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AA Gill is Away
A. A. Gill is one of the most feared writers in London, noted--according to the New York Times --for his "rapier wit." Some even consider the mere assignment of a subject to Gill a hostile act. But when the notice "AA GILL IS AWAY" runs in the Sunday Times of London, the city can rest peacefully in the knowledge that the writer is off traveling.
"My editor asked me what I wanted from journalism and I said the first thing that came into my head--I'd like to interview places. To treat a place as if it were a person, to go and listen to it, ask it questions, observe it the way you would interview a politician or a pop star," Gill writes.
Upon his return, readers are treated to an account of his vacations to places like famine-stricken Sudan, the pornography studios of California's San Fernando Valley, the dying Aral Sea or the seedy parts of Kaliningrad.
The result is one of the most fascinating, stylish and irreverent collections of travel writing.
"My editor asked me what I wanted from journalism and I said the first thing that came into my head--I'd like to interview places. To treat a place as if it were a person, to go and listen to it, ask it questions, observe it the way you would interview a politician or a pop star," Gill writes.
Upon his return, readers are treated to an account of his vacations to places like famine-stricken Sudan, the pornography studios of California's San Fernando Valley, the dying Aral Sea or the seedy parts of Kaliningrad.
The result is one of the most fascinating, stylish and irreverent collections of travel writing.
305 pages, Paperback
First published April 14, 2011
88 people are currently reading
874 people want to read
About the author
A.A. Gill
36 books102 followersAdrian Anthony Gill was an English journalist. He was the author of 9 books, including The Angry Island. He was the TV and restaurant critic and a regular features writer for The Sunday Times, a columnist for Esquire, and a contributor to Vanity Fair. He lived in London.
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March 22, 2010This was a really assorted grab bag of travel essays. Apparently AA Gill is someone famous in his own country, and also apparently admired for being witty and intelligent, because his writing often oozes with his knowledge of that. That's not to say his writing is bad. Essays on the death of the Aral Sea, the "not famine" in Sudan, and a number of other areas were completely absolutely fascinating, partly because of their unusual subject matter, and partly due to the passion with which he writes. Perhaps that's the problem I had with some of the essays. When he is passionate about a subject, he writes with razor-sharp words, angry, cynical, with perhaps a dash of hope under it all. He speaks lyrically of beautiful Sudanese teens, angrily of European and American abuses of so much of Africa...his writing teems with emotion and makes me see a new place in a new way.
However, when he moves into more familiar territory, his writing seems to take a turn for the worse. Instead of being passionate, he is either nastily condescending (subjects with which he's familiar and does not like--Germany, Japan, etc.) or cloyingly self indulgent (The essay about his Rolls Royce was one of the worst in the collection.). He's smart and he knows it, and when he doesn't have a raw passion on the topic, he falls back on being clever and mean and full of his own intelligence and 'importance'. The essay about the porn industry was the absolute worst. Revolting and pointlessly titillating.
I'm still glad I read the book, though. I now know more about Sudan and the Aral Sea region than I did before, not to mention the Kalahari, Cuba, Ethiopia, and a number of other destinations. He may be a self indulgent smart and rich man, but he picks some interesting subjects.
However, when he moves into more familiar territory, his writing seems to take a turn for the worse. Instead of being passionate, he is either nastily condescending (subjects with which he's familiar and does not like--Germany, Japan, etc.) or cloyingly self indulgent (The essay about his Rolls Royce was one of the worst in the collection.). He's smart and he knows it, and when he doesn't have a raw passion on the topic, he falls back on being clever and mean and full of his own intelligence and 'importance'. The essay about the porn industry was the absolute worst. Revolting and pointlessly titillating.
I'm still glad I read the book, though. I now know more about Sudan and the Aral Sea region than I did before, not to mention the Kalahari, Cuba, Ethiopia, and a number of other destinations. He may be a self indulgent smart and rich man, but he picks some interesting subjects.
May 11, 2024
I finished this book. And also my degree
AA Gill is so rude it’s amazing but what a writer, brutal. And mostly funny. Often extremely offensive, not always in a good way 10/10 recommend
AA Gill is so rude it’s amazing but what a writer, brutal. And mostly funny. Often extremely offensive, not always in a good way 10/10 recommend
June 29, 2018
Dar vienas lengvas vasaros skaitinys, kurį gali padėti ir paimti bet kuriuo metu. Tai trumpos istorijos iš kelionių, aprašytos labai sarkastiško, tiesaus, keliautojo ir žurnalisto A.A.Gill. Jo tikslas šioje knygoje buvo paimti interviu ne iš žmonių, bet iš vietovių. Knyga suskirstyta pagal žemynus, istorijos trumpos, tematikos įvairios. Retkarčiais perskaičius istoriją, taip ir nesuprasdavau ar ji turėjo kažkokią aiškią idėją, žinutę, ką norėta pasakyti. Nors autoriaus mintys šokinėdavo, jo juodas humoro jausmas, stačiokiškumas ir tiesumas, priversdavo ne kartą nusijuokti ar bent nusišypsoti. Būtent jo charisma, neįtikėtinai kūrybiški palyginimai ir tiesiog bebaimis sakymas to, ką kiti bijotų net pašnabždėti kam nors į ausį ir yra stipriausia šios knygos pusė.
