Honorable Bandit

Honorable Bandit
Brian Bouldrey
University of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299223205
Non-Fiction, Personal Narrative, Travel
Reviewed by John R. Clark

As I read this book, I kept seeing images of my late mother, a writer, chronicler of nature and avid reader, holding this book and chortling. Brian Bouldrey has written the kind of book that she would have loved; witty, entertaining and bursting with literary desserts for the curious reader.
It succeeds on three levels, as a dandy story of a two week adventure, as a stream-of-consciousness narrative and as a lens, seeing people, memories and situations in very unique ways. Even readers who care nothing about travel or Corsica will find the book a joy to read because of the way the author weaves language and images to create mind pictures involving everything from Freud and Ulysses to the nihilistic early days of
the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco.
By the time I was finished, I felt like I knew the author well, but more importantly, I could see his version of the world, both physical and metaphysical as if I was looking out my kitchen window. This is a book that I will happily hand to numerous patrons at the library, knowing they will enjoy this journey by proxy as well.