Without a Guide: Contemporary Women's Travel Adventures

by Katherine Govier (Editor)

Presents real-life adventure stories by such noted women writers as Margaret Atwood, Clare Boylan, Bapsi Sidhwa, and Janice Kulyk Keefer

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

234 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Katherine Govier is the author of eleven novels, three short story collections, and a collection of nursery rhymes. Her most recent novel is The Three Sisters Bar and Hotel (HarperAvenue). Here previous novel, The Ghost Brush (published in the US as The Printmaker's Daughter), is about the daughter of the famous Japanese printmaker, Hokusai, creator of The Great Wave. Her novel Creation, about John James Audubon in Labrador, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 2003.

Katherine's fiction and non-fiction has appeared in the United Kingdom, the United States, and throughout the Commonwealth, and in translation in Holland, Italy, Turkey, Spain, Japan, Romania, Latvia and Slovenia. She is the winner of Canada's Marian Engel Award for a woman writer (1997) and the Toronto Book Award (1992). Creation was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 2003.

Katherine has been instrumental in establishing three innovative writing programs. In 1989, with teacher Trevor Owen, she helped found Writers in Electronic Residence. In 2011 she founded The Shoe Project, a writing workshop for immigrant and refugee women. She continues as the Chair of its Board of Directors. In 2019 Katherine was made a member of the Order of Canada.

She has edited two collections of travel essays, Solo: Writers on Pilgrimage and WIthout a Guide.

Reviews

[Dianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a collection of short travel stories from some of the world's best known female authors, including Margaret Atwood, Alice Walker, Annie Proulx and Carol Shields. The stories are meant to be some of their more memorable travel experiences, but I was a bit disappointed to find them focusing less on the places they were visiting and more on what was happening to them personally at the time.

I am usually a big fan of travel stories. These stories, though all set in different places around the world, didn't make any of them seem appealing. Many of the stories are about negative experiences and one, called "On The Train To Hell And Can't Get Off", is just weird. It closes by telling us that the author is still on the train, that we are with her, and that none of us are ever getting off. Not your usual travel tale.

I did find the writing a pleasure to read, if not the stories. These are, after all, proven authors, so though I can't say I enjoyed the book, I don't feel my time was wasted.

[Stacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Based on the title, I assumed that this would be primarily solo women travelers. However, that wasn't the case here; they often traveled with husbands, parents, even in guided groups! So it wasn't what I expected based on title, though the stories were overall decent.

[Emily Mc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! As an individual who embarked on an adventure, hearing the stories from these women and their experiences was fascinating.

[Katra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm struggling not to go with a two, but the book itself was probably a four. A really, really, bad narrator on the audio I listened to made it hard to get through.

[HeavyReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t take forever to read this book because it wasn’t good. It was good, or at least parts of it were. I was just busy and not reading much when I started this one.

The good news is that because this is a collection of travel narratives, I didn’t have to try to remember the plot or characters when I came back to it after being away for a while.
Like any anthology, some of these stories I really liked and some left me cold.

In the “really like” category are “Alone Across the Outback” by Robyn Davidson (in which the author travels with camels and a dog—but no human companion—across 1,700 miles of Australia’s western wilderness); “Through a Barren Land” by Ysenda Maxtone Graham (in which the author and her male companion attempt a hike through the hot, dry Grand Canyon); “China” by Alice Walker (in which the author and a group of American women writers traveled through the country of the title), and “On the Train to Hell and Can’t Get Off” by E. Annie Proulex (in which the author finds herself on a terrible, terrible train ride where it seems like anything that can go wrong does).

This is one of the better collections of women’s travel narratives that I’ve read.

[Ojashvi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished this collection of short stories this weekend! I am so glad I picked up this book! Amazing women, adventurous streak and snippets of places all around the world— an escape during this pandemic.

[Nohely Koeyers · Rating 1 out of 5]

It took me a while to finish this book. Since every chapter - or rather said story - is written by a different author, it takes getting used to with every turn of the page.

[Rebecca Schaft · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leuke verhalenbundel rondom het thema reizen. Alle auteurs zijn vrouwen. De schrijfstijlen lopen sterk uiteen, wat het een leuke kennismaking maakt met de auteurs. Verhalen die er echt uitspringen zijn er niet veel. 'Ontmoeting' door Carol Shields vond ik erg mooi. Waar anderen meer verhalend vertellen, en er een afstand tussen jou en de bestemming ontstaat, zet zij het gevoel van het moment neer. Je bent even echt in Tokio.