I wasn't prepared to contemplate a book from 2007 and call it "a product of its time," but here we are. This is my first time with essays by Saunders. As buzz would have it, yes- some of the essays are riotously funny! But I preferred the writing on the general strangeness of humanity, big picture view. The essays specifically about historical time+place, such as Buddha Boy and The New Mecca, made me feel ill at ease. It's hard to palate musings on a white man with clever topical takes being funded these trips to the far reaches of the globe. If nothing else, he's honest about the strangeness he feels about finding himself positioned in these places. I doubt he meant to, but sometimes it comes across as glib and sometimes a smidge of exotic fetishism. I ask myself though if I read into it because I was apprehensive in the first place...

Overall? It's funny if you can not think too deeply about it all.