The Excursionist

This increasingly dark book is not only about travel but also about the human condition. The Excursionist is Jack Kavanagh who collects countries to visit like other people collect stamps, he has no real interest in them but by reaching the hundred mark he will be able to join something called the Travellers' Century Club, this he plans to do before his birthday. So with three countries to go he sets of to the Coronation Islands situated in the Indian Ocean. I must admit that I initially was not sure whether these islands were indeed fictional or not and after consulting an atlas I realised that the book was indeed a satirical parody of the modern travel experience and the whole usefulness of doing it.

Jack encounters many characters that I'm sure are based on real people from the uninterested hotel receptionist to the loud and attention seeking holidaying couple. As the book progressed I became more and more engaged in it as we learnt more about Jack's life and character and the sheer emptiness of his life. As they say you can travel ten thousand miles but still stay where you are. Always in the background is the mystery and enigma surrounding what has happened to his fiancé and this story becomes increasingly centre stage as the story progresses.

This to me is basically a story of self discovery and coming to terms with the past. It also questions what travel really means today. I enjoyed this book and although it started slowly it was well worth persevering with and I would recommend this to anyone who would like a thoughtful read.

As anyone reading this blog will know, I love, live and breathe travel and books which take you to places. So when Jack Kavanagh came into my life, I hoped I would go on an amazing journey with a fellow lover of travel.

Jack doesn’t like travel. He just wants to tick countries off a list like apples or supermarket butter. If he gets to 100 countries, he can brag about being in the travellers club.

The countries and places he visits are fictional - for this is not the novel I thought I was going to read but a satire on what it means to travel, the mess we get ourselves into, the stresses that it causes and the nature of the word Wanderlust.

As I read, my understanding of this travel tome changed and I started to understand it more - Jack meets people we all do - the cranky hotel staff, the noisy couple on the next table, the annoying children and no matter who you are and where you go, there are some things which never change. You take your luggage - physical and emotional with you wherever you go I think is the message. Why we travel, what it means to us and what it gives you. A bit Eat, Pray love in that sense but from a grumpy old man made it al the more funny and thoughtful.

There were times when the grumpiness got to me, but on the whole, i was happy to travel to these fictional lands and reminisce about my own experiences and what it means to have that wanderlust bug, to travel on your own, travel 1000s of miles and feel like you’re at home. Or to feel that you’ve never really left.

A travelogue with a difference and more fascinating places to put on the map of your own journey

I was excited beyond belief to find out that The Travellers' Century Club is real! There’s the link in the story and yes, I googled it, and OMG this is true. I even looked for the name Jack K ....

A nice, clever touch to a novel of exploration and discovery! This is the perfect read for any booktrailer whether you love literary travel or travelling for real. The sense of wanderlust, that delight at landing in a new country, the sense and freedom of the unknown.....A Booktrailer's delight!

A comical light hearted look at travel. Jack tells of the problems of traveling alone and of his adventures and the people he meets. This is a very short quick read.

Jack Kavanagh travels. No, really, he has travelled to almost 100 different countries and he has almost gained the pleasure (well, he might consider it a pleasure) of entry into the Travelers' Century Club. What would he really gain from this achievement? Something else to talk about while attending a boring party?

At times, this book made me want to laugh aloud at the reality of Jack's feelings towards hotel staff, airline attendants and... don't tell anyone, other travelers. Other times I felt sorry for him--his snarky, blasé attitude seemed a front to cover his loneliness and sense of loss of her former fiancé and travelling companion.

Jack Kavanagh is unknowingly looking for something. I'm not convinced that he finds it, even at the end of our journey with him.

