Book review:
They Only Eat Their Husbands: A Memoir of Alaskan Love, World Travel, and the Power of Running Away by Cara Lopez Lee
Published by Ghost Road Press
 
Reviewer:  Prime Sarmiento

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not one to judge a book by its cover, but I do judge the book by its first page – the first        paragraph, to be exact. I read the first few words of a novel, and if they're interesting enough,        I'm definitely buying it. To my mind, a boring opening graf is a portent of things to come  –  a  tedious read, a waste of time (and money).
 
Cara Lopez  Lee's  year-long trek as a woman traveling solo  doesn't only have an intriguing title (what kind of creature eat her husband?),  but has a a very intriguing opening graf:
 
"Running away is vastly underrated."
 
How many of us, in one way or another, just want to get away from it all, to run away and leave everything behind – failed    relationships, a career going nowhere, all our hurts, fears and disappointments?
 
Cara is one woman who’s never afraid to run away. This is perhaps a behavioral pattern. As what she revealed in her memoir, she has always been running away – from her uncaring parents in Los Angeles, from a dead end job in Denver, from an abusive boyfriend. And while the book was not formatted as such, anyone who wants to read the book needs to remember that this is in fact a memoir divided into two parts:
 
Part 1: Cara’s escape from minimum wage job in Denver to pursue a broadcasting career in Alaska
AND
Part 2: Cara’s escape from Alaska (and abusive relationships) to go on a year long trek around the world.
 
This is perhaps why the book is quite long, over 300 pages. That and the fact that Cara is not afraid to use words to convey a confessional tone.
 
Her memoir offers a vivid description of the people and places that she went to as a solo female traveler. It’s as if she wants the readers to see, hear and feel what she’s sensing. At a time when attention is getting scarce and we have to make do with insipid top ten list blog posts and travel blogs with huge photos but zilch content, I appreciate the fact that there are travel writers who well, really know how to write. Story tellers who can craft something beautiful from words and ideas.
 
So this is  Cara's story – of her struggles with abusive men, her years of searching all over the world, looking for love, thinking that this will make her complete. Cara is very honest – and I think this one thing that every memoir writer needs to have as one have to open one’s self to the world.
 
This is also perhaps I find her memoir sometimes funny, sometimes exasperating, sometimes depressing. Hers is not an easy, smooth life.
 
But in the end, like most people who dared to take a risk, Cara knows that this is all about the journey and not the destination.
 
***
If this is your thing, then buying a copy of Cara’s memoir is the best gift that you can give to yourself as a solo female traveler.