Book Review: RASH by Lisa Kusel

Title: RASH

Author: Lisa Kusel
Publisher: WiDo Publishing
Read: February 2019

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Book Description:

Writer Lisa Kusel, while living comfortably in her California home, feels an unsettling lack of personal contentment. When she sees a job posting for a new international school in Bali, she convinces her schoolteacher husband Victor to apply.

Six weeks after his interview, Lisa, Victor, and their six-year-old daughter, Loy, move halfway around the world to paradise. But instead of luxuriating in ocean breezes, renewed passion, and first-rate schooling, what Lisa and her family find are burning corpses, biting ants, and a millionaire founder who cares more about selling bamboo furniture than educating young minds. Not to mention Lisa’s fear that one morning she might see the Dengue Fever rash on her young daughter.

RASH is an unfiltered, sharply-written memoir about a woman who goes looking for happiness on the Island of the Gods, and nearly destroys her marriage in the process. For anyone who has ever dreamed of starting over in an exotic locale, this is a poignant reminder that no matter where you go, there you are.

My musings:

I don’t normally read a lot of memoirs. Lisa Kusel’s book Rash made me reevaluate that choice, because there is something infinitely touching about someone sharing their life story with you, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. As I laughed, cringed and shuddered my way through Lisa’s honest and vivid account of her year in Bali, I related on many levels to her story. For us, the thing that would fix all of life’s problems was a three-year stint travelling around Australia in a caravan with two kids under five. I wish that I could be sitting around the campfire with Lisa and compare notes, because what a laugh that would be!

Who would give up the comfort of their life in California, uproot the whole family and move to a little tropical island in Indonesia? Someone looking for a change. Change is good, right? A change of scenery may even fill that hole of chronic discontent in our heart that niggles that there must be more to life. So when Lisa found an advert looking for teachers to help set up an innovative new school in the tropical rainforest of Bali, it was like a dream come true. Her husband Victor applied for the job, and soon the whole family set off to embark on their new adventure.  But life is usually not that simple, and Lisa and her family soon find out that their tropical paradise is not what it was supposed to be.

I loved Lisa’s candid writing style, her self-deprecating humour and her warts-and-all approach in describing her “seachange”. There are no enlightened moments with Balinese medicine men or serene rides through lush rainforest on an old-fashioned bicycle to the gentle tinkle of windchimes. Instead, her days are spent squashing giant killer ants that threaten to carry off her daughter in the middle of the night, hiding under layers of netting to escape swarms of dengue infected mosquitoes and scraping thick mould off bamboo furniture and walls to the deafening sounds of gamelan music as she is reflecting on her crisis-stricken marriage. There were quite a few funny moments, too, like Lisa’s standoff with a protective male monkey, which I related to from our own personal experiences in Bali – I never forget the time when my husband tried to fend off the fang-bearing killer monkey with his thong (the flip-flop kind, not the underwear) whilst his womenfolk fled in panic. Lisa, if you had indeed spent some time in Kuta with those beer-swilling Aussie rugby teams you may have learned some life-saving thong combat action!

Whilst Lisa spends many lonely, miserable days in the country she had hoped would be the answer to all her problems, she reflects on the eat-pray-love phenomenon and questions herself on her lack of Gilbertian enlightenment. Having been to Bali I can see that living in a rather basic bamboo hut in the middle of the Balinese rainforest without some of the conveniences we take for granted would look a lot more serene in a movie (or the Green School advertising clip I found on Youtube) than in real life. I appreciated Lisa’s honesty as she shared her struggles every step of the way, and the way her Western views regularly clashed with the different cultural practices she is faced with in her new home. Her inner probings to explore her capacity for unhappiness are relevant in our society today and made for some reflection on my part whilst I was reading her honest account. I have read somewhere before that characters in books never seem to eat or pee – well, Lisa has it all in her book, which makes it all the more relatable! What also made this book speak to me is that I knew most of the places Lisa talked about in her story – we may even have aooommmmhed on neighbouring yoga mats during a yoga session at the Ubud Yoga Barn without realising it. 

Summary:

All in all, Lisa Kusel’s memoir is a poignant account of a woman searching for happiness and contentment in a far away land, only to find that all her problems have followed her. Written with honesty and humour, Rash will appeal to everyone who has ever dreamed of escaping it all. I hope that Lisa and her family have found contentment in their new life in Vermont and that the year in Bali is but a distant memory that ultimately brought them closer together. If nothing else, it made for a damn good read!

