FALLING OFF THE MAP: Lonely Places of...

FALLING OFF THE MAP: Lonely Places of the World by Pico Iyer (Vintage: $10; 190 pp.). Pico Iyer’s latest travel essays focus on countries that remain isolated geographically (Iceland, Australia), politically (Cuba, North Korea) or culturally (Bhutan, Paraguay). The tone ranges from deadpan mockery of the excesses of Paraguayan and North Korean dictators to a wistful elegy to the stark beauties of the Icelandic landscape under the midnight sun. The vivid narrative falters only in the chapter on Australia: The vast Outback seems to have daunted Iyer. Otherwise, his description of Saigon could be applied to his own lively prose: “You can no more rebuff it than you can a runaway train on a downhill slope. It’s hard, it’s made up, it’s cunning, you tell yourself, and then you go out into the streets and find yourself swept up in the sheer power and vigor of it.”