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Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World |  | Author: Rita Golden Gelman
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Seller: atlanta-book-company
Rating:  146 reviews
Sales Rank: 33954
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.1 x 0.7
ISBN: 0609809547
Dewey Decimal Number: 910
EAN: 9780609809549
ASIN: 0609809547
Publication Date: May 28, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
When Rita Golden Gelman traveled to Mexico during a two-month separation from her husband, she hoped to satisfy an old craving for adventure and, in the process, rejuvenate herself and her marriage. Little did she know it was the beginning of a new life, not just as a divorcée, but as a nomad of the world. Since 1986, Gelman has had no permanent address and no possessions except those she can carry. She travels without a plan, guided by instinct, serendipitous opportunities, and a remarkable ability to connect with people. At first her family and friends accused her of running away, but Gelman knew she had embarked on a journey of self-discovery and a way of life that is inspiring and enviable. We know Gelman is not your typical middle-aged housewife from LA when, on that first trip to Mexico, she randomly picks a Zapotec village and decides to live there for a month, knowing nothing about the culture or the language. When she arrives, the villagers run away from her, terrified. By the time she leaves, there are hugs and tears. From there she travels to Guatemala and Nicaragua, Israel and the Galapagos Islands. But the heart of the book--and her 15-year journey--is Indonesia, where she lives for eight years. It is Bali that forever changes how she looks at the world, facilitated by her friendship with an aging prince. Tu Aji not only invites her to live with his family but decides that the education of Rita will be his final duty in life. Wherever she goes, Gelman has an uncanny ability to slip into other ways of life and become part of a community. And she is a person for whom doors open widely--her seatmate on the plane to Bali scrawls the prince's name on a piece of paper, she talks her way into a sojourn at Camp Leakey in Borneo where orangutans are studied, and an entire village in a remote part of Irian Jaya prays for the clouds to clear so her plane can land--and they do! Gelmen's secret is her passion for people. That being the case, the book is short on descriptions of place, but long on the rarer inside view of the peoples and customs of those places. This in itself is treat enough, but Gelman's animated and intimate story comes with a kicker--it's never too late to fulfill those dreams. --Lesley Reed
Product Description
âI move throughout the world without a plan, guided by instinct, connecting through trust, and constantly watching for serendipitous opportunities.â âFrom the Preface
Tales of a Female Nomad is the story of Rita Golden Gelman, an ordinary woman who is living an extraordinary existence. At the age of forty-eight, on the verge of a divorce, Rita left an elegant life in L.A. to follow her dream of connecting with people in cultures all over the world. In 1986 she sold her possessions and became a nomad, living in a Zapotec village in Mexico, sleeping with sea lions on the Galapagos Islands, and residing everywhere from thatched huts to regal palaces. She has observed orangutans in the rain forest of Borneo, visited trance healers and dens of black magic, and cooked with women on fires all over the world. Ritaâs example encourages us all to dust off our dreams and rediscover the joy, the exuberance, and the hidden spirit that so many of us bury when we become adults.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 146
 Calling All Adventuresome Women August 7, 2010
Kathryn Lengell
Absolutely loved this book because I have a bit of "the Nomad" in me, too. Gelman's fearless and economical approach to the nomad lifestyle of freedom makes it seem possible for anyone to accomplish, especially if world travel is your goal! It's mine!
An extraordinary memoir August 2, 2010
Niki Collins Queen (Forsyth, Georgia USA)
Rita Golden Gelman hasn't had a permanent address since 1987. Her extraordinary memoir "Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World" is about her nomadic life traveling around the globe.
At age 47 she left an upscale lifestyle when her marriage ended and her kids went to college. Her travels are mostly in developing countries where she lived in the homes of the natives and embraced their customs, culture, lifestyle, language and food.
Tu Aji, an aging prince, decided the education of Rita was his final duty in life when she lived with his family during her eight-year stay in Bali, Indonesia. She says Tu Aji and the Balinese people, known for their deep spirituality, helped her discover her own spirituality and changed the way she looked at the world. She says, "In Bali I have learned to listen to the spirits, the inner one that is part of me and the ones from the other invisible world."
Along with living off and on in the U.S. she's spent time in a Zapotec village in Mexico, Indonesia's Irian Jaya, the forests of Borneo, Guatemala, New Zealand, the Galapagos Islands, Israel, Nicaragua, Thailand and Canada.
Rita says being a wanderer is endlessly fascinating, filled with learning, adventure, interesting people and enlightening experiences. It's also inexpensive. Her fifteen years overseas cost her less than $10,000 a year including airfare. Most important of all she learned to enjoy and savor the present. She says connecting with people is not difficult when you reach out with love, trust, a smile and 100% of your attention.
Rita's stories are a tribute to her courage and our shared humanity. Her passion and her capacity to touch others celebrates the diversity, joy and wonder of cross cultural connecting. Her many tales may well send you off on your own adventure.
 no understanding of the bigger picture July 14, 2010
dog lover (oakland CA)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
If you love meeting new people to the extent that for you the entire point of traveling is to talk to strangers, then this book will make you very happy. It did not make me that happy, because I found this author harder and harder to relate to. I did try hard to not let her bizarre point of view annoy me because I was curious to read about where she would go next, but by the halfway point of the book her smug and self-righteous tone was becoming very wearying.
