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The Full Monte: A Fulbright Scholar's Humorous and Heart-Warming Experience in Montenegro
The U.S. State Department's prestigious Fulbright Scholar Program places American professors in other countries for an extended period to teach and experience other cultures. Never has anyone enjoyed it more or provided such an entertaining insight into the program. Paul Dishman provides a revealing view into Montenegro, the tiny former Communist country struggling to join the world stage. The experience turns into a personal journey as he travels to the land of his grandfather and discovers his own surprising heritage. It is part travelogue, part history, part heartwarming personal journey, and all delightfully droll.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 27, 2017
I guess the clue was in the title... who the hell has to namedrop that they are a Fulbright scholar and that the book is supposed to be humourous in the title?
The author doesn't reach Montenegro until we are 25% into the book and have learnt all about their packing. Yawn. And then we learn that they speak a foreign language in Montenegro and do things differently. Hardly an insight into Montenegrin culture.
We are never enlightened as to what his research topic is. One had to assume he kept all the interesting stuff for his dissertation,
The author doesn't reach Montenegro until we are 25% into the book and have learnt all about their packing. Yawn. And then we learn that they speak a foreign language in Montenegro and do things differently. Hardly an insight into Montenegrin culture.
We are never enlightened as to what his research topic is. One had to assume he kept all the interesting stuff for his dissertation,
January 26, 2026
I downloaded this book in preparation to visit Montenegro on holiday last year. I also downloaded Rebecca West’s Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. These are two very different and almost incomparable books. I started with West’s, and was still ploughing my way through it weeks later, long after I had returned from my holiday. Dishman’s book is light.
Travel writing is invariably about the traveller. I liked West, and found the parts about her own experience in the Balkans the best of the book. Unfortunately, the book also got weighed down with 2000 years of historical, ethnographic, political, philosophical minutiae without a clear structure to help someone like me to make sense of it. Therefore, when she would return to surface and mention her hotel or her ongoing catty dislike of the wife of one of her guides, I quite enjoyed that!
Unfortunately, I didn’t feel as engaged to Dishman’s character as he presented himself in his book - and I’m making a hopeful assumption that the persona he creates for the book is a clownish, buffoonish American parody of his real self. As he mentions so many many many times in his book, he is an academic. He constantly refers to himself as the professor (or often regarding his travel companion, “professor and his wife”). He sets up the book explaining how much he loves to travel. Yet the guy spends the first part of the book NOT travelling, and NOT academicing, but fretting about how to lock up his home while he’s gone for 6 months. Worried about what comfort foods to take with him for 6 months. Planning out his packing, based on domestic flight requirements. Getting a physical in some graphic detail for his 6 month trip. Going to DC for a briefing and explaining how different things are in DC (in his OWN country!).
Much of this reads like the diary of an American college kid on their semester study abroad. Stuffing his face with McDonalds at the airport, because America. Shocked that this European country doesn’t use tumble driers. Surprise when the American Embassy doesn’t supply a staff member to walk him to the police station so he can register. The difference is, Dishman is not a kid - he’s a grown up, an “academic” on a state sponsored 6 month trip to a beautiful European holiday destination. The book could be called “American boomer travels to Europe”.
The chapter about finding his relatives was the best of the book. That was moving and informative, and Dishman appeared to reduce the reliance on footnotes to tell his “funny” asides, puns, and comments about the beauty of women.
Oh my god. The footnotes. We don’t need to know every little thing that strikes you funny. These were often comments that one could imagine he mentioned to his wife who probably encouraged him by giving him a smile of acknowledgment, maybe a little forced “ha” or even a “you’re so funny dear” then returning to whatever was actually holding her attention at the time.
If you’re interested in learning about Montenegro, this perhaps isn’t the book for you. If you are friend or family to Dishman, or if you are preparing for your first trip somewhere outside of the United States, this may be the book for you.
Travel writing is invariably about the traveller. I liked West, and found the parts about her own experience in the Balkans the best of the book. Unfortunately, the book also got weighed down with 2000 years of historical, ethnographic, political, philosophical minutiae without a clear structure to help someone like me to make sense of it. Therefore, when she would return to surface and mention her hotel or her ongoing catty dislike of the wife of one of her guides, I quite enjoyed that!
Unfortunately, I didn’t feel as engaged to Dishman’s character as he presented himself in his book - and I’m making a hopeful assumption that the persona he creates for the book is a clownish, buffoonish American parody of his real self. As he mentions so many many many times in his book, he is an academic. He constantly refers to himself as the professor (or often regarding his travel companion, “professor and his wife”). He sets up the book explaining how much he loves to travel. Yet the guy spends the first part of the book NOT travelling, and NOT academicing, but fretting about how to lock up his home while he’s gone for 6 months. Worried about what comfort foods to take with him for 6 months. Planning out his packing, based on domestic flight requirements. Getting a physical in some graphic detail for his 6 month trip. Going to DC for a briefing and explaining how different things are in DC (in his OWN country!).
Much of this reads like the diary of an American college kid on their semester study abroad. Stuffing his face with McDonalds at the airport, because America. Shocked that this European country doesn’t use tumble driers. Surprise when the American Embassy doesn’t supply a staff member to walk him to the police station so he can register. The difference is, Dishman is not a kid - he’s a grown up, an “academic” on a state sponsored 6 month trip to a beautiful European holiday destination. The book could be called “American boomer travels to Europe”.
