Gone Troppo

March 13, 2006
Travel writer Lloyd chronicles his journey from South Africa to the Cook Islands, making stops at tropical wonderlands including India, Hawaii, Mexico and Costa Rica. Lloyd's objective in each place is essentially the same, "to go for a drink or nineteen," and bring us along. Lloyd is a proud drinker and an unapologetic sexist, reducing nearly every woman he encounters to a bare minimum of anatomy and color, such as Erika in Costa Rica, a"bounteously bosomed beauty in a yellow shirt." When Lloyd does get out of the bar, he offers vivid, compelling descriptions of the sites he encounters, particularly India. But the author often treads recklessly the fine line between humor and racism: "He was that sort of smarmy, gold-teeth-a-glinting Indian," the women of South Africa "had the biggest butts I'd ever seen in my life," the Chinese are "not known for being able to say 'round and round the ragged rock the rugged rascal ran.'" Perhaps worse is that the joke is never on Lloyd, who must have encountered some who found his blustery mock-Colonialism tiresome. Though funny and absorbing, Lloyd's strong points may or may not be worth enduring his casual stereotyping, and this book should not be recommended or given without advance knowledge of a reader's limits.

July 15, 2006
Lloyd, an Australian of Zimbabwean origin and the author of the "Hardship Posting" series, is in search of paradise. The problem is that he often looks for it in the wrongs places (who would consider Tijuana or Delhi good candidates?). But his erratic globetrotting does make for some interesting reading. He does all the typical fun stuff: bribing a policeman in the Philippines; contracting dengue fever in Thailand and suffering through it in Singapore; insulting a Maori queen in Rarotonga, New Zealand; and swimming with sharks in Costa Rica. He frequently drinks too much and then still drivesnot a great way to behave in paradise, Mr. Lloyd. Nonetheless, he offers a hearty helping of history and local flavor when writing about each place, including, besides those mentioned above, Malaysia, Oahu, and Durban, South Africa. The good news is that eventually he finds the paradise for which he is looking. Recommended for public libraries with large travel sections.Lee Arnold, Historical Soc. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

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