July 19, 2024
Pradėjus skaityti šią knygą pirmus skyrius persekojo Déjà vu jausmas - kur aš tai girdėjau. Tada prisiminiau - tokio stiliaus knygomis garsėjo Andrius Užkalnis. Man Užkalnio knygos buvo "skanesnės". Tada vėl sukosi mintis - kažkur jau girdįtas ir jaustas stačiokiško su britišku prieskoniu humoras. Vėl prisiminiau - Jeremy Clarkson laida "Aukščiausia pavara". Ir ten humoras "susivalgė"geriau. Nors autorius Adrian Anthony Gill buvo anglų rašytojas ir kritikas, žinomas dėl maisto, restoranų apžvalgų ir kelionių aprašymo, ne visada tai turi tapti knyga
March 13, 2017
I remember discovering Led Zeppelin at the age of 15- floored that one band could make so much delightful noise. I have vivid memories of googling to see if they'd be playing in LA or Irvine anytime soon, and promptly being crushed to learn John Bonham had died over 20 years ago. The remaining members said there could be no band without Bonzo, and they went their separate ways.
I feel the same about A.A. Gill's writing. I came across Gill only after reading a tweet that he had died of cancer.
You think you know writing. You think you understand how words combine one after another to synthesize thoughts and ideas into shareable nuggets of "aha!" and "I gotta share this."
And then you come across A.A. Gill.
Gill doesn't write human British English. He is what happens when someone snorts an entire dictionary, and then tells you what they've experienced lately in 4k detail. Nothing gets left out.
A mortal might write "We experienced a crazy thunderstorm while in the Kalahari, I thought I was going to die, it was fucking scary."
But A.A. Gill will write -
"The first thick drops fell at about nidnight. The next six hours were the most terrifying of my life. That is not a relative statement, it is an absolute. If you have never been in a tropical thunderstorm, forget everything you know about rain, it is not the same phenomenon. European rain is flushing a loo compared to Niagara. The storm cleared its throat across the pan and then broke directly overhead, the thunder and lightning sumultaneously strobing and crashing. The water hissed and sang like a fusillade of rifles. The fear started as trepidation with a side order of concern that you could see off with a dose of common sense and half-remembered school physics. The bedroll flooded and the person I was with sobbed, and the crack and flash zigzagged hour after hour, echoing through the towers of rock. I saw the faces of my children flashing on the back of my screwed-up eyes and worndered if I would hear the bolt that fried me. I knew, and I wish I didn't, that granite is conductive rock with an unhealthily high metal content, and this place was the highest point for hundreds and hundreds of miles. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide."
Gill's writing is the opposite of the lately espoused advice that writers should keep paragraphs and sentences short, and simple, and don't use "lugubrious" if you can just say "gloomy" instead.
The thing is, that method of writing only applies to articles on thought catalog and Medium, where most people write bullshit like "6 reasons you're failing at life & what to do about it."
Gill's convinced me that Hemingway editing is for people who don't fully grasp English or write stodgy non-fiction. When you can paint with all the colors of the Alphabet, rules be damned.
I love how his writing is so intricate and stylized and has some depth, but with seemingly effortless execution. The real benchmark of genius- making difficult tasks look stupid easy.
But I'm not a Gill fanboy.
The one thing I value is Gill's ability to make you appreciate what writing could be. I don't agree with his opinions all the time. In fact, sometimes I thought him petulant and entitled, though with 5x my vocabulary. And that's ok. Many travel writers want to be unbiased, impartial. Gill, on the other hand, wants you to know exactly how his experience was.
If you travel, you'll appreciate Gill's unfiltered perspectives on the hypocrisy of Japan, the wretchedness of Kaliningrad, the skeeziness of Bethlehem. He can go to places you're well familiar with, and you'll feel as if you need to revisit, that you didn't really see it. Not like Gill did.
I'll end up reading his articles twice, at minimum. The first time to enjoy them with virgin eyes. The second, to dissect, define and understand how/ why he used words the way he did.
