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Uneasy Rider: Travels Through A Mid-Life Crisis (2008)

by Mike Carter(Favorite Author)

3.92 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0091922682 (ISBN13: 9780091922689)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Ebury Press

review 1: The author should have penned this travel tale in his 20s, then we could've done without the moaning introspection of his mid-life crisis. While the bulk of the book is an entertaining jaunt through Europe and a succession of disasters, triumphs and pratfalls, we come to know too much of the writer - as if he really wanted to pen an autobiography but didn't have enough material or guaranteed reader interest, so he shoe-horned it into a Charley Boorman/Ewan Macgregor adventure. The adventure itself is as grand a tale as any fish-out-of-water traveller's, but it is particularly well told. Forgive Mike his maudlin musings and memories, blame it on the drink, and promise him another round if he tells you that one about the Roma camp, or the hotel lobby, or the bloke with th... moree AK-47 - it may be just enough to get yourself into a motorbike saddle and onto the wide, open road (well, maybe not the AK-47 part...)
review 2: I enjoyed this book largely because it was no triumphant "I've lived your dream, sucker!" brag. It was much more a "I've lived your dream and, frankly, it was mostly really, really boring" narrative. The lesson seemed to be that if you're going to have a mid-life crisis, have it with a mate. The scenes that will stick with me are those when the author goes out for yet another lonely beer in some Polish backwater before waking the next day to go and visit the Museum of Beetroot, just to put the time in, before heading to the next Polish backwater. Some of the observations were very funny in a Grumpy Old Man kind of way, and the author is unashamed to highlight his own personal foibles and problems in order to poke some often poignant fun at himself. In the end, the title of the book was absolutely spot on. I wasn't sure if Mike had actually enjoyed the tour much at all, but ended having learned something about himself, and having met some friendly people dispensing the milk of human kindness on the way. He also met plenty of bitter, angry lunatics too, usually men in their forties having their own mid-life crisis. It showed that living the average, happy, family life, surrounded by home comforts, routine, friends and small pleasures is a goal to strive for. A pint down your local on a wet and windy Thursday evening before heading home is, actually, much preferable to sipping a cold lager on the shores of the Aegean on your own, thousands of miles from home. I do like books that point out that the modest life is a hard goal to attain and that while going 'round Ireland with a Fridge sounds like a fantastic trip, it's actually more sad and desperate than cleaning out your own fridge on a Sunday afternoon at home. Amen to that. less

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