I'll Be Damned If I'll Die in Oakland: A Sort of Travel Memoir - Hardcover

Martinez, Al

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031229087X ISBN 13: 9780312290870

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books, 2003

Synopsis

In I'll Be Damned if I'll Die in Oakland, popular Los Angeles Times columnist and world traveler Al Martinez takes us on a funny, crazy, surprising, and sometimes poignant ride around the globe with his wife, the ebullient Cinelli, and then with his children, his grandchildren and, once, his perplexing dog Barney, scattering love, laughter, and memories all along the way.

We journey with them from Africa to China, Greece to Italy, Spain to Austria and beyond, and across the U.S. on a three-month trip from the Pacific to the Atlantic and back again, with Barney barking all the way. It's a trip through time as well as space, as the family grows and the world changes. It's a ride you'll never want to forget.

About this title

About the Author

Al Martinez is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, as well as a screenwriter and an author of books and national magazine articles. He shared a gold-medal Pulitzer Prize in Journalism in 1984 and was a member of a staff that won Pulitzers in 1993 and 1995. He has been honored by the Society of Professional Journalists as Journalist of the Year, and has won two National Headliner Awards and a National Ernie Pyle Award.

Reviews

Los Angeles Times columnist Martinez declares at the opening of this spunky though disappointing memoir that it isn't a where-to or how-to book, but rather a reflection on travel's soul-enriching benefits. Time spent looking at other places and cultures is time not spent looking at ourselves, he writes. If only he'd taken that dictum to heart. For what unfolds is a chronicle of a life of tourism with Martinez and his wife at the center of nearly every scene. Pithy prose and mildly funny anecdotes notwithstanding, Martinez relates commonplace tourist adventures (e.g., museum hopping across Europe, sailing down China's Yangtze River, road tripping through Mexico) and misadventures (e.g., he claims he was nearly attacked at night by 19 lions while on a safari in Tanzania). Though the locations are promising, readers may have trouble seeing them through often irrelevant dialogue between the author and his traveling companions. As a novelist (The Last City Room), screenwriter and award-winning journalist, Martinez knows how to turn a phrase. His portrayals of his parents and colleagues are touching, and his easygoing nature can endear: "Our travel agent had mentioned before departure that part of the fun of traveling in Africa was the unexpected. I took that to mean that rhinos might skewer a tourist, not that African bartenders wouldn't know a martini from cherries jubilee. I sighed and drank what they gave me." Still, Martinez's technical proficiency doesn't make up for a lack of substance in this "sort of" travel memoir.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Columnist for the "L.A. by God Times " Martinez got a lust for travel from his mother (who inspired this title) when he was young. So he and wife Cinelli, sometimes with children or grandchildren, took journeys that expanded understanding, delighted senses, and created memories, most of them wonderful, some--in retrospect, at least--laugh-out-loud funny. Interspersed with travel (starting with a three-week trip by camper to Mexico with two children and a baby-sitter for $500) is memoir, from Martinez's service in the Korean War to his heart problems 50 years later. Don't look here for travel advice (when the couple takes a driving trip to Europe they make reservations only for their days of arrival and departure), but instead for inspiration--to see and experience the Great Wall of China, the ancient ruins of Greece, the horror of Buchenwald, the elemental geography of Africa and Alaska, the excitement of New York, and the splendor of Paris, the author's favorite city. This is a treat for all travelers, armchair or otherwise. Michele Leber
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 031229087X
• ISBN 13: 9780312290870
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240