I saw this author some years ago at the Brisbane Writers Festival and found her fascinating to listen to. It was probably the first writers festival I went to shortly after I moved here. I remember it being an exciting one because there were a lot of travel focused topics and travel writing guests on panels and I was about to take off to South America.
Unfortunately, this book had sat on my shelf for a number of years since that festival, unopened. A few times I cracked the cover and tried to make a go of it, but I always ended up discarding it for another book I was more into at the time. You know what they say about a good opening.
But after my last book, We Need to Talk About Kevin, I needed something light, something frothy, something... Brazilian. We are in the height of summer after all, and with the salsa music in my ears, the tropical smoothie excursions I was taking at lunch times to Boost Juice and this book buzzing in my head, I slipped into extreme travel withdrawals.
While, not my favourite of the many travel literature I indulge in when I feel the need to do some armchair travelling, it certainly gave me an insight into the Brazilian culture and the fun of carnival. And again prompted that side of me who loves to up and leave her house, her job, her friends and life in general for that of one that fits into a backpack. I tried to focus on my new resolve to live on a much smaller percentage of my wage in order to get to my goal of taking a year off. Let me rephrase that (since I have taken years - more than that even - off before)... take a year off and not be broke and/or counting every penny. A planned year off with the funds to sustain me without concern.
I didn't power through Michael's book the way I have other travel literature, but I understood her viewpoint better than most because she was similiar in age to me at the time of writing this book and had also given up corporate jobs to basically become a bum in Rio de Janeiro. Okay, the people I admire probably says a lot about me, but even though I like my job I can't help but peer out the cubical grey window and think, 'Why am I even bothering with this when there's a whole big world out there I have yet to explore?'
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