The Excursionist is a really interesting read for anyone who loves to travel or is a frequent traveller. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read.
“The excursionist, being an account of the attempt of Jack Kaganagh to visit his ninety-eighth, ninety-ninth and one hundredth countries and thereby ensure membership of the Traveller’s Century Club.”
I loved the quote for part one of the book by Evelyn Waugh, at the age of thirty-five one needs to go to the moon or some such place, to recapture the excitement with which one first landed at Calais.
For his final choices of destinations he has chosen to go to the Coronation Islands which are between Madagascar and Sri Lanka. Country 98 is Placentia, 99 is Kilrush and 100 is Fulgary. His ambition is to join the ranks of travellers who have visited 100 countries or more.
Booking the holidays for him is a way of escaping from the drudgery of everyday life, of knowing what is going to happen every day.
This book is part travel guide, part humorous memoir. It was a joy to read and Jack was an interesting character who it was easy to empathise with.
“Placentia is a place for wildlife and birdlike enthusiasts. In fact, with the exception of Thursdays late-night opening in peak season down at the museum…there were no nightlife, architecture, clubs, waterfalls, mountains, salt lakes, cave paintings, volcanoes, beaches, temples, churches, or indeed anything worthy of mention apart from the plant life, birdlife and wildlife. If you didn’t like those you didn’t like Placentia.”
According to Jack the first law of travel is that the smaller a country or hotel is the better it is. The second law of travel is, if you go away, you have to come back sometime, that is, if you’re lucky.
I am really pleased I chose to read this book.

Travel Fiction May Be The Best Travel Writing

In 1985 Jan Morris, the brilliant Welsh travel writer, published "Last Letters From Hav", a book that so exquisitely described the beauty, wonder, history, politics, culture, and appeal of "Hav", an entirely fictional place, that hopeful travelers besieged travel agencies for years trying to arrange visits there. That book came to mind as I read this wonderful addition to the fake-travel genre.

Thinking about other travel memoirs by authors I admire, (Theroux, Bryson, Eric Newby, and so on), it occurred to me that fictional memoirs offer so much more opportunity for exploration and satire and entertainment. Nonfiction practitioners are limited to what they experience, their own preconceptions, and their own attitudes and personalities, and the best they can hope for is that they have enough interesting experiences to elaborate on, dress up, or exaggerate into book length. But a fiction writer has an unlimited canvas upon which to work. Create a hero, invent a fictional world, and then introduce whatever events and supporting characters seem interesting.

That's what you get here. There is sly and deadpan commentary as well as antic buffoonery. Hotels, travel agents, airlines, the traveling public, travel connoisseurs - they all get comic treatment. Travelers of all levels of experience and style will find themselves identifying with certain experiences and nodding along with the hero's withering observations. This is pointed and perceptive stuff. Of course, part of the joke is that Kavanagh shares many of the less appealing characteristics that he mocks in others, but for me that just added another, maybe more subtle, layer to the satire.

Perhaps even better than the jokes and commentary is the fact that our fictional hero, Jack Kavanagh, is much more interesting than most real non-fiction memoirists. The real authors have whatever personal baggage life has given them - daddy issues, marriage issues, general grumpiness, world weary dismay. But Kavanagh, having been created out of thin air, is a more layered, and surprising, protagonist. Even as we play along with and enjoy his whinging and grim despair we find that a more interesting and sympathetic character is being teased out. At some point we realize that this is, in part, a meditation on loneliness disguised as a travel comedy.

In any event, I thought this had enough good lines, enough fine moments, and such a well realized fictional setting that I was happy to bump it up on my list of fake travelogues. A nice, if slightly off the beaten path, find.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Well written and thoughtful, introspective but satirical, the self deprecating hero will appeal to us Brits.. Literary fiction/travel/humour at its most effective.

Not just a fiction travel novel but one person's exploration of himself, what one needs to be happy, we are all trying to work out who we are and what makes us happy.
‘So you’re the clever fella who thinks he can find love in places rather than in people,’ Anne said....

This work highlights the importance of the relationships we make with other people,
"Or is it the case that the more you travel, the more you realise that actually we’re all the same."

There is also an exploration of materialism throughout, the need to have more of everything, in this case visits to other countries, to justify ourselves. Does this lead to happiness?

love lravelling with all its trials, haphazard , aimless and random hit or miss destinations but this beats them all . I have never met anyone who joined this club . The end story will be a heart ripper .

I enjoyed this book but wasn't sure where it was going and not sure I know now.
I didn't warm to the main character but liked his adventures and travel.s.

One of those wonderful books which makes you laugh out loud, wherever you are. A light hearted look at travel and travel reviews, but with enough sadness to make it interesting. What a great imagination. I received a review copy, but may buy this for friends.