An utterly engrossing travel account that doubles as a remarkable coming-of-age story... Fabulous.

Gorman's deeply personal narrative is as much a coming-of-age story as it is an engrossing history of a bygone era. Raised by a sympathetic mother and abusive father in a large family, nineteen-year-old Gorman's wanderlust for life took him on a backpacking trip to Europe in 1969. Several weeks after landing in Luxembourg, Gorman headed south, and from there to the Canary Islands. He paints the 1960's pre-tourist portrait of the quaint, vibrant community of Canary Islands that welcomed international tourists with open hearts. The picturesque, social, and political setting of Franko's Spain filters through the text in richly detailed passages. Gorman sprinkles his account with reflections on his troubled relationship with his father, his eternal wanderlust for life, his search for love and his own place in the world, and his coming to terms with his past mistakes. In the end, the unthinkable problem he found himself in while trying to forge a couple of travel checks taught him an important life lesson: he learned to rely on his inner resources to develop a sense of identity, and in the process, he left the naive immediacy of youth and gained the mature insight of adulthood. The result is a dynamic, engrossing portrait of a young adult on the cusp of a major life alteration. The story unfolds neatly as a journey of introspection, self-discovery, boyish mistakes, naivety, struggles, and passion, leaving the reader with a nostalgic longing for youthful adventures. This is a stunner.