Michael Steeves reviewed Long Way Round by Ewan McGregor
Review of 'Long Way Round' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Ultimately while I really, really wanted to like this, it fell more than a little flat for me.
Two long-time friends embark on a motorcycle adventure going around the globe starting in London, and ending in NYC. I'd enjoyed Neil Peart's books, and did somewhat like Jonny Beale's book that was highly reminiscent of "Ghost Rider". Thankfully there was no such impetus behind this, just a more straight-forward wanderlust.
The best parts of the book managed to convey a real sense of the place that they were going through -- Mongolia, and the old Soviet Union definitely came through and were the most engrossing reading of the book.
Sadly, most of the rest were dragged down by a dueling narrative structure that served to continually destroy any narrative flow that tried to emerge -- each chapter covered a stretch of travel, with first one narrating for a stretch of the …
Ultimately while I really, really wanted to like this, it fell more than a little flat for me.
Two long-time friends embark on a motorcycle adventure going around the globe starting in London, and ending in NYC. I'd enjoyed Neil Peart's books, and did somewhat like Jonny Beale's book that was highly reminiscent of "Ghost Rider". Thankfully there was no such impetus behind this, just a more straight-forward wanderlust.
The best parts of the book managed to convey a real sense of the place that they were going through -- Mongolia, and the old Soviet Union definitely came through and were the most engrossing reading of the book.
Sadly, most of the rest were dragged down by a dueling narrative structure that served to continually destroy any narrative flow that tried to emerge -- each chapter covered a stretch of travel, with first one narrating for a stretch of the trip, and then the other picking up the narrative and finishing up. This also led to the other major flaw, as neither one had a particularly insightful narrative to offer up. It read as much more of two mates out for a lark, and was less about travel on roads less traveled and could just as easily have been about a pub crawl through downtown London.