Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World

“I move throughout the world without a plan, guided by instinct, connecting through trust, and constantly watching for serendipitous opportunities.” —From the Preface

Tales of a Female Nomad is the story of Rita Golden Gelman, an ordinary woman who is living an extraordinary existence. At the age of forty-eight, on the verge of a divorce, Rita left an elegant life in L.A. to follow her dream of connecting with people in cultures all over the world. In 1986 she sold her possessions and became a nomad, living in a Zapotec village in Mexico, sleeping with sea lions on the Galapagos Islands, and residing everywhere from thatched huts to regal palaces. She has observed orangutans in the rain forest of Borneo, visited trance healers and dens of black magic, and cooked with women on fires all over the world. Rita’s example encourages us all to dust off our dreams and rediscover the joy, the exuberance, and the hidden spirit that so many of us bury when we become adults.

I so wanted to love this book. It's an intriguing concept, but a tedious execution. How many times can I read, "I was one with (fill in the blank.", or "He/she felt honored to entertain me." or "I felt honored/privileged to be here.", without saying cut the glib patter and get to the meat of your story.
One of her first vignettes was a dead giveaway about the depth of her experiences. Gelman suggested a temporary separation from her husband. They agreed to be apart for two months, no questions asked. She decides to go to Mexico, but feels uncomfortable dining alone. So she goes to hotels to meet people. She asks a couple of traveling salesmen if she could join them. At the end of the night, one of them offers her a shoulder to cry on and she sleeps with him. Please. How cliche'. While wanting to get her marriage back on track, she sleeps with the first man who shows her a modicum of kindness.
We constantly hear about how Gelman hates the materialism of the West, yet when she has extended stays in other countries where does she choose to live? In a two bedroom cabin in a royal compound in Bali, or in a mansion with marble floors and intricately carved furniture.
Gelman is perfectly comfortable putting people out to help her without giving consideration to how she could manage on her own. While in Bali, she arranged for an acquaintance to get calls for her in case of an at home in the states emergency, where he had to drive an hour out of his way to get her a message. While in Vancouver, she needed help getting her car out of a rut she drove into. Did she prepare and have a membership in an equivalent company such as AAA? Of course not. She thought nothing of calling her neighbors to help after 11PM.
She constantly speaks about the importance of reciprocity, of which I am a strong believer, but when she was given free room and board for over five years, her idea of reciprocity was giving English lessons, which she did anyway, so she could learn Indonesian.
Gelman would lead us to believe that wherever she went she was able to create a community around herself with interesting people. No doubt she met many in her sixteen years of travel. But, unless she was meeting other travelers, and that was the case very infrequently, other people have full lives that include family, friends, work, recreation, etc., and it takes time to build a community.
I found her stories repetitive. Here's the formula they took: I was nervous going someplace I've never been without any plans. But I hate to make plans, so I'll just go and trust serendipity. I will meet someone on a plane, in a waiting room or an officiant who will either offer me a place to stay or refer me to someone else who will. I will get a free place to stay for a night, week, month, year, indefinitely, where I will make every effort to immerse myself in the culture of where I am staying. When I connect to a woman/many women there, I will be at one with them. I will leave having learned so much and feeling so grateful for my privilege. I will share books I've written for children and be surprised and flattered that someone has a copy of one of my children's books in x country.
For all her talk of connectedness, I found Gelman to be one of the most narcissistic writers I have ever read. I literally had to force myself to finish this book on my second attempt at reading it. Why did I bother? One of my children gave it to me since I so love to travel and she though the idea of this book would be intriguing to me. It was. But the writer wasn't.