Honorable Bandit: A Walk across Corsica | 
 enlarge | Author: Brian Bouldrey
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
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Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 534036
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 296
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0299223205
Dewey Decimal Number: 914.4990484
EAN: 9780299223205
ASIN: 0299223205
Publication Date: September 12, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Perfect condition. Satisfaction guaranteed. Inventory subject to prior sale.
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Product Description
Brian Bouldrey traveled to the island of Corsica, with its wine-dark Mediterranean waters, powdered-sugar beach sand, sumptuous cuisine, and fine wine. And then he walked away from all of them.
Bouldrey strapped on a backpack and walked across Napoleon's native land with the same spirit many choose to dance or drink: to celebrate, to mourn, to think, to avoid thinking, to recall, to ignore, to escape, and to arrive.
This wonderfully textured account of a two-week ramble along a famous Corsican hiking trail with his German friend Petra (she was good at the downhills while he was better at the uphills) offers readers a journal that is a launching point for reflection: thoughts on cultural differences, friendship, physical challenge, personal challenge, and getting very, very lost. Part travelogue, part memoir, and part lampoon, this book offers readers an impressionistic view of a little talked about yet stunningly beautiful landscape.
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| Customer Reviews:
I Love to Go Awandering October 29, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
If you've read any of Bouldrey's other work, this book will come less of a surprise than a delight. If you're new to Bouldrey, I envy you the discovery.
"Honorable Bandit" is part travelogue, part memoir, part meditation on walking, and part shaggy dog story. Bouldrey spent several weeks walking across Corsica, the Mediterranean island best known as the birthplace of Napoleon (the ruler, not the pastry), and he does offer tips on dealing with pigs, flash floods, and tiny horses. But "Honorable Bandit" is not a guidebook. Corsica merely provides the context for tales of vendettas, lonzu, throat singing, disagreeable roosters, and a host of other subjects that won't get you across the island any quicker or more safely. Speed is not the point, after all -- the journey is about the journey, and the journey is through life and history, not an island that seems to be saying, "We're #1!"
Reading the book is like watching a slideshow given by a loquacious, but very engaging, host, who stops the show for long stretches as one story leads to another, starting with the slide, but then sliding into tales of family and friends and escaped convicts and past journeys and memorable meals, yet always returning to the next slide, and just in the nick of time. In the hands of a lesser writer, such a book would be tedious at best and infuriating at worst. But Bouldrey loves language, and loves the reader, and has such wonderful things to tell you that you forgive him his excesses, even when they are excessive.
The problem with most memoirs is that the memoirist generally thinks of him- or herself as the most important -- and certainly most interesting -- character in the story. Bouldrey is rarely guilty of that crime. He uses his experiences as a way to tell us about what he's discovered along the way, and in doing so, allows us to make our own discoveries. He is a most generous host, and his book is a most satisfying repast.
Brilliant, and that's just the "acknowledgements" section October 24, 2007
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
I have just finished the "acknowledgments" section of Brian Bouldrey's new book, and it's one of the best I've ever read. That may sound like hyperbole, but it's not. I'm a voracious reader -- I tear through 5-10 "acknowledgments" sections every week -- and Mr. Bouldrey's is as good as any penned by Mailer, Updike, or (God rest his soul) Vonnegut.
Instead of struggling in vain to adequately describe the merits of Bouldrey's acknowledgements, let me just quote a short passage from what is destined to become a classic of the form:
"The author wishes to thank . . . Larry Wood . . . ."
Deceptive Humility September 26, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Bouldrey, Brian. "Honorable Bandit: A Walk Across Corsica", University of Wisconsin Press, 2007.
Deceptive Humility
Amos Lassen and Literary Pride
The University of Wisconsin Press has taken the lead in the academic field of publishing books relevant to our community. Brian Bouldrey, one of the leading gay men of letters published with them and the result is always exceptional. In
"Honorable Bandit, he takes us to he island of Corsica where the beach is as white as sugar, the sea is deep and dark as wine and the food and drink is spectacular. Bouldrey walked across Corsica so that he could spend time with himself and to think about his life. At the same time he could also avoid thinking and could escapea"escape to remember and to revel in his past and to mourn his losses. For two weeks he and a German friend named Petra hiked cross the land and in this book he gives us a journal of the experience. Corsica was t be for Bouldrey a place for reflection so that he could explore himself first of all ad then the difference in cultures and friendships.
He surmounted physical dangers and challenges in order to find himself and risked getting lost and facing personal challenges as memory often forces people to do.
It is somewhat hard to classify this book"it is both memoir and travelogue and also lampoon". Most of us are unfamiliar with Corsica and the beautiful pictures he creates in our minds are not likely to be forgotten quickly
Bouldrey's journal is humorous and touching at the same time. It is also very wise and extremely touching. As we travel with him, we also explore ourselves and it is easy then to look into the places in our hearts and face issues we may have avoided facing. We can deal with our own demons and Edens and Hells. All of this is in Corsica just as all of this is within every individual. Reading Bouldrey face his inner soul allowed me to peek into my own. Reading Bouldrey allows us to know him and to know ourselvesa"it is as if he is the tour guide on each readera(tm)s personal journey to self discovery and acceptance..
Bouldrey's humility is deceptive at times and fro this I learned that we should move simply"one step at a time and that step must be timely and measured and full of thought".
We live in a world where destinations are fixed places ad by leering how to move toward our goal we may be forced to look at our mortality and the road that lies before us. The beauty of Corsica is a metaphor for the beauty of life and while we may trek on the path toward wherever we are going, we question who we are ad what our purpose in life is. I sincerely believe that all of us want to leave a mark on the world and to be remembered for the accomplishments we have made but it is impossible to journey through life and not be affected by it. We also learn that a set destination is not always seta"obstacles and accidents can change our paths and when all is said and doe, it is up to us to decide which is more importanta"where we end up or how we get there.
When I closed the covers of the book I felt cleansed. As I walked through Corsica, which s described so beautifully in Bouldreya(tm)s words, I also walked through where I had been and thought very carefully where I am going. A perfect example of this is how I ended up in Arkansas. Had it not been for Katrina, my life would have been completely different and I may not have ever read this book or written this review. It was not planned to be that way but that is how it turned out. Walking through Corsica with Brian Bouldrey allowed me to walk through my own life. Whether where I am now is worth it or not is a question to be answered and while the journey was not always fun, the rewards have been great.
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