Gill had a gift for interviewing places. Didn't matter if you thought his conclusions were wrong or completely opinionated- He was masterful at it. For any article he wrote, you could count on his honesty. There was depth, too- he had facts and figures to back up his narratives. So if you disagreed with him, you had to actually do some heavy lifting in order to have an opinion. This forces you to upgrade your thinking.
I'm sad that I found A.A. Gill only after his death, and that most of his work isn't on Amazon. I'll have to hunt it down.
This time, A.A. Gill really has gone away. I wish I could see the article that comes from this journey.
4.5 stars.
I feel the same about A.A. Gill's writing. I came across Gill only after reading a tweet that he had died of cancer.
You think you know writing. You think you understand how words combine one after another to synthesize thoughts and ideas into shareable nuggets of "aha!" and "I gotta share this."
And then you come across A.A. Gill.
Gill doesn't write human British English. He is what happens when someone snorts an entire dictionary, and then tells you what they've experienced lately in 4k detail. Nothing gets left out.
A mortal might write "We experienced a crazy thunderstorm while in the Kalahari, I thought I was going to die, it was fucking scary."
But A.A. Gill will write -
"The first thick drops fell at about nidnight. The next six hours were the most terrifying of my life. That is not a relative statement, it is an absolute. If you have never been in a tropical thunderstorm, forget everything you know about rain, it is not the same phenomenon. European rain is flushing a loo compared to Niagara. The storm cleared its throat across the pan and then broke directly overhead, the thunder and lightning sumultaneously strobing and crashing. The water hissed and sang like a fusillade of rifles. The fear started as trepidation with a side order of concern that you could see off with a dose of common sense and half-remembered school physics. The bedroll flooded and the person I was with sobbed, and the crack and flash zigzagged hour after hour, echoing through the towers of rock. I saw the faces of my children flashing on the back of my screwed-up eyes and worndered if I would hear the bolt that fried me. I knew, and I wish I didn't, that granite is conductive rock with an unhealthily high metal content, and this place was the highest point for hundreds and hundreds of miles. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide."
Gill's writing is the opposite of the lately espoused advice that writers should keep paragraphs and sentences short, and simple, and don't use "lugubrious" if you can just say "gloomy" instead.
The thing is, that method of writing only applies to articles on thought catalog and Medium, where most people write bullshit like "6 reasons you're failing at life & what to do about it."
Gill's convinced me that Hemingway editing is for people who don't fully grasp English or write stodgy non-fiction. When you can paint with all the colors of the Alphabet, rules be damned.
I love how his writing is so intricate and stylized and has some depth, but with seemingly effortless execution. The real benchmark of genius- making difficult tasks look stupid easy.
But I'm not a Gill fanboy.
The one thing I value is Gill's ability to make you appreciate what writing could be. I don't agree with his opinions all the time. In fact, sometimes I thought him petulant and entitled, though with 5x my vocabulary. And that's ok. Many travel writers want to be unbiased, impartial. Gill, on the other hand, wants you to know exactly how his experience was.
If you travel, you'll appreciate Gill's unfiltered perspectives on the hypocrisy of Japan, the wretchedness of Kaliningrad, the skeeziness of Bethlehem. He can go to places you're well familiar with, and you'll feel as if you need to revisit, that you didn't really see it. Not like Gill did.
I'll end up reading his articles twice, at minimum. The first time to enjoy them with virgin eyes. The second, to dissect, define and understand how/ why he used words the way he did.
Gill had a gift for interviewing places. Didn't matter if you thought his conclusions were wrong or completely opinionated- He was masterful at it. For any article he wrote, you could count on his honesty. There was depth, too- he had facts and figures to back up his narratives. So if you disagreed with him, you had to actually do some heavy lifting in order to have an opinion. This forces you to upgrade your thinking.
I'm sad that I found A.A. Gill only after his death, and that most of his work isn't on Amazon. I'll have to hunt it down.
This time, A.A. Gill really has gone away. I wish I could see the article that comes from this journey.
4.5 stars.
January 1, 2009
There are some travel writers, like Rory Stewart of the Places in Between fame, who focus so little on themselves that they seem to vanish from the page. AA Gill is not one of those writers. His giant personality, opinion and humor threaten to crowd out whatever subject is at hand. When he is focused he can be quite acerbic, although generally in a witty manner. In AA Gill is Away, his takes on Japan (populated by aliens who are trying hard to look human) and Germany (the section is titled Hunforgiven) flirt with offensiveness, but the humor wins out.
You can tell when he is truly angry when the humor disappears. He thunders at the pharmaceutical industry for it's limited investment in tropical medicines as he watches a Ugandan girl undergo a spinal tap and a Uganda boy take arsenic based medicine to test for and treat sleeping sickness. This and his harrowing visit to a Sudanese refugee camp are highlights of the book.
