"The Ridiculous Race" by Vali Chandrasekaran and Steve Hely

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

This is one of my favorite types of books: a travel narrative. Two men, both television writers, decide to race around the world without using airplanes. One, Vali Chandrasekaran, is a writer for "My Name Is Earl" and is Indian-American. The other, Steve Hely, writes for "American Dad" and is white. Their accounts are very separate, since they traveled separately, and are interspersed with each other.



The main thing I did not like about the book is that Vali Chandrasekaran (a writer for "My Name is Earl") cheated (his word) and used airplanes. He's very cheerful about it though, and I wound up not minding so much as his trip was definitely still fun to read about. He's certainly a good travel writer, with some very funny descriptions of his travel encounters, and some more serious treatment of topics such as the history of Cambodia. (Though I will say it's primarily a humor book.)

One other thing I didn't like so much at first was that he was always talking about trying to pick up on women, but again he did it in such a funny, obviously silly manner that in the end I didn't mind. (And it was clear he treated women with respect in his actions and didn't actually try to "pick up" on anyone so I found myself rooting for him.)

There were also parts that discussed what it was like to be an Indian traveller, including his fears of racism in Russia and his being mistaken for a native in Egypt.

Steve Hely's parts of the book were fun too. He actually crossed both the Atlantic and Pacific by sea, something very few people do. His accounts of China and Western Europe were pretty compelling, even if he was travelling too fast to stay very long in any one place. Of the two Steve is the one who actually ends up out on a date during his travels (a "blind date" in fact), but again it's handled in a very sweet manner.

The two like to play pranks on each other, or try to -- some are funnier and more successful than others.



I'd definitely recommend this book for anyone who enjoys travel writing.

Comments

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

This sounds really fun, and the writers' friendship sounds like it's charming to read. I'm honestly surprised that both of them didn't cheat! I thought the purpose of such races as this was the cheating ;).

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

That's a good point! I think Chandrasekaran had the right idea: most of what they were trying to do was write an enjoyable book, and that worked out.

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

It sounds amazing (and gahh, "such races as this?! Redundancy from the department of redundancy!)

I lived in Louisville, Kentucky for a year and got to see a river race between the Belle of Louisville - one of only two working riverboats left - and the Delta Queen, a boat designed to look like a riverboat, but powered by diesel (so not technically a river boat). They race the Belle every year during Derby Week. The main purpose of that race was 1) razzing the people on the other boat, 2) standing on the bank and cheering for the Belle and 3) creative and open cheating. ;) That's a huge tangent, but I remembered the race when reading your review.

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds like so much fun! Thanks for the tangent. ;)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you so much! I'd actually been meaning to ask for recs for travel books with POC authors, so this is wonderful.