Travel to Caribbean

A Trip to the Beach: Living on Island Time in the Caribbean

Format: Paperback
Author: Melinda Blanchard
ReleaseDate: 20 November, 2001
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Rating:

Arrogant is right - and not really up front either
Nothing else to add. Hipkat and ActionJunkie have summed it all up perfectly. Oh. Yes there is. I happened to be in a bookstore way back when this book was released and the Blanchardss were speaking. I pretty quickly observed they were quite charmed with themselves. I didn't stay to listen long. The book was passed to me by a co-worker. Couldn't finish it.

Self Indulgence - The Blanchard Way....


Are these people for real? Seems to me that the book was written to recoup their initial start-up expenses. I read this book and while I thought it was interesting during the first few chapters, it quickly turns into a self indulgent tale of "look how much money we spent and all that we went through to live in Paradise". Been to their little restaurant in Paradise and the food is about as good as the book. In fact, I gave them one star for their food and book combined.

Finally! a Cure for Insomnia...


I found this book to be a real sleep inducer! It is not written well, but rather in the style of your mom telling one of her vacation stories. I bought this book because I heard the Blanchard's on NPR talking about their experience and thought it would be a fun to read about 2 very appealing things; running away to the Caribbean and opening a restaurant. The parts of the book that could have lended drama; hurricanes and drug dealing, were approached with little interest for the reader. The drug dealing almost brushed off and w-a-y too much info on the hurricane.

The Blanchard's come off as some sort of godsends to the people of Anguilla, and the verbatim conversations with their son by phone are excruciating: "say hi, let me know about your classes, ok, sleep well. . . . " zzzzzz. . . snore. . . .

By the end of the book I couldn't have cared less if their precious restaurant and wine cellar survived the hurricane, I was numbed by the images of Melinda playing board games with her friends while her husband flew into the eye of a storm.

Worst of all, this book did not conjure up any images of island life or make it seem desirable. I couldn't smell the sea air or taste the food.

I was repeatedly confronted with 2 self-absorbed white people rounding up everyone on the island to become their new "family", and the pace of the book is nearly real-time, if this is 10 years and 2 restaurants condensed to "capture of spirit of life on Anguilla", I'm glad I'm not friends with these people and expected to endure their boring cocktail stories at some fabulous party they'd throw for themselves!.

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