It's not just multinational corporations that get his goat, it is also communism. While I have read of the tragedy of the disappearing Aral Sea (bad economic policy managed to kill the fourth largest lake in the world,) Gill shows the terrible effects on the people still living there.
It's not all doom and gloom though. Gill also manages to convince a pornographic film company to let him write an adult film and goes to see it shot. The story is hilarious but also told quite straight. His treatment of the actors as real people alone sets the story apart.
You can tell when he is truly angry when the humor disappears. He thunders at the pharmaceutical industry for it's limited investment in tropical medicines as he watches a Ugandan girl undergo a spinal tap and a Uganda boy take arsenic based medicine to test for and treat sleeping sickness. This and his harrowing visit to a Sudanese refugee camp are highlights of the book.
It's not just multinational corporations that get his goat, it is also communism. While I have read of the tragedy of the disappearing Aral Sea (bad economic policy managed to kill the fourth largest lake in the world,) Gill shows the terrible effects on the people still living there.
It's not all doom and gloom though. Gill also manages to convince a pornographic film company to let him write an adult film and goes to see it shot. The story is hilarious but also told quite straight. His treatment of the actors as real people alone sets the story apart.
April 24, 2014
"You'll love AA Gill," said Jarrod, "because his travel writing zooms out to reflect on the greater human condition. It's like," said Jarrod, "he's leaving a how-to guide for his children after he's passed." Well holy sh**, that was it - get thee to the library - immediately. And that was how 'AA Gill is Away' ended up beside my bed.
Gill is a funny guy, but knows enough about how the world fits together to give broad historical, political insight into his subjects. I read somewhere he likes to "interview places" and that is an apt description of his writing. I had time only to read three stories - Cuba, directing a porn film and Milan fashion week. OB-viously the stories that most interested me. Cuba because I've travelled there; porn, well, it was always going to be interesting right? and Milan fashion week because I've been involved in that industry.
I really enjoyed all three stories, and particularly his portraits of fashion industry fools at a 'Vogue' party: "I doubt if there was a room anywhere in the world that night with more titanically lusted-after people in it. It was so, so utterly sexless. Everyone looked as if, given the choice between a demon lover and the perfect handbag, they'd go for the bag. They were so bored, so miserable, so slidey-eyed and self-conscious. It was as if every invitation had come with an RSVP suicide note" (231). I know those types only too well. He has a knack of seeing things with fresh eyes, and seeing them in their full - jaded - reality.
Thank you Mr. Gill, you are my favourite travel writer so far...
Gill is a funny guy, but knows enough about how the world fits together to give broad historical, political insight into his subjects. I read somewhere he likes to "interview places" and that is an apt description of his writing. I had time only to read three stories - Cuba, directing a porn film and Milan fashion week. OB-viously the stories that most interested me. Cuba because I've travelled there; porn, well, it was always going to be interesting right? and Milan fashion week because I've been involved in that industry.
I really enjoyed all three stories, and particularly his portraits of fashion industry fools at a 'Vogue' party: "I doubt if there was a room anywhere in the world that night with more titanically lusted-after people in it. It was so, so utterly sexless. Everyone looked as if, given the choice between a demon lover and the perfect handbag, they'd go for the bag. They were so bored, so miserable, so slidey-eyed and self-conscious. It was as if every invitation had come with an RSVP suicide note" (231). I know those types only too well. He has a knack of seeing things with fresh eyes, and seeing them in their full - jaded - reality.
Thank you Mr. Gill, you are my favourite travel writer so far...
March 4, 2020
A collection of travel writing from the late 90's and early 2000's. A couple of pieces were very good, such as the desert left behind by the Aral Sea being drained and the destruction it brought to the local people. Unfortunately, Gill is an unapologetic bigot who isn't as funny as he thinks. The unending objectification of women was offputting and boring, most pieces were not worth reading and I skipped/skimmed many of them.
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January 19, 2011"Mad in Japan." Fantastic.
February 23, 2014
my favorite living writer, and the one who does my job the way I would like to.
August 31, 2019
Написано неплохо и с юмором, но как-то совсем не зацепило. Забавно, что самый яркий рассказ в книге про путешествия ни о поездке, а о том, как автор снимал порно.
"В безумной толкотне и давке бомбейской железной дороги, где ежедневно бывают несчастные случаи со смертельным исходом, на меня налетел человек. Я упоминаю об этом, потому что это огромная редкость. Индийцы очень ловко прокладывают себе путь в толпе. Когда наши плечи столкнулись, он дотронулся пальцами до своей груди. Это молчаливое извинение и молитва. В каждом из нас есть искра божья, и он извинялся перед своей частицей божества за то, что стукнул ее о мою. Пускай мы дали им железо для железной дороги, зато они населили ее тремя тысячами миллионов богов."
