I'm really interested in novels that are critical/cynical about travel and explore the alienation of being in another country– for example, Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel, or We Meant Well by Erun Shazia Hasan (the last two are more about being an ex-pat, but I'll count those too).
I watched the movie A Real Pain this year, and it rekindled my interest in this topic, and White Lotus also sort of falls into this category. I like books that capture the petty and unhappy feelings that come up when you're travelling, and the discomfort of being a "guest"/outsider in a different country. Any other novels like this? More into serious explorations of privilege/multiple perspectives on travel, not really into comedic misadventures while travelling or just a dark story or murder mystery that happens on vacation (which tend to be what I find when I search for this).
by k_soy
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The Sun Was Electric Light by Rachel Morton is about a group of (white) expats in Guatemala and how they are all essentially using that as a maladaptive coping mechanism for other problems in their life. It’s very focused on the expats and I suppose a criticism could be that it did not get into the local culture enough. But I thought that reveals the POV of the characters being very selfish.
Travelers by Helon Habila
The Sultan in Oman by Jan Morris- non-fiction about a trip she took with the then Sultan of Oman by car across Oman, when oil production was just becoming a force.
Hav by Jan Morris- Novel about a fictitious Mediterranean Country
Tourists by Lisa Goldstein- fiction. Hard to describe, but ticks these boxes.
The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux- novel about South America and being an expat.
Always Coming Home by Ursula K. LeGuin- novel that is part travelogue, part anthropological study of Northern California in a future time.
A lot of Paul Theroux’a work. He writes delightfully grumpy travelogues.