Are You Experienced?

If you were ever a teenager involved in backpacking and trekking; a flower child in search of peace, love, and spiritual fulfillment; a traveler to India adventurous enough to go off the regular tourist trails; or the parent of any of these, you will love this wickedly satirical tale of two callow 19-year-olds who decide to spend a few months of their gap year backpacking around India in search of experience and enlightenment. With so many summaries already on the site, I'll forgo writing another one, but this book, unlike so many others that critics tout as "hilarious," but which regular readers find only mildly amusing at best, really IS hilarious! As Dave and Liz smugly "experience India," we see how shallow their involvement is, how much they are acting and trying on roles to see if they fit, how much this trip is a way to avoid boredom, and how, lemming-like, they do what everyone else does, staying in the same hostels, following the same itinerary, and searching for "meaning" in outrageously off-the-wall activities, the chief attraction of which is that they take place in a foreign country. Sutcliffe does not hold back in his satire, but he is not mean-spirited. The reader can easily imagine that this novel evolves from some of Sutcliffe's own amusing experiences or those of some of his friends. He is laughing with, rather than laughing at. Most readers will probably not have pursued enlightenment in the extreme ways that Dave and Liz do, but most of us will see ourselves at nineteen mirrored in their naivete and gullibility. In laughing at them, we are also laughing at ourselves. Mary Whipple

This book was a great read. I bought it at St. Pancras Stationin London and got so caught up in it I missed my train -- twice. It'slaugh-out-loud funny and a poke in the eye for all those backpackers wrapped up in their own self-importance as they venture from suburbia to the far-flung corners of the world to try and find themselves. As someone who has lived as a settler in Africa all my life, this book was a great satire on some of the objectionalble people from Europe and the States who believe they know everything about Africa because they have spent a couple of months there. Don't get me wrong some are very nice people -- others are certainly not -- but anyone who claims they understand Africa after a few months on the tourist trail (which they think is the real Africa because only backpackers go on it) is delusional. I have lived in Africa for 30 years and I do not understand it. Brilliant passage when the main character meets a Reuters journalist which goes right to the heart of Sutcliffe's message. A must read.

When you consider how many novels of today are hyped and basically lifeless, this wonderful novel refreshes the soul and makes you realise that being a writer is the greatest calling known to man (or maybe the second after the task of bedding Liz, the ravishing-but-nauseatingly selfish heroine)of the book. I won't summarise the story,as other reviewers have already done this, but I WILL say that as soon as I'd read 'Are You Experienced', I bought another five copies and sent them to my best friends. The book is brilliantly written, wry, with utterly convincing dialogue and a savage line in satirising the selfishness and pretentions of privileged young twits who are too full of their own trite perspective on the world and think being young is de facto an achievement. Dave, the hero, is one of them in a sense but much nicer and also able to see thru himself. And don't we all know a girl like Liz - who thinks being a self-centred cow is okay if you're gorgeous. I was 40 years old when I read this and perhaps the best thing I can say about this book is that it made me immensely glad that I wasn't 24 any more! By the way, there is a great episode where Dave gets some dreadful tummy upset: a passage which manages to be highly amusing while not overly obnoxious to read. My only small complaint is that the author never tells us what Liz actually LOOKS like! I could have done with knowing. Mr Sutcliffe, you are a wonderful writer; I can't wait for your next book!!

"extremely funny" - the sunday timesFirst time since ages since I really scared people because of my sudden busts of laughs while reading a book :)This is a great satire...