"В безумной толкотне и давке бомбейской железной дороги, где ежедневно бывают несчастные случаи со смертельным исходом, на меня налетел человек. Я упоминаю об этом, потому что это огромная редкость. Индийцы очень ловко прокладывают себе путь в толпе. Когда наши плечи столкнулись, он дотронулся пальцами до своей груди. Это молчаливое извинение и молитва. В каждом из нас есть искра божья, и он извинялся перед своей частицей божества за то, что стукнул ее о мою. Пускай мы дали им железо для железной дороги, зато они населили ее тремя тысячами миллионов богов."
January 3, 2019
Labai įdomi! Dar labiau didinanti norą keliauti, ieškoti, pažinti. Šiek tiek gaila, kad joje aprašomi 2000 metais patirti įspūdžiai, o kaip žinia, kai kur pasaulis labai greitai keičiasi, o kai kur jis visiškai toks pat, kaip prieš 20 metu. Labai smagiai suskaitė, tik gal knygos pabaigoje buvo per daug apie UK, ne itin man asmeniškai įdomus kraštas. Visgi, labai rekomenduoju mėgstantiems keliauti arba bent apie tai pasvajojantiems :)
September 4, 2025
This book felt like a vocab test written by a pompous d-bag
September 24, 2019
At the beginning of this book Gill describes his halting beginnings in journalism, troubled, as he is, by dyslexia. Gill claims that as he matured and settled into his writing, opinions and outlook, any lingering concerns about dyslexia were transferred to those who engage with him and his work. He expropriated the condition and its stigma, and in the process, freed himself.
Gill's work is intrinsically personal, he constructs beautifully astute observations about places. This is, after all, travel writing. I've never encountered entire countries summed up in three pages or less. Of course, this isn't all there is to Japan, or Uganda. But it's a fascinating start.
Here's the thing. Gill is racist (although, I feel, in a self reflective way) and outrageously sexist, in a clobbering, atavistic kind of way. But like his dyslexia, I found that his shortcomings especially surrounding women, were easily sanctioned as his problem. In other words, like his dyslexia, they aren't my problem. Gill's bumbling sexism humbles him, not me. You can give offence, but someone has to take it before it works.
This was especially true towards the end of the book where Gill travels and writes with Jeremy Clarkson. Both men are intelligent, observant men, but in these final articles Gill descends into lowest common denominator silliness, without subtlety or insight. It's not cleverly written, and it's not at all funny. And I was pleased for it. Up until this point I'd felt awed and a little intimidated by his writing - that there are people in this world with such a gift for expressing a time and place. And I am not one of them. These later articles humanise Gill as a gigantine schoolboy with a chip on his shoulder. If not for his stolidly middle class upbringing, Gill is once removed from a polyester uniform, satellite TV subscription and a pay slip from a parts department of a Japanese car company.
I'd recommend this book - it's not all great, but most of the travel writing undertaken outside Britain, is exceptional.
Gill's work is intrinsically personal, he constructs beautifully astute observations about places. This is, after all, travel writing. I've never encountered entire countries summed up in three pages or less. Of course, this isn't all there is to Japan, or Uganda. But it's a fascinating start.
Here's the thing. Gill is racist (although, I feel, in a self reflective way) and outrageously sexist, in a clobbering, atavistic kind of way. But like his dyslexia, I found that his shortcomings especially surrounding women, were easily sanctioned as his problem. In other words, like his dyslexia, they aren't my problem. Gill's bumbling sexism humbles him, not me. You can give offence, but someone has to take it before it works.
This was especially true towards the end of the book where Gill travels and writes with Jeremy Clarkson. Both men are intelligent, observant men, but in these final articles Gill descends into lowest common denominator silliness, without subtlety or insight. It's not cleverly written, and it's not at all funny. And I was pleased for it. Up until this point I'd felt awed and a little intimidated by his writing - that there are people in this world with such a gift for expressing a time and place. And I am not one of them. These later articles humanise Gill as a gigantine schoolboy with a chip on his shoulder. If not for his stolidly middle class upbringing, Gill is once removed from a polyester uniform, satellite TV subscription and a pay slip from a parts department of a Japanese car company.
I'd recommend this book - it's not all great, but most of the travel writing undertaken outside Britain, is exceptional.
