The guys a c*ck

Interesting book but the guy is a c*ck.

Spends his time in India making fun of disabled people and throwing stones at animals. Not exactly what you would expect from a ‘zen’ traveller.

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Good Book

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes would recommend as it was a fast moving entertaining story.

What other book might you compare The Backpacker to, and why?

Not the usual genre I read, so cannot really compare but would recommend

What does Tom Lawrence bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

I like listening to books and Tom Lawrence read the book extremely well and I could really imagine where his character was.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I never listen to books in one sitting but there were times when I did not want to switch it off as I wanted to know what happened next.

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Awesome tale

Great story to listen to whilst lying in the sun by the pool or on a beach

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brilliant

thoroughly enjoyable insight and we'll performed didn't expect to like this book but was very pleasantly surprised.

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I feel so conflicted about his book.

I listened to this book twice before writing this review because it left me feeling conflicted. It feels like someone rewrote Alex Garland's The Beach but did a poor job of reproducing it. There are a lot of themes and settings that are the same across both books. I read a review before buying the book, which referred to the protagonist as a d**k, which I have to agree with. I can't decide whether the author has deliberately written him this way or whether the author believes the comments made are acceptable. There were scenes of ableism, sexism, racism and transphobia all put across in the context of the protagonist having a laugh with other characters, which is not ok. The author appears to think nothing of referring to people as fat. This may have been workable if we were to see some kind of development of character over the course of the story, but we really don't which makes me feel the author may just be ok with this kind of language.

The story could have been really good in the hands of someone else. The similarity in some of the settings really could have been a way to appeal to fans of The Beach, I do think there were enough differences for this to have been amazing. Sadly, this feels like it was written by someone who read about the countries he used as a backdrop whereas the beach felt like the author has genuinely spent time understanding the cultures of the countries he wrote about.

The thing that carries this book for me is the narrator. He does a really good job and is pleasant to listen to, which has prompted me to look for a buy other books read by him.

Overall, the book is ok. It's worth a listen when you're in a bit of a book funk and have nothing else to read.

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Total escapism, totally nail biting..... BRILLIANT

I really enjoyed this book. It has everything, exotic cities, drugs, girls, sex, intrigue, deceit, friendship, sun drenched beaches, high seas adventure as well as exploitation, painful loss and new beginnings.
I felt very connected to all the main characters and lived their wonderment and pain with them.
Thoroughly recommend this book!

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2 people found this helpful

Good fun

What this is not, is a sumptuous and evocative tour of other countries which will place you there. It isn't a Michael Palin style documentary.

It's a story that doesn't follow a conventional beginning, middle and end, but is a retelling of events for a small group of travellers in Asia. The nature of the book is in the events, not the scenery nor differences in culture.

They're young, they do some stupid things as did we all at that age. Some of the detail of the events is sufficiently well-written to have you laughing out loud on occasion, or to build a sense of suspense and tension. The characters are well described.

It could have done with some editing to slim it down by perhaps 30%. The narrator is great. I often find myself abandoning very long audiobooks as I have a short attention span, but with this it's possible to dip in and out of it without missing vital elements which make for continuity and I did complete it.

It's great escapism and I found it enjoyable.

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favourite audiobook by far

I have listened to this book twice now and can relate to many of their stories. Great book and well read.

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Worthy of a listen but no masterpiece.

The draw of this was to reminisce about my time travelling back in the '90s, back when travelling was safe.
The descriptions of the places ran pretty true to memory, but one thing that bothered me constantly through-out the book was Dave. First, I don't know any black guy in England who's name is 'Dave', let alone someone from New York! At least get the characterisation of the people right, the other was his associated dialogue. Awful, and completely none authentic.
As an easy book to listen to, yes, it was somewhat compelling and I was intrigued enough to find out how John and Rick went from penniless backpackers to riding a Rolls towards a yacht. The best description is that of an OK holiday read.

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Totally unexpected

I’ve read lots of travel memoirs before by ‘adventurers’ or hikers taking things seriously so this was completely different from the start.

I wondered if it would be typical stories about full moon parties and clubs but it turned out to be so compelling and an almost unbelievable story with lots of twists and turns, countries and situations I never predicted!

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2 people found this helpful