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Wayward: Fetching Tales from a Year on the Road
Wayward( Fetching Tales from a Year on the Road) <> Paperback <> TomGates <> Createspace
- GenresTravelNonfictionMemoir
122 pages, Paperback
First published January 25, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 14, 2013
Tom Gates is an American who traveled to Singapore, and the only thing he felt compelled to write about was the country's domestic policies on chewing gum. People looking for a guidebook or travelogue should look elsewhere, as that is certainly not what this book is. This book doesn't really have any good advice. It's almost a cautionary tale, except it doesn't really have any moral lessons to teach. It's just a collection of the author's thoughts, observations, and reflections as he traveled the globe. If you are like me and are interested in reading that sort of nonsense, then you will probably find this book to be a fantastic read. I really enjoyed it. I found this book to be incredibly engaging and finished it in no time. It is well-written, especially for a self-published book, and the author's style of writing is true to his unique voice: honest, raw, and engaging.
March 21, 2026
[I wrote this review about a decade ago and just found it]
Tom Gates used to be a music manager. He worked with acts like Patti Smith and The Format. During a music hiatus, he took a year-long trip around the world, stopping anywhere and everywhere, and documenting it all in under 120 pages.
Gates sees a child drown in a pool in Chile. “The smoky dance floor eventually pushed us upstairs, to an area called the Love Tunnel. In most circles it’s simply referred to as a Dark Room, an area of a club where people congregate to slam bodies. I squeezed into a curtained-off area about the size of a basketball court, the air still thick with thumping beats. It was 4:30am, which seemed to be the peak time for getting some action.”
He goes to the filthiest bar in Argentina. He parties, comes down, and reflects through Fiji and Bali. Southeast Asia finds him eating dog. “I wasn’t even thinking of eating dog until I met Alec. He had a way of smiling and raising his eyebrows that suggested trouble, the kind of trouble that I just had to get into.”
More so than the locations, Gates focuses on one particular story. He rarely mentions the happenings on the street, the landscapes, or the weather. Stories don’t connect. Tiny vignettes into an odd and surreal planet. Instead of speaking about the culture, he maintains a level of self-absorption that is never overwhelming or frustrating. He talks about riding on the back of a motorcycle with a woman. He talks about not being let in to London to see a Bruce Springsteen concert. He sees Star Trek in a French cinema, in French, and writes about how he perceived the movie.
He starts his chapters off with power. Harsh confessions and raw emotion. “I am in a berlin apartment, looking over at my boyfriend who I will break up with tonight, who will leave this dimwitted ‘living together’ experiment and who will have solid ground for telling everyone that I know that I’m impossible to deal with in the long term.”
The book is a quick whirlwind around the world, something to read on a layover, something to laugh at on the toilet. Check out Wayward: Fetching Tales from a Year on the Road and learn the inner workings of an outsider looking at the world through a distorted and blurred telescope.
Tom Gates used to be a music manager. He worked with acts like Patti Smith and The Format. During a music hiatus, he took a year-long trip around the world, stopping anywhere and everywhere, and documenting it all in under 120 pages.
Gates sees a child drown in a pool in Chile. “The smoky dance floor eventually pushed us upstairs, to an area called the Love Tunnel. In most circles it’s simply referred to as a Dark Room, an area of a club where people congregate to slam bodies. I squeezed into a curtained-off area about the size of a basketball court, the air still thick with thumping beats. It was 4:30am, which seemed to be the peak time for getting some action.”
He goes to the filthiest bar in Argentina. He parties, comes down, and reflects through Fiji and Bali. Southeast Asia finds him eating dog. “I wasn’t even thinking of eating dog until I met Alec. He had a way of smiling and raising his eyebrows that suggested trouble, the kind of trouble that I just had to get into.”
More so than the locations, Gates focuses on one particular story. He rarely mentions the happenings on the street, the landscapes, or the weather. Stories don’t connect. Tiny vignettes into an odd and surreal planet. Instead of speaking about the culture, he maintains a level of self-absorption that is never overwhelming or frustrating. He talks about riding on the back of a motorcycle with a woman. He talks about not being let in to London to see a Bruce Springsteen concert. He sees Star Trek in a French cinema, in French, and writes about how he perceived the movie.
He starts his chapters off with power. Harsh confessions and raw emotion. “I am in a berlin apartment, looking over at my boyfriend who I will break up with tonight, who will leave this dimwitted ‘living together’ experiment and who will have solid ground for telling everyone that I know that I’m impossible to deal with in the long term.”
The book is a quick whirlwind around the world, something to read on a layover, something to laugh at on the toilet. Check out Wayward: Fetching Tales from a Year on the Road and learn the inner workings of an outsider looking at the world through a distorted and blurred telescope.
January 9, 2024
Thinking about this book just makes me miss The Format even more than usual.
August 9, 2016
I'm reviewing this book for what it is. It's crazy funny little tales from on the road. It's a lightning-fast read (realllly short), but it's a pretty good character study. I was laughing out loud and repeating certain passages. Read it while traveling and two of us fought over it and ended up just reading it together.
Read
September 15, 2013I had read some of the sections of this book from Tom's Posterous. Then it became a Kindle book and now it's free on Wattpad, so I was able to read it in its entirety. It's a mixed bunch - some I really liked, some are just meh. Nevertheless he's got a distinct writing style.
January 3, 2013
Funny journal of traveling the world - really puts things into perspective. Very inspirational to take a look around and reevaluate my situation and makes me feel like traveling, learning, and expanding as a person is definitely possible!
Read
August 7, 2019I like that Tom's stories focused on his most memorable moments with locals and fellow travelers. He could have gone on about the sweeping landscapes or whatever, but we've read stuff like that already. There are some melancholy twists that took me by surprise.
August 30, 2013
Enjoyable, entertaining, fucked up, weird. All things that describe different parts of this book, a collection of some of Tom's favorite essays from a year of traveling around the world - during which I got to meet him while he was spending a month in Argentina. Overall, a pleasure to read.
March 29, 2012
Funny guy who has gone through a lot of interesting situations.
December 2, 2013
Smart, cynical and very entertaining storytelling of his year traveling around the world.
September 5, 2014
I'm a traveler. I get him. I loved his sarcastic voice and was sad to be finished.
August 1, 2016
A very different travel journal but worth it.
October 16, 2015
Wasn't exactly what I expected but very funny!
May 9, 2017
Fun, honest, educational and edgy, Gates gives good story and in one sitting makes you want to both travel the world and write about it.
September 13, 2017
I was standing in Powell's bookstore in Portland, the largest in the country, eyeing this book. An elderly employee came over and told me I had to get it, so clearly I did.
It's a book of short stories from the writer's trip around the world. Some stories are much more interesting and memorable than others...but the success of this collection comes from the writer's voice. His writing style is so honest, easy to read, hilarious, and without pretension. Quick and fun read for sure.
It's a book of short stories from the writer's trip around the world. Some stories are much more interesting and memorable than others...but the success of this collection comes from the writer's voice. His writing style is so honest, easy to read, hilarious, and without pretension. Quick and fun read for sure.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews