Dave Gorman is well known, at least among oddballs like me, for his two previous books based on carrying through with apparently ridiculous ideas to surprising success. In Are Your Dave Gorrman? he tried to meet all the other people named Dave Gorman, but no Davids etc; in Googlewhack Adventure, he created a Googlewhack (put two dictionary-approved words into Google - if you only get one hit you've created a Googlewhack) and tried to create a ten person Googlewhack chain by visiting the creator of the first site , getting them to create a googlewhack and so on. In America Unchained Gorman, scarred by a six week book tour through America at its most commercial, bland and undifferentiated (chain hotels and everything the same wherever he went), wonders if it would be possible to travel across the US avoiding chain hotels, petrol and food. For Gorman to think is to do: he sets off to try just that, accompanied by a one-woman film crew.
As with his other works, Unchained is amusing, illuminating, surprising and inspiring. It also made me realise just how structured my life is and how few risks I take - possibly not the best discovery when I'm in Opatija* rather than, say, Melbourne. Fortunately, being prosaic and unspontaneous, this is unlikely to translate into me ditching my plans and backpacking into the wilds of Croatia.
I think my favourite part of the book is the section on Salt Lake City and Gorman's discovery of the Church of LDS. One tends to assume that other people also have one's own general knowledge, so discovering he didn't already know about a religion I've long been fascinated by made interesting reading. Suspecting that the creation of the group and its underlying precepts might be a litte... unorthodox, Gorman contacts a vicar friend, who's generally tolerant and accepting of differing faiths. his response to Gorman's enquiry about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (aka Mormons) is worth the price of the book, even if you don't buy it as part of a special Borders offer at the airport. - Alex
*The fact that I'm writing this from Opatija may make it sound as though I'm more daring that I claim, but its for a conference, everything's very civilized, and the riskiest, most spontaneous thing I've done here is either catch the scary bus to Rijeka (not that scary) or deecide at the last minute where to have dinner. And I'm here with friends so I'm not even adventuring on my own
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