Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #584903 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Synopsis
The funny and fabulous tale of two twentieth-century misfits and their adventure into European history...It is 1988, and Jessie, artiste, motormouth, ducker and diver, meets Stanley, angst-ridden banker and boffin. Jessie arrives like a guardian angel and lifts Stanley out of his soul-less life. He ditches his job, and together they set off across Europe. Destination -- unknown. Duration -- indeterminate. So begins an odyssey which turns into an adventure on the stage of European history featuring Shakespeare's "dark lady of the sonnets", Pushkin's African great-grandfather, the composer Chevalier de St. Georges and other colourful characters from Europe's past.

From the Publisher
Fantastic reviews for Soul Tourists:

'In Soul Tourists Bernardine Evaristo has mixed poetry and prose to produce a bouncy, sometimes touching novel about the search for love and belonging...The economy of Evaristo's language as all this unfolds is impressive....(The writing) is fecund, stimulating and witty...Evaristo remains an undeniably bold and energetic writer, whose world view is anything but one-dimensional.'
The Sunday Times

'Bernardine Evaristo's dazzling Soul Tourists explores realms that that are more than usually out of the ordinary...Evaristo, radically refusing to be confined by genres, has written the story of a love affair, a road trip and a detour into hidden aspects of Europe's black history that manages to be thought-provoking, funky and funny.'
Metro

'The story is told in an inspired mixture of prose, blank verse and haiku, as it leaps energetically from interior to exterior, dialogue to monologue, containing moments of lucid imagery and sex-starved comedy.'
The Times

Evaristo revels in meshing time frames, juggling spoken and narrative registers, fusing the glaringly incompatible, and, flipping between free-style verse, prose and dramatic dialogue. The secret of her alchemical touch lies in transforming this experimentation into funky yarns so tantalising you want to devour
them.
The Guardian

‘This odyssey is a book to pack for its gypsy spirit and its summer music’.
The Independent

‘One of Britain’s most innovative writers, Bernardine Evaristo always dares to be different. Soul Tourists is a reaffirmation of her unique and stimulating style.’
New Nation (newspaper)

Customer Reviews

In Response to Reader from Birmingham!
I am currently reading this book, and was considering putting it down, which I hate doing! So I thought I would come to Amazon to read any reviews to see if anyone had the same feelings that I am having!!

I agree with Birmingham Reader's statement....

"As a straightforward read, it's confusing, disorientating and less than satisfying. Switches in time and level of reality make the reader's job difficult."

One minute I'm reading about a meeting of two different people who are about to embark on a roadtrip adventure, then the story goes back in time, which is very confusing, as I do not see the relevance to the story. I felt like skipping the 'historical' segues to keep to the current story, but then wondered that I might indeed miss something that might be linked to the full story. So that's what led me to Amazon!

I also wasn't impressed on page 4 of this book. I have seen the odd typo in a book, which can be forgivable, but 'draw' which should be spelt 'drawer', when referring to a box-shaped container without a top which is part of a piece of furniture, that slides in and out to open and close and is used for keeping things in.

This is my 1st Evaristo book, and Birmingham Reader's quoted comments below has actually made me wonder if I can still get a refund! There is no intrigue for me.

"Soul Tourists is a disappointing read for an early Evaristo fan, in some respects, but a tantalising one too and will give you much food for thought"

Mitch Albom's 'Tuesday's with Morrie' will give you a feast for thought, trust me!

Intriguing
There are two ways to read this novel...

As a straightforward read, it's confusing, disorientating and less than satisfying. Switches in time and level of reality make the reader's job difficult.

But as an insight into the potential of the novel form and where it might be going, and as a writer's read, it's well worth your time.

Evaristo's influence on the literary scene is greater than her sales figures would seem to indicate. It seems though as if she's destined to be the pioneer who never quite gets the recognition she deserves.

The problem for me was that the 'modern day' sections read baldly - flat, and indistinct, hardly like Evaristo at all - without the rich playfulness that marks the best of her writing.

The 'fantasy' sections showed all the learning, imagination and guts of Emperor's Babe but without the soul and joyfulness. Her heart didn't seem quite in it.

If you're looking for a successor to Emperor's Babe I'd say Kat Pomfret's Paradise Jazz with it's jazz lyrics, and that sassy, sexy kind of style that Evaristo was doing years ago, is nearer the mark than this. Or Luke Sutherland's Venus as a Boy for those who like the weird, almost mystical quality of Evaristo's writing at its best. Soul Tourists is a disappointing read for an early Evaristo fan, in some respects, but a tantalising one too and will give you much food for thought.