Thank you to the author for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: NEON PILGRIM by Lisa Dempster

Title: Neon Pilgrim

Author: Lisa Dempster
Publisher: Ventura Press
Read: August 2017

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Book Description (Goodreads):

During a culture-shocked exchange year in Japan, fifteen-year-old Lisa Dempster’s imagination is ignited by the story of the henro michi, an arduous 1200 kilometre Buddhist pilgrimage through the mountains of Japan.

Perfectly suiting the romantic view of herself as a dusty, travel-worn explorer (well, one day), she promises to return to Japan and walk the henro michi, one way or another, as soon as humanely possible.

Fast-forward thirteen years, and Lisa’s life is vastly different to what she pictured it would be. Severely depressed, socially withdrawn, overweight, on the dole and living with her mum, she is 28 and miserable.

And then, completely by chance, the henro michi comes back into her life, through a book at her local library. It’s a sign. She decides then and there to go back to Japan almost immediately: to walk the henro michi, and walk herself back to health.

Brushing aside the barriers that other people might find daunting – the 1200km of mountainous terrain, the sweltering Japanese summer, the fact she has no money and has never done a multi-day hike before – Lisa is determined to walk the pilgrimage, or die trying.

My musings:

I love hiking nearly as much as I love books, so when I received an offer to review Neon Pilgrim by Lisa Dempster it was a no-brainer to put my hands up – yes please!  Neon Pilgrim is Lisa’s account of her pilgrimage on the Henro Michi trail in Shikoku, Japan – walking 1200 km of mountainous terrain in the gruelling summer heat. I admire people who have the courage to step outside their comfort zone to experience truly life-changing events. My own hikes, whilst having taken me to some beautiful locations, have been tame in comparison, always holding the promise of company, a good meal, a hot shower (sometimes) and a bed to sleep in at the end of the day – even if the bed was in a remote mountain hut. Lisa, on the other hand, hiked in true pilgrim style – navigating completely alien territory on her own, with both her meals and her shelter often only received at the hands of generous strangers. What a lot of courage it takes to travel like that!

Writing with total honesty and an irresistible sense of Aussie humour that was both refreshing as well as laugh-out-loud funny at times, Lisa recalls her experiences on her pilgrimage, giving the reader an insight into both the gruelling as well as the rewarding aspects of her journey. Setting off without any experience or prior training, and fighting an ongoing battle with depression, she navigated the pain and pitfalls of her first few days (and weeks) on the trail with amazing stamina, not holding anything back when recalling her pain and doubts on setting off on her hike. 

"Are you sad?" Shunya asked in English.
"No," I replied. "Maybe. I don't know. Just tired."
He nodded.
"It's hard," he said gently.

What wonderful armchair travel – I have never been to Japan, but could vividly picture both its beautiful countryside as well as its graceful people. Lisa’s inner journey was also an interesting one, as she slowly became more comfortable in her own body and managed to still her ever-chatty Western mind to reflect on her life choices.

With a voice that is as honest as it is heartfelt, the tale never comes across as whiny or preachy, as some similar life-journey books tend to do – and it was always entertaining to read about Lisa’s encounters with the many colourful characters she met along the way. I think the one thing I loved most about Neon Pilgrim (and which made the book stand out from many similar travel tales) was Lisa’s uninhibited honesty, the way she never censors her thoughts in order to make herself appear braver or tougher in the eyes of the reader. It takes a lot of guts to leave yourself so exposed and vulnerable and own up to your own weaknesses!

  

Summary:

If you like hiking, or armchair travel, or just a tale about someone who was gutsy enough to step out of her comfort zone, Neon Pilgrim may be just the book for you. Brimming with interesting characters and written with warmth, honesty and an irresistible Aussie humour, this memoir was both interesting as well as entertaining. I highly recommend it to anyone who has ever yearned for adventure but has found many excuses why they can’t do it – Lisa’s honest account of her pilgrimage proves that where there is a will, there is a way! 

Thank you to Ventura Press for the free copy of this memoir and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

About the Author:

Lisa Dempster is the Artistic director and CEO of the Melbourne Writers Festival. Previous roles have included Asialink fellow at Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, Director of the Emerging Writers' Festival, Founding Director of EWFdigital (now Digital Writers' Festival) and publisher at Vignette Press. Lisa has travelled widely in search of literary and other adventures.

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Audiobook Review: JULIE & JULIA by Julie Powell

Title: Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen
Author: Julie Powell
Publisher: Hachette Audiobooks
Read: March 27 - April 8, 2013


Synopsis (Goodreads):

Nearing 30 and trapped in a dead-end secretarial job, Julie Powell reclaims her life by cooking every single recipe in Julia Child's legendary Mastering the Art of French Cooking in the span of one year. It's a hysterical, inconceivable redemptive journey - life rediscovered through aspics, calves' brains and crème brûlée.

