The Adventurist: My Life in Dangerous Places

Readers for whom the word travel ordinarily conjures images of white-sand beaches or Tuscan hill towns might wonder what person of above-average intelligence leaves home in hopes of face-to-face contact with Afghan rebels, Malaysian pirates, warlords, headhunters, or terrorists. That person, apparently, is Robert Young Pelton. Among adventure enthusiasts, Pelton is probably best known for The World's Most Dangerous Places, his utterly unique, tough-guy's guide to where not to travel, and a similarly named series on the Discovery Channel. Part travelogue, part memoir, The Adventurist is Pelton's attempt to explain what some would call his lifelong death wish, but that the author describes as "an expedition of discovery, a dangerous one with no scripted endings."

The Adventurist juxtaposes scenes and reminiscences of Pelton's youth and young adulthood with stories of his latter-day adventures in the jungles, waterways, and deserts of some of the planet's most perilous locales. "It's in vogue now to blame things on your parents or society. I don't blame anybody for anything," Pelton explains, but considering his descriptions of his abusive parents and his harrowing stint at "the toughest boys' school in North America," it is difficult not to draw connections between the privations of Pelton's youth and his obsessive need to confront danger--and the people who survive it--in order to feel alive.

Although at times Pelton's prose style is about as subtle as the firing end of an AK-47 ("It was time to live like the wind and then to die like thunder"), The Adventurist delivers on its "invitation to you to join me on the wire. To take that first step, look forward, fight your fears..." It offers views of places and experiences that most readers would otherwise never know, with the careful reminder that, "like home, adventure is not places so much as people." --Svenja Soldovieri