cover image Not Quite Lost: Travels Without a Sense of Direction

Not Quite Lost: Travels Without a Sense of Direction

Roz Morris. Spark Furnace, , $11.50 ISBN 978-1-909905-92-4

This slight collection of vignettes about the travels of novelist Morris (My Memories of a Future Life) meanders along at a gentle pace. Many of the episodes described occurred during ill-conceived trips to small British towns, with descriptions of problem-laden vacation flats with leaking roofs or wonky ovens, unhinged tour guides, and the busy highways or mud-rutted paths that separate the author and her husband from the nearest pub. To these sketches, Morris adds an account of her jolly encounter with a band of cryonicists and an interesting interlude about her decision to take part in a flash mob, an experience that led the author to consider a change in her career. All too often these episodes read like jottings in a diary rather than full-fledged essays; they describe incidents but do little else. The prose is pleasant but the book lacks the verve and insight that sustains many travelogues. [em](BookLife) [/em]