The bestselling memoir that's "irresistible....A kind of Bridget Jones meets The French Chef" (Philadelphia Inquirer) is now a major motion picture directed by Nora Ephron, starring Amy Adams as Julie and Meryl Streep as Julia, the film Julie & Julia will be released by Sony Pictures on August 7, 2009.


My thoughts:

There is a lot of pressure when being asked to choose the next book to be read by all members of our bookclub– and after a run of rather depressing reads which saw our group’s alcohol consumption increase tenfold as we tried to drown our sorrowful reflections in cheap wine, this time the vote was unilaterally in favour of “something funny”. I googled “funny books” into my trusty computer, and perhaps it was the fact that it was just before dinner and my fridge was bare, that Julie Powell’s memoir stood out from the rest.


For those who have not read the book or seen the movie (which by the way I really liked): in her book “Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen” the author Julie Powell writes about her project which involved cooking all 524 recipes from Julia Child’s book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in one year – and writing a daily blog about her efforts, which propelled her to authordom and blogging fame. Why? Because at 29, Julie Powell feels like a failure, and blogging is the creative outlet she chooses to make her feel worthwhile and appreciated by her peers.

Being the intrepid commuter who frankly struggles at times to find enough hours in the day to read all the books I would like to, I ordered the audiobook version from the library and settled into what I hoped would be a funny mouth-watering exposé on delicious food and cooking disasters (being rather disaster prone in the kitchen myself). But I admit that after suffering my way through the first third of the book I almost gave up on it, only keeping going for the simple fact that I could not under any circumstances throw in the dishcloth on my own bookclub choice (even the excuse of “busy at work”, “long hours” or “suffering from the plague” would not get me out of this one). I hated it! As the narrative randomly skipped back and forth between Powell’s childhood (I still don’t really see the connection between her teenage sexual urges or her father’s dirty magazines and her cooking project) I almost preferred a boring silent drive to having to listen to another one of Julie Powell’s expletives (of which there are many) or rants.

However, as Powell focused more on her actual project and less on reflections of past sexual fantasies, the book improved and there were some genuinely funny, laugh-out-loud moments. Julie never denies that she may be somewhat self-centred and suffering from the terrible infliction of sewer-mouth (personally, I can handle swearing, but think that an excess of such does not make for better humour, just makes it sound cheap and nasty). I can accept that. Even the repeated saucepan-throwing and abuse of her long suffering husband can be understood on some level of female-solidarity (anyone who has ever suffered from the monthly hormonal mood swings women have to put up with will know never to attempt a complicated French recipe on those days). Once the book focused on the actual cooking and kitchen disasters I actually quite enjoyed it. I had hoped to see more passion about cooking and food in general from Julie, which would explain the rationale behind her strange project, but some of her descriptions did tickle the funny bone and kept me interested.

My biggest gripe with the audiobook at that stage was the narration. No offence, Julie, but there is a reason why some people make their careers as narrators and others don’t. This should serve as a lesson to other authors who are tempted to narrate their own books – being a good narrator is a gift just as writing a good novel cannot be accomplished by anyone. A good narrator will breathe life into the different characters, giving each a unique voice and drawing the listener into the story. “Julie and Julia” was not the worst narration I have ever listened to, but it wasn’t that far off. Perhaps it didn’t help that I had only just listened to two of the best audiobooks – in narration terms – a short while before, so the bar was set very high.

All in all, Julie & Julia had moments of enjoyment and laughter, even if the beginning nearly saw me fling the CD set out of the car window in despair. On some deep level I related to Julie’s feelings on the verge of turning 30 (what will she do just before the dreaded 40, or, God help us – 50?). Some cooking disasters were hilarious (and familiar –living in rural Australia I know all about flies!), some cringe-worthy, and some made just plainly turned my stomach. I am now very interested to see what others in our reading group thought – no doubt there will be more wine involved, and food (though I will not inflict my own cooking on anyone – I do value my friends too much for that), and hopefully many divided opinions which will make for a lively discussion.

I read this book as part of my 2013 Audiobook Challenge and the 2013 Eclectic Reader Challenge (humour).

 

Book Review: BALILICIOUS by Becky Wicks

Title: Balilicious
Author: Becky Wicks
Publisher: Harper Collins
Read: January 22-24, 2013


Synopsis:

From visiting ancient healers with cellphone additions to leaving a shaking ashram intent on extracting her soul, Becky Wicks soon discovered that six months travelling round Bali wasn’t all going to be about finding inner peace and harmony. In fact, the perils of possessed teens, eating raw, yogic headstands, diving shipwrecks and dicing with black magic and demons all took their toll on the Island of the Gods.

