Amazon.com
Some women seek adventure to test their mettle, suck down jolts of adrenaline, and prove they haven't grown old and indolent. In Shooting the Boh, journalist Tracy Johnston identifies other motivations for joining a group scheduled to raft down a previously uncharted section of the Boh river in Borneo. "I am by nature a passive person who likes excitement; a person with no magnificent obsessions who loves to participate in them," she says. And, too, if she agreed to write an article about it, the trip was free.
So began an arduous, ill-conceived journey that started with her losing a duffle bag of top-notch river gear and swiftly ran up against treacherous rapids, foot rot, hot flashes, Tarzan-like leeches, clouds of sweat bees, and other nerve-racking flora and fauna. While traversing a section of steamy rain forest, Johnston says, "a quarter of the things I touched had thorns or sharp spines and the rest were covered with ants." She replays the highs and lows of the trip in Technicolor, summing up her fellow travelers and their wild ride in fluid, punchy prose. --Francesca Coltrera
From Publishers Weekly
This story of a journalist joining an expedition down the Boh River starts out as standard adventure travel fare, but the difference rapidly becomes apparent: this journalist is over 40, her luggage is lost on the flight over and cannot be recovered in time, and the expedition has been planned by a company that takes irresponsibility to a new level. Only when they are already on the river do the participants realize how difficult and dangerous their time together will be. All of them must deal with "insect stress" caused by bees that feast on human sweat, foot fungus, raging rapids, and perhaps an evil river spirit. On top of that, Johnston begins to have menopausal hot flashes and questions whether it is time to give up the thrill of risky journeys. Her descriptions of both natural phenomena and local customs are lyrical: she compares salespeople in an outdoor market to "baby birds, mouths open, arms aflutter." In writing about the seemingly cursed journey, Johnston keeps her chin up and sticks to what she calls "the adventure code of travel: go with the unexpected and make do with what you get." This engrossing and surprisingly upbeat tale accomplishes much more than that. First serial to Cosmopolitan; QPB selection.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
