The Armchair Traveler's Club discussion

What do you think so far?

I'll be starting with this one. I love a good road trip, especially in India, I think?

If there is 1 thing this book does, it's make me want to go on a road trip in India! I have spent significant portions of my life traveling and the author addresses some of the travel lessons I have found to be true in the past like the importance of living in the moment, appreciating what is there, that most people are basically good and that trusting people can bring the greatest rewards. It's interesting reading this book now as I am currently on a solo road trip so these issues have been on my mind. I like the story line and am interested to learn more about the mysterious Suzzanne.

The plot continues to develop as we explore more and more of India. He must be spending hours driving this vast country. I'd never considered India as a road trip country, my image had always been of taking the bus, but perhaps I can add it to my list of places to drive. It's fun to hear about the beauty that he encounters, though I do wonder at times how focused he would be on sightseeing considering how emotional he is about his topic of research.

A recurring theme in the book is parents committing suicide because they don't like the life choices of their adult children. I wonder if this is a common occurrence in India?

I finished this book, I quite enjoyed it and encourage others to give it a read! It's available on Amazon to read on your device for about 3$ or for free if you have a Kindle Unlimited account.

I loved hearing about the sights and smells that the author experienced on his road trip. The author values travel, and there is a lot of philosophy about it's value to the soul in teaching or reminding a person to let go, trust strangers, enjoy beauty, and live in the moment.

There are also some wonderfully wise statements about every day life in the book:

"No need to feel guilty about anything. By being guilty, you are still clining on to the past. Let it go George. See the light that is already inside you. It's like this, think about a light bulb. And then, you paint the outside of the bulb with black colour. When you switch it on, you won't see any light, but it's still there, hidden under the black paint. Your life is the same. The light is always burning. But your mind, which is painted with negativities, anger, guilt, etc is not letting the light come out. All you gotta do is to clear your negative emotions; you'll find happiness and peace."

I did find it strange how George's and his grandfather's stories were told parallel to each other. At first, I thought that the sections in italics represented entries from the grandfather's journal, but then noted that the narrator represented in italics was 3rd person, watching from above rather than living the experiences. The story may have had a more authentic feel if the grandfather would have been allowed to tell his own story.

Suicide feels overused in the story. Wikipedia states that suicides in India account for 17% of the worldwide total. India contains 17.5% of the world population. It further states that rates are higher in Southern India, where it is considered a socially acceptable way of dealing with problems (16 per 100,000 people vs. 4 in Northern India). In a quick search, I could not find any articles related to parents threatening or attempting suicide as a way of controlling their children's behavior. Has anyone else had any experience with this? Is it common? Or is it just a device created by this particular author?

This novel does show a bit of editorial roughness as have all of our emerging author reads, but I felt it was one of the better ones. I looked forward to my daily immersion in George's adventure and would read more of this author's work.

I really want to go on an Indian road trip now.

Here is a link to a blog post about deodar trees "tree of god", which George encounters in Northern India:

http://jcmcgowan.blogspot.com/2008/03...