Give Me the World by Leila Hadley
April 16th, 2006 . by Jilly
Give Me the World is a travel memoir written by a 26-year old New Yorker woman and her 6 year old son. Leila Hadley is sick of her life, she works all the time, she’s buying stuff she doesn’t need, she’s in debt, she’s in a rut. One day a friend of hers suggests that maybe she should take some time off and travel around the world. And she does it.
The amazing thing about this story is that it takes place in the 50’s. So she goes to places in the Middle East and she’s relatively safe. She gets to go places that would be far too dangerous for an American to go to these days. I’ve heard that certain areas of the Middle East are really beautiful and I know I probably won’t ever get to go there and see for myself. She goes to Hong Kong, Ceylon, Bangkok, Dehli, Dubai.
Her trek ends up lasting 18 months all together. She meets up with 4 American men that are sailing a schooner around the world and she talks her way into hitching a ride with them.
This story is very well written. Its clear that the author really has a knack for colorful descriptions so much that you can clearly imagine what it would have been like to be there. Before she went on her trip, she worked for a magazine. After she came back and wrote this back, she become a travel writer specializing in books about travelling with kids.
If you like books like this, you would probably also really enjoy Maiden Voyage by Tania Albi.