Book Review: Trip to Norway: Visiting the Fjords by Matt Panta
Disclaimer: I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway to facilitate writing this review. No other compensation was offered or requested.
The traveler’s tale is one of the oldest forms of written storytelling. “I went to a new place and saw new things and did interesting stuff” is a solid basic plotline. In the hands of a skilled storyteller, even a short visit to your cousin in the next village over can be a suspenseful and riveting tale. In the hands of a less skilled storyteller, even the most exotic of journeys can turn into an excruciating “vacation slideshow.”
This slim volume (more of a pamphlet, really) concerning the author’s seven-day tour of Norway’s fjords is more the latter than the former.
Good stuff: some very nice scenery snapshots. Even in black and white, Norway’s natural beauty shines through.
Not so good: It’s painfully obvious that English is not the author’s first language–spellchecker typos are avoided, but the grammar is clunky and word choice is sometimes dubious. The writing is flat, and often seems to be direct quotes from tourist guides rather than the original thoughts of the writer. (This book desperately needs some overwrought 19th Century landscape description–something I never thought I’d say.)
We learn little to nothing about the people taking the tour or their personal experiences on the journey. A car seat is mentioned at one point, so presumably a child was along, but that child is never shown doing anything, nor does the book mention any attractions or features that are aimed at child travelers. I had to look elsewhere to even discover the writer lives in Portugal!
In the Kindle format, the sidebars in tiny font are nearly unreadable and appear to be missing the ends of last sentences.
In the end, this book is neither a good tour guide nor a good personal account. Not recommended.
