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Music in Every Room: Around the World in a Bad Mood
John Krich’s Music in Every Room depicts the disappointments and corruptions of modern travel. “This quirky, querulous and oddly appealing travelogue” (The Boston Globe) charts Krich’s journey across Asia with his irascible, courageous girlfriend, Iris, an ex-cheerleader turned mystic from Liberty, Texas. These two abandon Berkeley for uneasy locales where the first and third worlds rarely butt heads, thus abandoning air conditioning and all the other assumptions and comforts of home. They acquire blisters in the Himalayas and dengue fever in Bali, smoke opium with a suspected CIA agent and fend off the supplications of lost hippies and Gandhian holy men alike. They discover that the Pomp and Joy Lodge in Taramarang harbors bedbugs, and the famed shadow puppets of Indonesia take second billing to reruns of “I Dream of Jeannie.” What they don’t find is nirvana, satori, or freedom from the crassness of the West
- GenresTravelNonfictionHumor
324 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 12, 2010
i love a well-written travel book. this one seemed to hold the promise of a curmudgeonly trek through little-known parts of the world sprinkled with humor and insights. heck, susan sontag was blurbed on the back cover saying how wonderful she thought this book was.
i really tried to like this book. there is only so much self-aggrandized navel-gazing self-pitying i can manage to read without throwing up my hands and saying, "next!" if the author was simply trying to grow as a person, looking for external events to change the internal person, i'm willing to give them a shot. krich, instead, whined. and whined.
when i gave up on trying to like this book i decided i'd try to just finish it. that lasted less than 100 pages.
a few months later i thought, this book couldn't have been that bad. maybe i was just in a bad frame of mind when i tried reading it. so i tried reading it a second time -- and quickly decided i was right the first time.
krich does not speak to me. maybe he does it for other readers, but not me.
i really tried to like this book. there is only so much self-aggrandized navel-gazing self-pitying i can manage to read without throwing up my hands and saying, "next!" if the author was simply trying to grow as a person, looking for external events to change the internal person, i'm willing to give them a shot. krich, instead, whined. and whined.
when i gave up on trying to like this book i decided i'd try to just finish it. that lasted less than 100 pages.
a few months later i thought, this book couldn't have been that bad. maybe i was just in a bad frame of mind when i tried reading it. so i tried reading it a second time -- and quickly decided i was right the first time.
krich does not speak to me. maybe he does it for other readers, but not me.
Currently Reading
September 1, 2008Billed as "the ultimate travel book", Krich's journey is Chatwin with a bellyache. Perfect for someone with a yen for travel but limited funds...relax in an easy chair and join this guy who observes everything and misses nothing.
May 27, 2023
I picked this up on a whim from a book shop in Haye-on-Wye, drawn in by the title. My copy is a well-loved copy with darkly stained pages and a front cover that sheds as you read it. But that for me adds to the character of this book, the kind that would be absentmindedly plucked from a parent's book case and dipped into whilst uttering 'how long have you had this for?'.
In many ways Krich's humorous travelogue is set within its time of conception, with sharp but not harsh nods to the communist regime that was rife across Asia at the time, along with the hippie desire for soul searching. Yet I still enjoyed it as a "millennial" and sunk into its charm, I think largely because at its heart is the journey of two people deciding whether their destiny is a life together in the real world. Admittedly there were paragraphs I skipped over and zoned out of, sensing there was some deeper meaning in Krich's narrative that had drifted too far out for me to reach. That said, I was pleased to have picked it up for a mere £1.50 and it will remain on the book case for travelers of the literary world to dip into should they wish. I will likely myself dip back into it from time to time, follow a personal journey through the odd line here or there that delighted me enough to underline it.
In many ways Krich's humorous travelogue is set within its time of conception, with sharp but not harsh nods to the communist regime that was rife across Asia at the time, along with the hippie desire for soul searching. Yet I still enjoyed it as a "millennial" and sunk into its charm, I think largely because at its heart is the journey of two people deciding whether their destiny is a life together in the real world. Admittedly there were paragraphs I skipped over and zoned out of, sensing there was some deeper meaning in Krich's narrative that had drifted too far out for me to reach. That said, I was pleased to have picked it up for a mere £1.50 and it will remain on the book case for travelers of the literary world to dip into should they wish. I will likely myself dip back into it from time to time, follow a personal journey through the odd line here or there that delighted me enough to underline it.
August 7, 2023
so, so… too little side information for my taste
March 15, 2026
He wasn't kidding about the bad mood. The book just reeks of bitterness. Neither entertaining nor informative.
January 3, 2017
I am starting the new year sick and too weary to drag myself out of bed. Reading this book has helped immensely -- it's impossible to feel sorry for myself after reading about our Hero and his companion being struck with dengue fever in Bali and dysentery in India.
The style of his prose required me to read slower than usual. Not that it was a difficult read; he's just thoughtful and I often had to stop and write quotes in my journal and ponder what he was saying.
"As with most exiles, temporary or otherwise, it was hard to tell if they'd been forced to miss their own epoch or if they'd lent circumstance a hand while no one was looking."
"Every artifact served to remind us that a border, artificial as it may be, achieves real, often shocking, results."
"...rightists always suffer from deficiencies in conscience."
"Snakes thrive on certain political ecosystems. They do well in military dictatorships."
"Cultures are stronger than men, and men are not so weak as they think."
I enjoyed reading about this trek through ten countries, often on foot.
The style of his prose required me to read slower than usual. Not that it was a difficult read; he's just thoughtful and I often had to stop and write quotes in my journal and ponder what he was saying.
"As with most exiles, temporary or otherwise, it was hard to tell if they'd been forced to miss their own epoch or if they'd lent circumstance a hand while no one was looking."
"Every artifact served to remind us that a border, artificial as it may be, achieves real, often shocking, results."
"...rightists always suffer from deficiencies in conscience."
"Snakes thrive on certain political ecosystems. They do well in military dictatorships."
"Cultures are stronger than men, and men are not so weak as they think."
I enjoyed reading about this trek through ten countries, often on foot.
January 23, 2009
It had a few moments that were really good, but it felt like the writer liked making neat sounding sentences that had no meaning.
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October 13, 2015Donated to DPL oct 2015
July 9, 2016
Highly entertaining.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews