And the Monkey Learned Nothing

This book comprising of small vignettes is a wonderful read to help transport you to a place and time you may not ever visit. I have traveled a lot and some of these stories bring back so many memories as I have experienced the same things, maybe not in the same places. This is a great read as you can pick it up with any story anywhere in the book. It is broken down by geographic locations, so if you want to read something in Asia you can do that then move to South America. Let the book be your travel guide. This is a cheap way to visit another place. The only thing I wish they would add is a small note of when the story was written, so it gives it some context. Other than that I really enjoyed this journey.

I usually prefer travel books that walk us through an entire journey as opposed to those that tell us a myriad of unrelated episodes, as I find it more difficult to connect with those. However, this book was a pleasant surprise as I found myself really learning and absorbing some bits and pieces of culture ans ways of the places the author was telling us about in the episodes he was describing.
Either he was speaking about former south american dictatorships or current Arab regimes, I was captivated by the way he was just describing mere experiences and at the same time really sharing valuable information.
Recommended to all those who love to read about travelling and about the world in general.

When he travels the world from South America to Asia and the continents in-between, there is the human factor who matters more to Tom Lutz than the classical list of places to visit and photograph. The human stories and remarks made in transit are connecting the visitor with the place, the voyeurist with the struggle hiding behind the velvet curtains. It focuses gently on the ephemeral interactions instead of screaming loud to-do-list. This book encourages you to see travel as more than an entertainment but as a small step towards deciphering humanity.

I rarely read non-fiction. I've never read a travelogue. And yet I was pleasantly surprised by Tom Lutz's latest book, "And the Monkey Learned Nothing: Dispatches from a Life in Transit." At first, the book grabbed my attention with its title, followed by the synopsis. After I read the first few chapters, I knew I was hooked.

Lutz is a solo traveler who dreams of visiting every country in the world. He's also a great and introspective writer. Each chapter is a short account of his personal experience in a new foreign country. They range in length and topic: walking through an empty Middle Eastern town; being stalked by an aloof young woman in South Korea; infiltrating the secret tango scene in Buenos Aires...

Like every other travelogue out there, this one is subjective. It reveals a fair bit about the author himself, while also describing the way others reacted to him. It also adds a great deal of cultural context or just funny (and occasionally disturbing) anecdotes.

Just about the only flaw I could find in the book is the dry nature of some chapters that discuss local politics. Those chapters, however, were outnumbered by the ones that gave great travel advice, made me reconsider visiting a few places (sorry, Cambodia) and taught me to avoid monkeys in tourist-heavy areas. ("They are sociopaths, like particularly nasty juvenile delinquents.")

This book was a genuine pleasure to read. It would make an excellent present to anyone that's curious about travel, the world, the universe and everything. Most and foremost, it's a must-read if your wanderlust has overgrown the confines of your own country and inspired you to travel abroad.

I give this book five out of five stars.

Full disclosure: I received an advance reader copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.