World Travel

November 2, 2020
Woolever, longtime cowriter with the late Bourdain (1956–2018), knits together an impressive food-obsessed travel guide based on her conversations with Bourdain. Flitting from Argentina to Bourdain’s beloved Vietnam, the narrative captures Bourdain’s appreciation of everything from Oaxacan sauces to New York City’s Barney Greengrass restaurant (“If God made anything better, he kept it for himself”) and the “awesomeness” of Hong Kong’s night markets. Entries can be slim—such as “Kenya,” which consists of a dash of history and a quick nod to a restaurant in Kibera­—but the book’s power comes from Bourdain’s joyfully combative stances (“Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands”), unabashed enthusiasm, dense overlay of cinematic references, and world-weary advice (“Sardinia’s the kind of place you better know somebody”). This gloriously messy miscellany of off-kilter observations and lightning-in-a-bottle insights will make one want to read, eat, and experience the world the way Bourdain did. Bourdain’s fans will devour this.

January 15, 2021
Posthumous selection of Bourdain's thoughts on places exotic and well known, blended into a kind of Baedeker for the hipster set. There's Frankensteining at work here, with Woolever, who worked with Bourdain for nearly 10 years, surrounding his pithy excerpts with the kind of dryly useful information of a standard guidebook--e.g., "Buenos Aires is well served by bus routes, along with a seven-line underground metro system known as Subte, which links the downtown to the outer reaches of the city." When Bourdain kicks in, it's of a different order: "Argentina has the distinction of being home to more head-shrinkers per capita than anywhere else in the world....It's an extraordinary thing, because in many cultures, to confess that you need to even confide in someone is seen as a sign of weakness. Here, everybody does it, and in no way frowns upon it." That's an interesting datum, the kind of thing you tuck away for future reference. Bourdain went to see one of those psychiatrists, confessing, "I feel like Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame--if he stayed in nice hotel suites with high-thread-count sheets." Considering his sad end, the words are revealing. Where Bourdain traveled, drink and excessive eating were sure to follow. In Finland--a place full of people "tough enough to fight off Nazis and Russians"--he ate mystery meat that put "the self-loathing back into drinking" while in Hanoi, Vietnam, for which he had "a deep, abiding love," he taught Barack Obama how to slurp noodles, with a belly-stuffing meal and beer running about $6: "I'm guessing the president doesn't get a lot of state dinners like this." Bourdain went nearly everywhere on the planet, eating and drinking prodigiously along the way. It makes for an exhilarating whirlwind tour, complete with charmingly impressionistic sketches by Allsbrook. It doesn't substitute for a true travel guide, but anyone who loved and misses Bourdain will want this book.

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February 1, 2021
This is an odd, bittersweet mash-up of a travel guide, covering some 45 countries (Argentina to Vietnam) that Bourdain reported on during his 16 years as a food correspondent for the likes of CNN, Travel Channel, and Food Network. Coauthor Woolever, who collaborated with Bourdain on his cookbook Appetites (2016), completes the project they'd begun before Bourdain tragically took his own life in 2018. Entries are straightforward, beginning with a Bourdain quote--set off in bold blue type--lifted from one of his television episodes on that country, followed by local airport logistics and one or more restaurant entries (with up-to-date contact info), which might include their featured dishes and more Bourdain quotes. Complementary sidebars written by friends and family are sprinkled throughout. Oddly, though, there's no mention of COVID-19, let alone how a traveler might navigate our pandemic world to reach any of these destinations. A surprisingly useful guide, but only for a time and place well beyond ours at the moment.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from September 1, 2020

A celebrity chef and New York Times best-selling author (e.g., Kitchen Confidential), Bourdain was also a distinguished travelogue. This book, in the works at the time of his death, was completed by longtime coworker/cowriter Woolever. With a 200,000-copy first printing.

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