July 10, 2016
This is another book I used to flick through during the endless tedious hours at my bookstore job. AA Gill is a British columnist, ostensibly a travel writer, but not the kind with a tagline at the end which says "the writer was a guest of X Travel." Gill is as much a political and social writer as he is a travel writer, and this compendium of his columns for the Sunday Times ranges across topics from a Sudanese famine to the California pornography industry to one of the worst environmental disasters of all time - the drying up of the Aral Sea by Soviet agriculture. This one in particular struck me with its ending, because I've noticed at my current job how British journalism is typically incapable of wrapping up a story without some kind of neat ending:
A story like this, a story of such unremitting misery, ought to end with a candle of hope. There should be something to be done. Well, I'm sorry, but there isn't. Plenty of better men with clipboards and white Land Cruisers have been here to put it back together again, but they've retreated, dumbfounded and defeated.
Gill is notorious for his scathing criticism and "rapier wit," but in the prologue he says: "Like many writers who resort to humour, really, I want to be taken very, very seriously." He succeeds at both, with a distinctive writing style that's both funny and thought-provoking, and I definitely intend to buy his other books.
A story like this, a story of such unremitting misery, ought to end with a candle of hope. There should be something to be done. Well, I'm sorry, but there isn't. Plenty of better men with clipboards and white Land Cruisers have been here to put it back together again, but they've retreated, dumbfounded and defeated.
Gill is notorious for his scathing criticism and "rapier wit," but in the prologue he says: "Like many writers who resort to humour, really, I want to be taken very, very seriously." He succeeds at both, with a distinctive writing style that's both funny and thought-provoking, and I definitely intend to buy his other books.
July 29, 2014
A refreshing glimpse into the most unexpected adventures and the mind of risible critic.
About his methodology- " I trust my memory to filter out what's important. I talk about where I've been as much as possible. the act of turning it into stories, descriptions and anecdotes and having to repeat them, watching people react, begins to form an armature for the piece."
About Haile Selassie- "All his life he seems to have had only one impervious sarcophagal expression, a granite stare that glares at posterity with all the regal confidence of a heritage that disappears back into the mist of fairy tales."
About faith- "However annoying...they have been brought here by faith. ... they don't have the luxury of a monk's vocation...and at the one place where they should find solace and conviction, they are treated like idiotic cattle...But still, they leave, not just with their olive wood nativity sets and their rosaries, but with their faith. And that's nothing short of miraculous."
About the Japanese- "... Fear of failure and ostracism is the stick...Decisions emerge out of a group inertia. Japan manages to be both rigidly hierarchical and enigmatically lateral."
About America -"InEurope freedom has always meant saying and thinking things. In America it means doing things and making stuff."
About his methodology- " I trust my memory to filter out what's important. I talk about where I've been as much as possible. the act of turning it into stories, descriptions and anecdotes and having to repeat them, watching people react, begins to form an armature for the piece."
About Haile Selassie- "All his life he seems to have had only one impervious sarcophagal expression, a granite stare that glares at posterity with all the regal confidence of a heritage that disappears back into the mist of fairy tales."
About faith- "However annoying...they have been brought here by faith. ... they don't have the luxury of a monk's vocation...and at the one place where they should find solace and conviction, they are treated like idiotic cattle...But still, they leave, not just with their olive wood nativity sets and their rosaries, but with their faith. And that's nothing short of miraculous."
About the Japanese- "... Fear of failure and ostracism is the stick...Decisions emerge out of a group inertia. Japan manages to be both rigidly hierarchical and enigmatically lateral."
About America -"InEurope freedom has always meant saying and thinking things. In America it means doing things and making stuff."
April 24, 2017
A.A Gill is no more in this world. Sadly, I had not read any of his column in his lifetime and his travelogue was one of those books that I wanted to read but did not get my hands on till much later. That is what happens when social media takes over and your daily fodder of information is shares on twitter. You lose out on so much and on so many this way.
His travelogue is divided into East, South & North and these coordinates are from an English vantage point. His reporting on East & South is just so lovely with razor sharp wit and knife cutting humour especially the articles on his travels in Africa, his observations on pandemics there and the reason for western world's not giving a fuck. He has also written some about Icelandic beauties where he judged a beauty pageant and his script writing for a porn movie in LA (yeah, like a script was needed in that case). The last 20% of this collection is on UK and this is where he lost it (or probably I was not able to understand the historic & pop cultural references). Those 40 odd pages were a drag for me.
However, I feel if consumed in short articles, this book would have ended up making more impact. It is because this is not essentially a travelogue and thus should not be read as one. These are observations, short & on the point.
