World Travel: An Irreverent Guide
The late Bourdain (1956–2018) was a celebrity chef and world-traveling TV star, whose personality is reflected in this charming book, cowritten by Woolever, his assistant ... The book is full of irresistible illustrations, including the cover ... An exhilarating and worthwhile choice for those planning an actual trip and for stay-at-home travelers.
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Woolever paints a vivid picture of eventually brainstorming the book on a single day...in March 2018, sitting in a cloud of smoke at Bourdain’s dining room table ... It’s this feeling of being in the room with Bourdain that makes World Travel: An Irreverent Guide so tantalizing ... the fact is, World Travel is the closest you’ll ever get to hearing from Bourdain again. It’s wonderful to have him in your head when you walk into, say, Horumonyaki Dojo for all the barbecued organ meats in Osaka, which he calls the city of excess and the true culinary heart of Japan ... at a time when traveling abroad continues to feel like a fairy tale, thumbing through a book of recommendations that may or may not be outdated by the time you get through customs is still a bit like consuming a novel before a trip. It colors in the edges of a place and leaves you to discover what’s there for yourself, guided by a knowing voice.
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This is an odd, bittersweet mash-up of a travel guide ... 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.
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