Lovely Little Shelf

The Book: Honeymoon with My Brother, by Franz Wisner

The Story: Franz is kind of on top of his world: his girlfriend of 10 years is about to marry him, he has this high profile, great job and just a pretty nice set up.  Within a week, his fiance calls off the wedding with people already in route, and his job demotes him and moves him into a tiny office.

The first part of this book goes into the relationship that Franz had with his fiance, Annie.  The thing I’ve always wondered about people that get their weddings canceled like this is, “how DIDN’T you know?” The answer is that he did know. He knew that something was wrong and that Annie was doing this to pacify him and that she was not emotionally ready for this.  He just didn’t want to deal with it or admit it and thought that being married would be the end of his troubles.  So while Franz was heartbroken and distraught, he kind of got it.

His friends and family still showed up for the wedding and they partied and tried to cheer Franz up.  It worked while they were there, then he kind of fell apart after they left.  He knew something had to change and then a couple days before his honeymoon was supposed to start, he decided to call his brother Kurt and take him on the honeymoon that had been planned for him and Annie.

The brothers loved it and loved getting to know each other again as adults.  They made up this huge plan to get rid of all of their stuff and travel the globe for a year.  The rest of the book is pretty much a travel log of all the places they went and the people they met and they crazy situations that they found themselves in.

When I say a travel log, I mean it.  They covered something like 30 countries over the two years that they were traveling.  The started in Europe, went to Asia, then South America and Africa.  They had pauses and trips to the states in between each continent to regroup, but most of the book takes place outside of America.

Throughout the book, the boys visit LaRue, their stepgrandma, and send her letters and postcards.  She is this adorable 99 year old lady who is obsessed with the idea of her grandsons traveling around the world.  The whole nursing home is following their journey.  Franz is also sending out email updates to tons of friends and family that eventually end up in newspapers and towards the end of the book they are traveling more as travel writers than just backpackers.

What I Thought: I have been so lucky in my life to have had the chance to travel so much.  It’s always been a little dream of mine to some how fall into the job of being  a travel writer.  I was totally jealous that this actually happened to this guy!

For me, the start of this book- the relationship stuff- was kind of “eh.” I didn’t hate it, but to be honest, I didn’t fall in love until they started traveling.  I loved the places that they went and how they got to know each other all over again.  I know once I moved out of the house, my brothers and I all got so much more distant.  I couldn’t tell you their favorite drinks or their daily routine or these type of things that I used to know without a problem.  I, again, was jealous of these guys that they got to re-learn each other.

I have read a lot of travel writing, and sometimes it just feels so dry or so purposely funny (Sorry, Bill Bryson!) This just felt honest.  Sometimes it was funny, but there were parts that were really touching.

The only issue I had with this book was that I couldn’t relate to Kurt and Franz’s lifestyle in anyway.  Just having hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on travel? Don’t have a way to get around in Europe so you buy a Saab? What?! I am a budget traveler to the max and I just found myself gawking at their spending sometimes.

Conclusion: A great memoir and wonderful travel log.  I would, without reservation, recommend this to anyone!