Gringo Star

Collected in Gringo Star are Fogel's quirky travel pieces. Among other things, he lifts weights on a coral atoll in the mid-Pacific; he is mesmerized by "she-males" in a small town in southern France; he spends a few days trying to become 'Professor Roadie' with the David Bowie rock 'n' roll tour.Witty, outrageous, and insightful, Gringo Star is marked by a breezy energy. It also displays a sense of irony rarely seen in travel writing: the awareness that a keen observational eye is less important than a self-reflexive glance at the privileged traveller himself. Few have written as superficially - and that is meant as a compliment to a travel writer who knows how unknowing most outsiders are about cultures other than their own.