His travelogue is divided into East, South & North and these coordinates are from an English vantage point. His reporting on East & South is just so lovely with razor sharp wit and knife cutting humour especially the articles on his travels in Africa, his observations on pandemics there and the reason for western world's not giving a fuck. He has also written some about Icelandic beauties where he judged a beauty pageant and his script writing for a porn movie in LA (yeah, like a script was needed in that case). The last 20% of this collection is on UK and this is where he lost it (or probably I was not able to understand the historic & pop cultural references). Those 40 odd pages were a drag for me.
However, I feel if consumed in short articles, this book would have ended up making more impact. It is because this is not essentially a travelogue and thus should not be read as one. These are observations, short & on the point.
October 14, 2016
I'm tempted to write "another great collection of AA Gill's articles and essays" but there's no such thing as "another one". The entire body of Adrian Gill's work is one great collection.
Take this story out of this book and put it there, remove the other one and bring it here. Nothing changes. One wouldn't notice the swaps simply because all the stories are equally good, equally well written.
How well written?, you ask. This this the opening paragraph in the last story of the book: “There are days when you wake up, and you know. Before you draw back the unbleached calico curtain, before your feet touch the kosher forest-hardwood floorboards, before you step into the pulsing, intimately pummeling power shower, you know. You just know that something has changed. That out there in the chaos theory of socio-economic consumption, in the clamorous diorama of culture, the multiscreen iconography, the babble of semiotics, the gaudy gala of fashion and style, a butterfly’s wing has beaten, a domino has fallen, a lost piece of sky has been found down the back of civilization’s sofa, and the big picture has changed. A chain reaction of choices has begun.”
Take this story out of this book and put it there, remove the other one and bring it here. Nothing changes. One wouldn't notice the swaps simply because all the stories are equally good, equally well written.
How well written?, you ask. This this the opening paragraph in the last story of the book: “There are days when you wake up, and you know. Before you draw back the unbleached calico curtain, before your feet touch the kosher forest-hardwood floorboards, before you step into the pulsing, intimately pummeling power shower, you know. You just know that something has changed. That out there in the chaos theory of socio-economic consumption, in the clamorous diorama of culture, the multiscreen iconography, the babble of semiotics, the gaudy gala of fashion and style, a butterfly’s wing has beaten, a domino has fallen, a lost piece of sky has been found down the back of civilization’s sofa, and the big picture has changed. A chain reaction of choices has begun.”
December 17, 2016
Some of the best writers today are columnists. The discipline of limited space freed them from the waffle that makes most novels unreadable, and inspires them to write in a way that keeps you glued to the page. Prince among the best is A.A. Gill. I'm readin his "A.A. Gill Abroad" the third time - it is the wittiest and most informative travel book ever. He can sum up places and people in unforgettable phrases.
In his piece on India, he observes that "even things which were built yesterday have an air of ancient exhaustion."His chapter titles themselves make it clear that you are not reading an ordinary travel book. "Mad in Japan,"or "Away day in the manger",Hunforgiven". He gives a slight twist to everything which keeps your mind wide awake all through the book. He has an unforgettable phrase on practically every page. In "Scumball Rally on Monaco, he spots the "on going whores." I'm glad to see that it is always well displayed in bookshops, a sign that booksellers too think that it makes a great Christmas present.
You can explore and understand the word with A. A. Gill - aswell as his own mind, which is a new and fascinating continent by itself.
In his piece on India, he observes that "even things which were built yesterday have an air of ancient exhaustion."His chapter titles themselves make it clear that you are not reading an ordinary travel book. "Mad in Japan,"or "Away day in the manger",Hunforgiven". He gives a slight twist to everything which keeps your mind wide awake all through the book. He has an unforgettable phrase on practically every page. In "Scumball Rally on Monaco, he spots the "on going whores." I'm glad to see that it is always well displayed in bookshops, a sign that booksellers too think that it makes a great Christmas present.
You can explore and understand the word with A. A. Gill - aswell as his own mind, which is a new and fascinating continent by itself.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 20, 2008
This one is a really good counterpoint to the Thompson book. Gill, like Thompson, aims for a half-serious, half-comedic tone with some literary merit to his writing. Gill, unlike Thompson, succeeds. This is a really terrific collection of travel stories that are subdivided into loose geographic groups. The pieces alternate between being very funny and quite sad, often within the space of a few pages. Gill is adept at setting up the reader with a laundry list of complaints followed by a truly redemptive observation about the difficult places he visits. It is an old trick of travel writing, but like many writing tricks it has reached old age because it works when done well. I've read that Gill is noted for his vicious criticism in the Sunday Times, but the nasty tone for which he is evidently known is not apparent here. This book is worth buying for the opening essay on the 1998 famine in the Sudan alone. I was sorry to finish it and recommend it very highly.
