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 enlarge | Author: Eric Hansen
Publisher: Pantheon
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy New: $5.69
You Save: $18.31 (76%)
New (3) Used (15) Collectible (3) from $1.27
Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 416285
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.9 x 0.9
ISBN: 0375421262
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.41
EAN: 9780375421266
ASIN: 0375421262
Publication Date: October 12, 2004
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Condition: MINT condition with absolutely NO flaws. Free delivery confirmation provided. SUPER FAST shipper! Contact me for EXPEDITED international shipment option.
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| Customer Reviews:
Ambushed with the T.I. handshake March 7, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Foreplay lasts for hours as they circle each other in a clockwise direction - licking, nibbling, and rasping at each other's genital region. They taste and eat each other's slime; maybe to get turned on, or as some sort of exchange of genetic information. When sufficiently aroused, they enter each other and have continuous sex for up to thirty-six hours." - from THE BIRD MAN AND THE LAP DANCER
Before you click away from this review in disgust thinking the book is about bizarre sex rituals practiced by some weird cult, probably in California, or, rather, become glued to the text out of prurient interest, just realize that the quote above comes from wildlife biologist Oliver Sparrow about the mating ritual of banana slugs, genus Ariolimax. No surprise, the subspecies A. californicus brachyphallus does inhabit the Golden State.
Sparrow is one of the characters author Eric Hansen meets in this unusual compilation of travel essays. Unusual because, while the reader is taken to such exotic locales as Calcutta, the Borneo rainforest, Thursday Island off Australia's northern coast, the Maldives, and the sinister Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, the volume's focus is indicated by its subtitle, "Close Encounters with Strangers". It's a book more about people than places.
The very best chapter, the one which would earn the whole a five star award all on its own because of the lesson on perspective it teaches, is "Life Lessons from Dying Strangers". Here, Hansen recounts the months he spent cooling his heels in Calcutta while trying to arrange with the labyrinthine Indian bureaucracy the shipment home of two enormous steamer trunks filled with souvenirs from his Asian travels. Almost beside himself with frustration, Eric only finds inner peace through volunteering at Mother Teresa's hospice for the dying destitute.
And then there's the chapter about the biologist, Sparrow, who takes lap dancers from the gentlemen's club he frequents on nature hikes. Or the one about the grief-stricken widower who searches for his wife's wedding ring amidst the jungle-strewn wreckage of the executive jet in which she died.
I enjoyed THE BIRD MAN AND THE LAP DANCER more than I thought I would. More than most, it has "the human touch". And you, too, can learn what it means to be on the receiving end of a "T.I. handshake".
 Prospecting for the nuggets of the human condition December 18, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an unusual book and for many people it will be the title that will first beckon. It was loaned to me by a close friend and once I started it I found that I couldn't wait to find out where the next essay led. As a result I turned the last page after a four hour plane trip and was sorry that there wasn't more. This is not to say that there aren't some essays that are more successful than others but each illumines a facet of this amazing life and planet that you are unlikely to read about anywhere else. In many cases it is the juxtaposition of people,their circumstances, and their associations that makes this book unique. Hansen has lived a fascinating and unusual life. In his willingness to take risks and to say "yes," before he really understands what is in store he has opened himself up to the richness of life. It was great fun to go along for the ride.
Eminently Enjoyable. Buy it!!! September 5, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
As a hardcore birder and a former lap dancer, there was no way I could resist this book. I approached the title essay with some trepidation; as an ex-stripper who chafes at the typical stereotypes, I tend to take a defensive stance when reading or viewing an outsider's depiction of 'exotic' dancers. In this case, I needn't have worried. Hansen's encounter with "Layla" reminded me of so many of the intelligent and charismatic women I have met in stripclubs; it was simply one of the best depictions of this type of dancer that I have ever encountered anywhere. (Sure, there are women who conform to the negative stereotypes as well...and Layla perhaps glosses over some of the negative aspects of the industry during her conversation with the author...but still. I stayed in the industry as long as I did partly because I met so many fascinating, wise & funny women in the clubs. I thank Mr. Hansen for giving us a glimpse of this reality.) His attempts to illuminate the subculture of the friendly neighborhood stripclub also mostly hit the mark. (However, he does get a few bird-related details wrong--things only a total birdgeek would notice.)
The other stories in this book are wonderful, too. I especially loved "Cooking with Madame Zoya" and "Life at the Grand Hotel." He is a fine writer--his prose is straightforward and mostly unembellished, but deeply affecting in its simplicity. Despite Mr. Hansen's incredible adventures, there is no bluster here. The writing is not "pretty" or showoff-y, but gentle, quiet, and surprisingly winsome.
I highly recommend this eminently readable volume. Upon completion, you will want to invite the author to dinner (or take him out birding, or buy him a lapdance...or all three. Anyway, I did. :))
Enjoy!
Just a great read August 14, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is just an extraordinary book in terms of the quality of all the stories. Often collections only contain two or three four star stories. This is the first travel book that I have ever read (and I read a lot of them for Travelers' Tales) that contained ALL five star stories. There were nine great stories in the book but they were all gems.
The Bird Man and the Lap Dancer July 29, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Excelent read. Diverse short stories for someone on the go. Each story made me anxious for the next adventure.
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