Karl Pilkington has written five books before this one, the most popular of those seems to be 'Án Idiot Abroad.' In this book he explores the moaning of life. Karl is also a TV presenter, producer, actor, comedian, voice actor. What's impressive is his collaboration with Ricky Gervais and I think I detected a similarity in their sense of humour and approach to life.
In this book Karl dwells on five topics mainly - marriage, kids, vocation and money, happiness and death. He travels to places across the globe to find interesting material and experiences, and for those cynics who might not believe that he has actually done those things - he produces proof - through pictures. So he travels to Las Vegas, attends courses on how to pick up women, works in an Indian arranged marriage, registers in a matrimonial site. Its clear he is not planning to marry his girlfriend Suzanne though. Nor is he planning to have kids though he travels to Bali. For his insights into vocation and money he decides to visit a gangster in South Africa who has made pots of money and spends time with a bunch of bikini clad women - Karl does not approve of his lifestyle and thinks more modestly. For happiness he travels to the raramuri, about whom I read recently in the book 'Born to Run' so I was very happy to meet them and even happier to see Karl publishing a picture of him wearing those famous running sandals of theirs. He also meets a man who lives on nothing almost as a choice - no house, no money, lives off whatever he gets. And for death he travels to Ghana and does some work with an undertaker and even orders a coffin for himself - that looks like Twix chocolate. The Ghanaians don't mourn, they celebrate death. In Korea he meets a professional mourner and in another place he hauls a coffin up a hillside where it is hung.
Once I figured that he was actually living these experiences it got more interesting. Enjoyed reading and meeting Karl Pilkington.
No comments:
Post a Comment