“The Good Girl’s Guide To Getting Lost: A Memoir of Three Continents, Two Friends, and One Unexpected Adventure,” by Rachel Friedman

“The Good Girl’s Guide To Getting Lost: A Memoir of Three Continents, Two Friends, and One Unexpected Adventure,” by Rachel Friedman (New York: Bantam Books; 2011), 287 pages.

The Good Girl’s Guide to Getting Lost is part travel memoir and part autobiography about the effect of international travel on a young, college-aged American woman from rural New York.

The story centers on three trips: the first to Ireland; the second to Australia; and third, a trip to South America. In Ireland, Friedman is an innocent abroad; she lacks confidence and the worldly experience of the perpetual backpackers with whom she associates. The experiences, customs, and attitudes of the acquaintances she makes in Ireland are all very new to the bookish, conscientious and timid Friedman. Integral to her budding maturity and confidence is her friendship with a gregarious and care-free Australian girl (Carly), an experience and confident perpetual traveler who takes Friedman under her wing. Carly convinces Friedman to visit Australia and once Friedman is newly arrived in Sydney, convinces her to stay with her family and use their house as a base for her travels during the duration of her stay. While in Australia, Friedman travels to various outback attractions on her own, and in a further example of her growing confidence, tours the east coast of Australia, breaking her journey every so often at places that strike her fancy. Once she returns to Sydney, and after a few other explorations through the south-east of Australia, she agrees to Carly’s suggestion to continue their travels together and to meet in South America. Friedman initially travels alone in South America, and alone and with Carly, meets new people from all over the world. She listens to the stories of their lives and their reasons for travelling, and, bit by bit, day by day, realizes that she too doesn’t want to stop travelling and that she has the confidence and ability to do it herself with or without her Australian friend.

This book is somewhat unusual because it is both a travel book and a memoir/story of personal growth. At the outset, Friedman is unsure of herself and hopelessly naïve in the ways of the world compared to the people she meets during her travels. By the end of the book, Friedman is more mature and experienced, and has the confidence to believe in her abilities. Her experience of other people’s motivations for travelling leads her to question her own life so far. She becomes close to Carly’s mother, an experienced traveler in her own right, whose life story has a lasting impact on Friedman. At the end of the book, we see how these people encountered through her travels have touched Friedman, who now has more confidence and courage to face life’s uncertainties, and the relentless parental and peer pressure for conformity. Friedman also reflects on the places she visits, the customs and practices of the local peoples, and the travelers she meets. She is critical and amusing without resorting to prejudice or knee-jerk reactions. Her powers of observations are acute, and her observations first rate and amusingly written with an eye for fairness and rationality peppered with the occasional criticism written in a wry and gentle manner. This ability adds spice to an enjoyable and thought-provoking book that should be considered for readers interested in travel experiences in Ireland, Australia, and South America, as wells as testaments to the belief that travel is just as much about the (physical and internal) journey as being about the destination.