By Jeff Greenwald, 256 pages, Naga Books, 2002, ISBN 1-58790, 018-1

Reviewed by Clark Wills, Vancouver, Washington

Does this book have a great book cover or what? Evidently it’s a factory making globes of the world, and the globes are all hanging from the ceiling on an assembly line like a bunch of beach balls. And, you know, the cover isn’t nearly as good as the inside either. Which is basically a whole bunch of stories that fans of Jeff Greenwald’s might never have seen before, because they were printed in magazines and newspapers and just sort of drifted off into the void wherever it is old magazines stories happen to go. So Greenwald has decided to reprint them, himself, in his own collection that is really a recollection of his whole career.

These stories range from the early 1980s to the late 1990s, during which time Greenwald wrote and published some 200 articles and five books of travel literature. As Greenwald writes in the Introduction, his career has basically followed the path of the Internet and cyber world. His earlier book The Size of the World, for instance, describes his trip around the world using only surface transport, while simultaneously writing and dispatching his reports via e-mail, the first travel book in history in which instantaneous reporting was ever done. So this book sums up Greenwald’s career for his fans, which, admits have been numerous enough to make him “the best known obscure travel writer – or the most obscure well-known travel writer – in America.”

Easily the best story in the book, and easily one of the best short travel stories ever written, is Into the Denki Furo, which ought to be mandatory for anyone trying to understand the Japanese culture. Or anyone fond of hot baths. Sweltering in a Tokyo heat wave, Greenwald wanders into a Japanese sento, or public bath. There he spots a denki furo, which, as it turns out, is an electric bath. Or bathwater charged with an electric current. I love this description...

“What did it feel like? Imagine the howling physical rush of a blow to the ‘funny bone,’ generalized over your entire body. Or think of yourself as a silver filling, and the denki furo as a mouth full of foil. Did it hurt? The exquisite intensity went far beyond pain. My only hope was that there would be no permanent physical damage; that, like the cartoon cat whose tail is thrust into the wall outlet, I would sizzle for awhile then reappear, unscathed, in the next scene.”

The best way to buy this book is from Greenwald, direct, at www.jeffgreenwald.com. Tell him you read about it at The Intentional Traveler and maybe he will even sign you a copy.