Another reviewer noted her "obvious left-wing contempt for her own country." I noticed this as well, on page one: she writes that one of the reasons she's itching to leave the country is because her friends are "too white." Why is it okay to complain that one's friends are too white? One doesn't complain in print these days that their friends are too Latino, or too Asian. Her comment is no different.
The author believes that total immersion in every culture she visits is an absolute necessity, even if it means setting aside her own beliefs about right and wrong. She believes she must be completely nonjudgmental at all times, which is just silly because it's not only humanly impossible but also inappropriate when one is faced with something that is truly wrong. Some things are wrong, Rita. Littering is wrong, and wife-beating is wrong.
In Guatemala she has a picnic on the beach with the locals, who throw all their trash onto the beach. She writes that "it is hard for me to throw garbage" because of years of conditioning not to, but she forces herself to do so. She didn't want them to think she was judging them, and was afraid that they would feel judged if she disposed of her own garbage properly. This is so absurd for so many reasons I began to wonder if I'd be able to finish the book.
In Mexico she stayed in a Zapotec village in a backyard shed, and woke to the sound of her hostess screaming outside her door because her husband was beating her. The author watches, but doesn't open the door. She portrays herself as responsible by writing that she was planning to open the door if things got "serious." Apparently the screams weren't serious enough for her. After all, "This life is [the wife's] destiny."
And yet in Bali suddenly we see that she does draw a line, after all. Where is this line? Inconceivably, the line she finally must draw is this: she will not learn Balinese, despite living there for eight years (this from somebody who is religious about the obligation to learn the language of the locals) because that language is based on caste, which makes her uncomfortable. Sounds to me like she's judging the local culture.
The main problem with the book is the totality of the author's people-centric focus. Personally, I travel because I'm interested in local wildlife and scenery as well as humans. I want to hike all day, watching the landscape change and appreciating the unique flora. Rita doesn't hike. She's so out of shape that she actually writes (and she's serious, I swear) that looking out of the window of the car instead of walking "is spiritually and physically very satisfying." (There is one trek, in New Guinea, but I'm not sure it qualifies as an appreciation of nature, because for six days, everyday, the author loudly sings preschool songs such as "The Eentsy Weentsy Spider" and "I'm a Little Teapot"!!)
"Thousands of huge bats burst into the air from one island when our motor wakes them up. They are a scene from a horror film..." What an ignorant traveler (and writer) to fall victim to such a naïve cliché--using "bats" and "horror" in the same sentence! On the next page, she meets a group of natives with bows and arrows and six-inch white bones in their noses. This sight leaves her almost speechless with happiness: "I can only stare in awe. They are a picture, a dream, a realization of my fantasies." I believe she has these two scenes completely backwards. The bats are a dream and worthy of awe, while the bone-wearing locals are a scene from a horror film. Really, this author is quite difficult for me to relate to.
Throughout the book, this lack of attention to anything other than people, people, people prevented me from getting a sense of where we were. I wasn't even inspired to look up her exotic locations on a map, which is mightily strange, since it generally takes very little to send me running to the atlas, so we must conclude that something vital is lacking in her descriptions. The missing elements are landscape, history, and animals. With a total focus on what the locals are eating for dinner that day...it's just hard to care. Hard for me to care. Again, if you're very much a people person, if you sometimes forget there are any nonhumans on the earth, then this is the book for you.
In Indonesia the author explores an empty cave that had once been filled with thousands of the sort of bird's nests that are considered a delicacy by the Chinese. The birds are gone now, but she doesn't reflect on this--she's too absorbed by a cave ceremony in which her friend's wife enters a "trance" and berates her husband for not attending family functions enough and not being nice enough to the neighbors. I thought this was quite funny--the funniest scene in the book--because it's clear to me that the wife is using the excuse of a religious trance to tell her husband things she is normally forbidden to say. The author apparently is confused, though, wondering if she has "heard the voice of an unseen world." Anyway, fast-forward 85 pages. She now lives in Vancouver and raves about the "T & T supermarkets"--Asian supermarkets that carry anything necessary for any Asian recipe. She exclaims breathlessly about a long list of ingredients one can find there, including Indonesian bird's nests. Hmmm. Now, I remember the scene back in the Indonesian cave. Is the author going to maybe suggest that it's a shame the nests are in a Vancouver supermarket rather than where they belong? Nope. No ability to make that connection. She adores Asian food too much.
Spunky Female Living Large July 13, 2010
JSC Siow (Upstate NY, United States)
A spirited account of the author's travels and extended stays in various parts of the world, and her interactions with locals. A decidedly life-affirming and FAR less frivolous or air-headed take than Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love, and certainly in no way as self-absorbed. If you've read the latter, you'll know what I mean.
Tale of a strong female July 8, 2010
Georgie (Wisconsin)
I read this one in high school and always hoped that some day I might have the courage to take my own trip solo around the world. After backpacking solo through Europe, after graduating college, I realized that anyone could do it, but this book opened my eyes to a whole new world. This book, might not have been the best written book, but it is very inspirational. It is an excellent example of how strong a woman can be and finding joy in the smallest of things. This book helps us better understand many of the things we take for granted and how important it is to value the relationships we have. Rita helps us better understand the world, and what we as women can do. So often people take women for granted and assume our role as we walk in the door, but Rita proves that things do not have to be this way and that each of us can find some courage deep down to get through any situation. This book can be slow at times, but the message is clear and well thought out. The book is unique and very inspirational. This book will open your mind and your heart to the world.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 146
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