Bad Tourist by Suzanne Roberts

Bad Tourist

by Suzanne Roberts

2021 Independent Publisher Book Awards, Gold Medal Winner 
2021 National Indie Excellent Awards Finalist 
2020 Bronze Award for Travel Book or Guide from the North American Travel Journalists Association 
2020 Bronze Winner for Travel in the Foreword INDIES

Both a memoir in travel essays and an anti-guidebook, Bad Tourist takes us across four continents to fifteen countries, showing us what not to do when traveling. A woman learning to claim her own desires and adventures, Suzanne Roberts encounters lightning and landslides, sharks and piranha-infested waters, a nightclub drugging, burning bodies, and brief affairs as she searches for the love of her life and finally herself.

Throughout her travels Roberts tries hard not to be a bad tourist, but owing to her cultural blind spots, things don’t always go as planned. Fearlessly confessional, shamelessly funny, and wholly unapologetic, Roberts offers a refreshingly honest account of the joys and absurdities of confronting new landscapes and cultures, as well as new versions of herself. Raw, bawdy, and self-effacing, Bad Tourist is a journey packed with delights and surprises—both of the greater world and of the mysterious workings of the heart.

Reviewed by Kevin Costain on

3 of 5 stars

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“The smoke hung in the air like a question.“

A series of essays telling of short, self-contained events - Bad Tourist may seem a lot like a compilation (we all love to hate those). The stories are sharp, funny, very self-aware and brimming with great details of each specific misadventure. Starting off each one, you’re given a year and a location. Roberts then proceeds to bounce all over physically and temporally. The challenge here is that Roberts’ self-awareness forces interjections about" "Why I’m a bad tourist" and at times, this seems tacked-on. Instead of letting her story breathe and organically offer the lesson, some of that feels off.

Does Tourist have a good narrative structure? About ten percent of the book in, I wasn’t really sure there would actually be a story to follow. And, true, there doesn’t seem to be one here, but I would say that these very tight, small essays are placed together well - as to fit and flow from theme to theme - like sex, for example. The vignette style does seem to get old fast however, and I just kept hoping for something to keep me hooked from story to story.

This passage early in the book had me thinking: “Nothing will force you to face the reality of your life, and what to do with your aliveness, like the fact of a burning body.“ There is much to behold in the travels of others.

Stories like “One Degree of Separation” are very short and, I felt, less satisfying. Other stories were longer and more interesting. But, as you can imagine the quality varies. “Scary Flyer” foils the perspective to decent effect. The Burning Man story is wild and at once scary.

In sum, I’m not quite sure I find Roberts a likable protagonist of this book. It IS called Bad Tourist, and, well I don’t find her tourist-ing all that bad and she just doesn’t seem terribly likable. Maybe it’s the nature of travel writing or her writing, but I needed to temper my expectations here.

Bad tourist will be released in October of 2020.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 2 July, 2020: Finished reading
  • 2 July, 2020: Reviewed