induced Apocalypse Now reenactments in Vietnam to a perhaps more surreal collagen-implant demonstration at a Paris fashion show emceed by Lauren Bacall. On layover in Amsterdam, Halliday finds unlikely trouble in the red-light district--eliciting the ire of a tiny, violent madam, and is forced to explain tampons to soldiers in Kashmir--"they're for ladies. Bleeding ladies"--that, she admits, "might have looked like white cotton bullets lined up in their box."
A self-admittedly bumbling vacationer, Halliday shares--with razor-sharp wit and to hilarious effect--the travel stories most are too self-conscious to tell.
Includes line drawings, generously provided by the author.
About the Author
Ayun Halliday has had essays published in several anthologies, including
The Unsavvy Traveler. She is author of
BUST magazine's "Mother Superior" column, and a frequent contributor to
Utne, Hip Mama and other magazines. Ayun is also the author of
The Big Rumpus and creator/author of the
The East Village Inky, which won a Firecracker Alternative Book Award. She lives with her family in Brooklyn.