In 2018, Anthony Bourdain’s long time assistant Laurie Woolever sat down with him to chat about a new project – a book that will document all of his favourite places across the world, written, rather narrated, in Bourdain characteristic style, curating all of his favourite places to eat, drink and explore.
Anthony Bourdain never lived to complete the project and after much deliberation Laurie decided to go ahead and publish the book just as it is, with personal essays from some of Bourdain’s favourite people on their precious memories of Tony.
And I am so grateful that Laurie Woolever ensured World Travel saw the light of the day.
Summary & Review
“I am a storyteller. I go places, I come back. I tell you how the places made me feel.”
First things first, this book made me hungry at all odd hours and more importantly made me crave traveling in this age of pandemic when traveling is a pleasure rarely found. Most importantly though, the book made me realise just how much Anthony Bourdain is missed.
I especially loved Christopher Bourdain’s memoir about their time in Paris as kids when he was 7 and Anthony was 10.
Personally, I kind of skipped the ‘How to Get there’ and ‘Where to stay’ parts and went straight for Tony’s thoughts on each place. That and the memoirs.
This book has attracted a fair amount of polarised reviews, the ‘did not like it’ ones focussing on how this is just a guide book. And while that is fair enough, I personally liked it for the small snippets of insights it offers the readers into Anthony Bourdain’s life. Most importantly though, for hard core Bourdain fans, it is a way to experience once again some of that charm that we so sorely have missed since the summer of 2018.
Final Thoughts:
A true tribute to Anthony Bourdains’ legacy. Read it if you’re a fan of Bourdain, especially if you loved No Reservations and Parts Unknown. However, read it also if you’ve never seen any of his shows, as it’ll help you seen the world from Tony’s unique perspective –
‘Once you allow your senses to guide you, you may begin to find pleasure in many things you would ordinarily overlook.‘
World Travel : An Irreverent Guide was published in April 2021 and is available to purchase at Amazon, Waterstones and all other major and local book stores.
P.S. I’d like to thanks Bloomsbury for the advanced readers copy
P.P.S. Cover image courtesy amazon.com
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