Mr Snack and the Lady Water (Brendan Shanahan, MUP)

Brendan Shanahan’s collection of travel stories begins with his trip on a leaky barge up China’s Yangtze River towards the Three Gorges, a picturesque area that has mostly disappeared under rising dam waters. Along with a bunch of Chinese tourists with video cameras and a couple of violent Irish backpackers, he is herded from the boat by a militant tour guide to visit several decrepit and unoriginal tourist attractions along the river. Among the sprawl of modernity, the hawkers and the spitting locals, he discovers that the ancient China of his romantic fantasies has long since disappeared. Travelling to India, Shanahan becomes an extra in a Bollywood movie, where he meets deluded Western actors and resentful Indian actors. Other interesting—and varied—stories include a trip to a racially divided post-apartheid Johannesburg, a drunk online purchase of a cheap house in Vegas and a dental holiday in Manilla. Not afraid to explore the sleazier side of travelling, Shanahan also writes about the time he was sexually harassed by a Norwegian backpacker in Washington and the time he visited a gay massage parlour in Jakarta that turned out to be a brothel. Shanahan’s writing style is a combination of Brian Thacker and Benjamin Law, and his book is a welcome addition to the travel-writing genre.

Andrew Wrathall is the publishing and digital media coordinator of Books+Publishing

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Category: Reviews