And that was before the vaginal steaming.

Becky Wicks lifts the sarong on real life in Bali in a blur of locals, tourists, expats and the others with Julia Roberts Syndrome, who arrive… you know… not really knowing who they are.”

My thoughts:

I won a free copy of Balilicious from the Reading Room, and with perfect timing it arrived in my mailbox two days before I was due to board a plane -to Bali! What better opportunity than to read about Becky Wicks' Bali experiences "on location" so to speak. In fact, I am writing this review whilst gently swinging into a hammock on Gili T, where some of Becky Wicks' memoir is based.

Okay, enough of my travels and back to the book: Balilicious is in no way a travel guide a la Lonely Planet style, but rather reads like Becky's travel blog, complete with photos. Hence the subtitle "The Bali Diaries". Readers of Becky Wicks' earlier book "Burqualicious" will probably be familiar with the style - I haven't read it yet, but was granted a preview of a couple of chapters at the end of this book.

In Balilicious, Becky Wicks tells about her personal experiences and adventures whilst spending six months living on the small Indonesian island of Bali. Mainly based in the beautiful mountain town of Ubud, Wicks also explored other parts of the island (such as Kuta, Legian, Ahmed, Lovina and Padang Bai), as well as Sengiggi and the Gili Islands, which are part of Lombok but only a short two-hour fast boat trip away from Bali. Not being afraid to throw herself into new experiences, Wicks’ travel adventures feature activities most of us may never even contemplate – such as a “shaking workshop” in the mountains, a session of vaginal steaming (the mind boggles) and colonic irrigation (as you surely all do when on holidays?). As you can see, Wicks’ diary explores topics you will never find in your average travel guide, but some that may be very pertinent for the woman traveller – the problem of getting affordable tampax in Bali, for example, or where to find strong, good-looking male divers. For the more adventurous spirit, there is always the hunt for evil spirits on a moonlit night in a cemetery on Gili T – hmmmm, I thought about it, but decided to give it a miss. It was a spooky place even in daylight.

Wicks writes with the sort of wry, often self-deprecating humour which appeals to me immensely. Her observations are astute, her comments often laugh-out-loud funny, and she gives everything and everyone the benefit of the doubt. Wicks tends not to pass any judgment without backing it up with facts – she mentions her contempt for journalists who don’t do their homework and jump to misleading conclusions, and she obviously lives by her principles. A lot of the chapters are full of fascinating background information about Bali and its culture, so even if you’ve never been there yourself, you should get something out of reading this book. For me, of course, the best fun was to visit some of the places Wicks describes so vividly, although I passed on most of the activities she so eagerly participated in (call me a chicken).

By briefly touching on the clash between Western culture, tourism and Balinese spirituality and culture, Wicks shows that the popular tourist locations featured in the book do not typify the whole of Bali – although reading about some of the more extreme places, people and activities described in the book the reader may be lead to believe that Bali is a tourist mecca which has totally lost its way. One should therefore be careful to read this book for its entertainment value rather than viewing it as a travel guide.

All in all, I really enjoyed Wicks’ memoir and couldn’t help wondering which diveshop the “hot” diver belonged to as I casually cycled through the streets of Gili T. If, like myself, you have been to Bali before, you should get a few laughs out of Becky’s exploits and cries of: “Yes, exactly! I saw / felt / experienced that as well!” Such as Wicks’ Ubud Monkey Forest experience, which she introduces with:

“In the movie Eat, Pray, Love, Julia Roberts is shown cycling through a leafy jungle, smiling as the furry little monkeys sit quietly on the sidelines, looking cute. […] I hate to be the one to break the news but now that I’ve done it, I know for sure that Hollywood has lied to us.”

And ends with:

“[…] another group of monkeys had raced out of the forest and formed a threatening circle around me. As they stared at me their lips curled back en-masse to reveal razor sharp teeth. We stood there in a stand-off, like extras from Planet of the Apes.”

Yes, Becky, exactly! We too had to run for our lives, fending a rabid monkey off with our thongs (for the non-Australians, the footwear kind, not the underwear).

Balilicious is the ideal book for a light, fun read and a bit of girlie armchair travel. Better still, do as I did, book a ticket and read it over there – and see for yourself!

Namaste', Becky Wicks! :)

I read this book for the 2013 Eclectic Reader Challenge - category "Memoir".