The chapter about finding his relatives was the best of the book. That was moving and informative, and Dishman appeared to reduce the reliance on footnotes to tell his “funny” asides, puns, and comments about the beauty of women.
Oh my god. The footnotes. We don’t need to know every little thing that strikes you funny. These were often comments that one could imagine he mentioned to his wife who probably encouraged him by giving him a smile of acknowledgment, maybe a little forced “ha” or even a “you’re so funny dear” then returning to whatever was actually holding her attention at the time.
If you’re interested in learning about Montenegro, this perhaps isn’t the book for you. If you are friend or family to Dishman, or if you are preparing for your first trip somewhere outside of the United States, this may be the book for you.
August 23, 2024
The Full Monte is three books in one. While some might consider this value for money, I found it a disorientating read. On the positive side two of the three ‘books’ in this single book are enjoyable. The first very much is not.
Sadly Dishman begins his journey with an extremely pedestrian write-up of the bureaucratic process of moving to another country on a scholarship. I presume its intended audience was that small cohort of other soon-to-be expatriate scholars, in which case a more natural incarnation may have been as a memo or short essay. We are informed of flights, layovers, and laundry, and provided plenty of details of Dishman’s wife cooking and cleaning for him. Totally unnecessary details of a talk given in Venice baffled me as I checked the cover to make sure I had the right book. Numerous references to the women of Montenegro as “ladies with long legs” sent a shiver down my spine. But the original sin of this section, the single largest of the whole book, is that it is very dull. Close to unreadable in parts.
But a silver-lining is present. As you crest over the halfway point it starts to pick up. An absorbing road-trip around the region delights with funny anecdotes and real adventure. My sense of confusion was however maintained as I noted at page 195, the country about which the book is written - *Montenegro* - has barely been mentioned. With a sense of exhaustion I reach a few tales of the books namesake and some genuinely heartwarming moments with distant relatives. It is over in a flash. As the conclusion is draw and reflections are being made I am desperate for more of Montenegro, instead I get opining nostalgics.
In short Mr Dishman needs a better editor. He should seriously consider a clever re-edit, as a genuinely good book lies within these pages. Killing the whole first 144 pages would be a great start. As a wiser man that I once wrote *Brevity is the soul of wit*.
Sadly Dishman begins his journey with an extremely pedestrian write-up of the bureaucratic process of moving to another country on a scholarship. I presume its intended audience was that small cohort of other soon-to-be expatriate scholars, in which case a more natural incarnation may have been as a memo or short essay. We are informed of flights, layovers, and laundry, and provided plenty of details of Dishman’s wife cooking and cleaning for him. Totally unnecessary details of a talk given in Venice baffled me as I checked the cover to make sure I had the right book. Numerous references to the women of Montenegro as “ladies with long legs” sent a shiver down my spine. But the original sin of this section, the single largest of the whole book, is that it is very dull. Close to unreadable in parts.
But a silver-lining is present. As you crest over the halfway point it starts to pick up. An absorbing road-trip around the region delights with funny anecdotes and real adventure. My sense of confusion was however maintained as I noted at page 195, the country about which the book is written - *Montenegro* - has barely been mentioned. With a sense of exhaustion I reach a few tales of the books namesake and some genuinely heartwarming moments with distant relatives. It is over in a flash. As the conclusion is draw and reflections are being made I am desperate for more of Montenegro, instead I get opining nostalgics.
In short Mr Dishman needs a better editor. He should seriously consider a clever re-edit, as a genuinely good book lies within these pages. Killing the whole first 144 pages would be a great start. As a wiser man that I once wrote *Brevity is the soul of wit*.
June 13, 2017
I read this in anticipation of an upcoming trip that includes Montenegro. A very interesting book with concise information about the country's rich history with some humorous stories about his travels in the region. The bonus was the personal aspect of the author meeting his distant family. I recommend this book for providing good background on a very interesting yet not all that well known (at least in the US) country.
July 14, 2021
Picked this book up while traveling in Montenegro and highly recommend!
August 10, 2021
This would be a fun book for anyone who has traveled overseas for more than a vacation. Dishman and his wife are charming and I enjoyed their tales of life as American's in Montenegro.
April 17, 2015
The U.S. State Department's prestigious Fulbright Scholar Program places American professors in other countries for an extended period to teach and experience other cultures. Never has anyone enjoyed it more or provided such an entertaining insight into the program. Paul Dishman provides a revealing view into Montenegro, the tiny former Communist country struggling to join the world stage. The experience turns into a personal journey as he travels to the land of his grandfather and discovers his own surprising heritage. It is part travelogue, part history, part heartwarming personal journey, and all delightfully droll.
I just received a copy from the author and am so excited to read it. I followed his adventures on his blog and love his sense of humor so this looks great!
THE BEST TRAVEL BOOK I HAVE EVER READ! ok this is the nly one, but it was interesting, funny and makes me want to visit Montenegro despite hardly knowing about it - achieving the purpose completely.
I just received a copy from the author and am so excited to read it. I followed his adventures on his blog and love his sense of humor so this looks great!
THE BEST TRAVEL BOOK I HAVE EVER READ! ok this is the nly one, but it was interesting, funny and makes me want to visit Montenegro despite hardly knowing about it - achieving the purpose completely.
January 8, 2015
Fun read of travel through Monte Negro by a Professor I work with at UVU. Interesting all the way through, but it helped to know that man who was writing.
April 13, 2016
Heart warming , informational, witty ,
and a former classmate of mine.
5 stars!!!
and a former classmate of mine.
5 stars!!!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews