Truth teller’s travelogue

FINALLY, Chuck Thompson tells the unvarnished truth in “Smile When You’re Lying” (Henry Holt: 326 pp., $15 paper), a collection of stories he couldn’t sell to any travel magazine during more than a decade as a globe-trotting writer, photographer and editor.

Given that travel is, Thompson says, “the world’s second-largest commercial enterprise,” it’s obvious why he had no takers for tales of getting ripped off in Thailand, attacked by ants in Brazil, shaken down by police in Baja and propositioned by Filipinas in Olongapo, “the U.S Navy’s last great liberty port.”

But there’s more to “Smile” than confessions of a veteran gallivanter. The Alaska native downed beer and bubbly in Juneau’s raunchy Red Dog Saloon on its final New Year’s Eve in 1984, only to witness the indignity of a bigger “Disneyfied version” arising on the block to serve cruise-ship passengers who swarm into port five months out of each year.

It’s an indictment of those who would prettify the world, glossing over interminable post-9/11 security lines, sardine-can airplanes, bad service and the chilliness met by Americans since the invasion of Iraq. The book is full of trenchant truisms: Tip the maid on the first day, not at checkout; chocolates (“baksheesh”) are invaluable for soothing harried airline employees; acting “disgruntled” ensures bad results; and “even koalas will bite when properly provoked.”

And there’s this basic observation on human nature: “Nothing beats the dilettante out of a soul quite like the discovery that you can still be miserable living in an exotic and beautiful place.”

-- Kristina Lindgren

kris.lindgren@latimes.com