This is the last book I had to read for my Travel Writing class at university and I can’t say I was looking forward to it too much. Most of the other reading we had to do was extremely long and boring. Are You Experienced? begins with Dave and Liz bickering on their flight. You can instantly tell that nothing is right between them and it made me wonder why they were even travelling together in the first place. Before explaining though, Sutcliffe drops the two characters in Delhi, where they are met with beggar children, the ridiculously hot weather and a world they are unaccustomed to. Dave is quite the outspoken character, not caring what he says to other people or what they think of him. His narrative is funny, yet very truthful at the same time. His first ideas about India are not good; ‘Delhi airport was… it was just taking the piss.’ While the other books read for this class were written many years ago, this one is very current with a young and exciting narrative to match. Although Dave does come across as arrogant, mean and selfish, I didn’t care. He was travelling and wanted to do what he wanted to do. What’s wrong with that?For roughly the first half of the book, Dave and Liz are stuck with each other and the bickering doesn’t stop. Each of them disagrees with the other and they clearly don’t want to do the same things while in India. Hell, Dave doesn’t even want to be in India. However, he is too scared of being on his own in a strange country so puts up with Liz and whatever she decides to do. While together, they meet an interesting range of people, including J, who because he has been in India for a while thinks he knows everything there is to know. Sutcliffe makes Dave a very stereotypical teenager of the late ‘90s. He loves his Western lifestyle and is very quick to judge anything new and different. He would much rather be having a two week holiday on a beach somewhere. While in India, Dave doesn’t want to touch anyone because they seem dirty, he doesn’t want to talk with any locals and he doesn’t really care about seeing the ‘real’ India. Really, he just wanted to get into Liz’s pants. While Are You Experienced? has its own plot, it can also be taken as a sort of travel guide. Kind of. Dave and Liz do see a fair bit of India and go to some well-known places, thanks to their use of the Lonely Planet guide they carry around with them. There are also parts about being ill due to the different kinds of food in India, how to travel, what the buses and trains are like, etc. Are You Experienced? is a really different way to read about taking a gap year and going somewhere you aren’t exactly sure of. It’s also about new experiences and making the most of what you have. Are You Experienced? showcases what being a backpacker is about. Sutcliffe takes the very worst of experiences for Dave and puts a humorous twist on them. His writing is extremely witty and sharp and I couldn’t put this book down. Considering I wasn’t looking forward to reading it, I ended up loving it completely. My sister has actually applied to go to India for a while so I might give her this book to read beforehand.
'Are You Experienced' is a very funny take on typical 1990s student gap year travel. Liz and Dave are two students who travel to India. Liz wants to 'find herself'. Dave wants to find his way into Liz's bed. Liz and Dave represent two typical student traveller types. Dave is the typical English 'bloke' who likes beer, sex, and curry. He's never left England and his attitude towards India initially switches between whining about the food/heat/people and making fun of other travellers. Liz is that annoying type who fancies herself as 'Bohemian' and quickly turns to complaining about 'Western' ways and spouting New Agey, hippie crap while trying to 'find' herself. Out of the two of them, despite his whingeing, Dave becomes the more likeable, despite his flaws. Some of the observations he makes about fellow travellers and the whole travel experience are hilarious.About halfway through the book, Liz and Dave separate, and Dave continues to travel round India by himself. Despite some horrible experiences, he slowly begins to enjoy India, and travel, and what both have to offer (although he's still obsessed with sex and beer).
What do You think about Are You Experienced? (1999)?
Nothing special, but nothing awful, either. Just...average.God, I wish I hadn't bought this. I could have done a lot with those pounds. Yes, I am a self-confessed stingy bitch when it comes to cash.But hey-it got a few laughs out of me, so that's definitely a plus. But anything else? I'm afraid not. I didn't care about ANY of the characters (except maybe Ranj). Liz was a bitch. Dave was a self-obsessed twit. And the description of India was pretty basic, too. I could have produced the same book (or even a better one) through simply using the internet for a country search. None of the little details made me think that the author had experienced India himself. It all felt like regurgitated stuff he'd read somewhere else, or heard from a secondary source.Basically: don't buy it. Reading it doesn't take too long, and isn't that much of an ordeal (a la Fallen). But buying it? DON'T. I wish *I* hadn't.
—Mel (who is deeply in love with herself)
Supposedly a "satire" of backpacking, this extremely short book instead reads like a whiny, self-absorbed travelogue where the main character learns nothing and changes not at all while trying to navigate the subcontinent. There are occasional dead-on points, especially when skewering young backpackers' tendency to travel the world just to get stoned with other young backpackers:'It's funny,' I said.'What?''You know how Manali just feels right.''Yeah.''How you can travel through all the stress and the money-grubbing, then you arrive here and, like, instantly know that you've found the real India and everything.''Yeah.''I mean, it's odd, because in all the time I've been up here, you're the first Indian I've had a conversation with.''So?''I dunno - it's as if the best bits - the bits that feel most like India - are the places where you don't have to talk to any Indians.'There. That's the best sequence in the book.* I just saved you the cost of buying it, although if you have 4 hours to kill, this book wasn't painful... just mostly pointless. Mostly.* For those who don't know, Manali is a stoner/backpacker's paradise, and is pretty far removed from anything 'real' in India.
—Patrick
Een leuk boek over Dave, een jongen die besluit naar India te gaan. Als hij er eenmaal is, valt het toch wat tegen. Al maakt hij ook wel leuke dingen mee. Door de reis wordt Dave volgens eigen zeggen volwassen. Het boek is een absolute aanrader voor iedereen die van plan is te gaan backpacken. Of je daarna nog weg wilt, is de vraag. William Sutcliffe weet op hilarische wijze te omschrijven tegen welke dingen je tijdens zo'n reis aan kunt lopen. De Volkskrant omschreef dit boek als volgt: "Voor wie reizen door India verschrikkelijk vond en dat nooit heeft willen toegeven, is Ben je ervaren een fijne erkenning." Beter kun je het boek niet omschrijven, vind ik.
—Hannie