April 19, 2020
As always Gill's writing is excellent - he has a real way with words and a flair for emphasising the absurdity of any situation - though the fact that he managed to lift his pen at all given the size of the chip on his shoulder about the Germans (or "the Krauts" as he insists on referring to them, but don't worry, he's an equal opportunities racist, referring to the Italians as "EyeTies", yikes yikes) is a minor miracle. Don't get me started on the sexism and snobbery...
I did feel as though the collection started with his strongest pieces (written about various African countries) and went downhill from there (by his own admission, the section on Europe is not his finest work). Overall though, an interesting read (even when you disagree with him) and one that hopefully will inspire readers to learn more about the places and events he covers here.
I did feel as though the collection started with his strongest pieces (written about various African countries) and went downhill from there (by his own admission, the section on Europe is not his finest work). Overall though, an interesting read (even when you disagree with him) and one that hopefully will inspire readers to learn more about the places and events he covers here.
April 14, 2017
Gill is great company, like going on trips with a learned, well informed uncle. In this collection he makes multiple trips into various countries throughout Sub-Saharan Africa covering everything from rare beetles to the lack of aid in war torn countries. He goes to Tokyo and pulls no punches on his thoughts about the culture there. He makes some intrepid journeys into the Eastern Bloc venturing into the grim perdition of Russian exclave Kaliningrad and he makes a surreal visit out to the ghostly Aral Sea. He finds himself a judge at the Miss Iceland competition and he also makes a number of journeys closer to home, throughout the UK. If you are a fan of his other work then this will keep you happy. If you have never read his travelogues before then what are you waiting for?...
March 11, 2007
A.A. Gill is a rhetorician, not a deep thinker, but is nonetheless a hilarious motherfucker. He usually writes about food for the Sunday Times, but this one is about travel. Takes controversial positions to be inflammatory. Skewers German, English and especially Japanese culture ("If Japan were a person, you wouldn't laugh at it, you'd smile pityingly at its parents and whisper that you're sure they can do wonderful things with medication these days. If Japan were a person, it wouldn't be allowed metal cutlery"). Yow-zah! I cancelled my Tokyo plans.
He likes India alot, for what its worth.
He likes India alot, for what its worth.
March 22, 2008
I loved this book!! If you like stories of travel Adventure that make you cringe, this is the book for you. Most people wouldn't venture to half the places A.A has been. Ballsy is all I can say. Truly gifted writer with a unique insight to such places as L.A, Where he makes a porn film. He also writes of India, Russia, Sudan and Cuba to name a few. I laughed out loud many times reading this in addition to feeling sick at times. An in your face, shockingly original and honest look through the eyes of a man who writes regularly for the London Times. I hope he writes another soon.
November 13, 2012
at the top tier of all travel writing i've ever encountered...there are no sacred cows (watch out, japan!) and gill takes no prisoners. i've read his columns in vanity fair before and these are as funny as those, but reading a collection of them together i found myself marveling that he can come away from a trip abroad with a totally cynical and sometimes even angry view of humanity and the world's backwaters, but still be fired up to head off somewhere else. the man is like the charlie brown of world exploration. can't wait to start his newest one.
January 26, 2015
I love travel books! And while my geography is fairly decent, I always keep an atlas nearby to find the out-of-the-way places mentioned. This was my first encounter with Gill, so I was unaware of his controversial writing persona. His caustic approach is toned down a bit by his wry humor and even his compassion shines through on occasion. He packs a lot of information (history, politics, economics) in the 300 pages, and I came away with a better understanding of some past events.
I understand his memoir entitled "Pour Me" about his problems with alcoholism, will be published mid 2015.
I understand his memoir entitled "Pour Me" about his problems with alcoholism, will be published mid 2015.
November 8, 2008
So I have to admit I didn't read the entire book. It is made up of stories about this guys travel. I did start at the beginning until I decided to read about a place I had been to, so I skipped ahead to Berlin. I got really ticked off and completely disagreed with his take on Berlin. He couldn't recover after that so I put the book down.
July 21, 2009
We are given fair warning in the introduction that there are many regional terms in the book and references to British culture that may not make sense to everyone. That proved more true than I'd expected. Either way, I appreciate Gill's perspectives, love his travel methodology and will look for more that he has written.
December 8, 2011
Some interesting writing here, but overall I wasn't grabbed by it. Gill's caustic wit sometimes gets the better of him with his opinions, but then again, its his personal take on things. One thing I would have liked was the date / place of publication for the pieces included - more hopeful as this book ages.
June 13, 2012
Whilst the personality is overly egotistical, and the point of view increasingly predictable throughout the book, AA Gill is arguably one of the best crafter of phrases and similar word-smithery writing in England today, conjuring the most vibrant of images, "war memorials cast from boiled cannons" being only an example of this.
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