Testosterone Planet: True Stories from a Man's World

by Sean O'Reilly (Editor), Larry Habegger (Editor), James O'Reilly (Editor)

Overview

Journey with us to the four corners of the earth and watch the male of the species drink from the Holy Grail of manhood. You've encountered them before -- men: the most dangerous, annoying, courageous, and ridiculous creatures around.

In Testosterone Planet you will:

• Visit the world's most dangerous girlfriend
• Be assaulted by wild turkeys
• Climb into steaming animal carcasses
• Visit a guru who can materialize objects out of thin air
• Be chased through the woods by a dominant female
• Lay in wait for bad guys in Central Park
• Have your plane thrown through an Argentine cyclone
• Hop a train in America with some hoboes
• Do shameful things with Italian gay policemen
• Pass through an African cowhide portal into another dimension
• Live on an island by yourself
• Discover telepathy with savages
• Be applauded as a hero in Calcutta
• Scuba dive the world's deepest cave
• Enjoy a torrid desert afternoon with a beautiful stranger
• Have tea with Saddam Hussein while tripping on Ecstasy

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781885211439
Publisher:	Travelers' Tales Guides, Incorporated
Publication date:	01/28/2000
Series:	Travelers' Tales Guides Series
Edition description:	1 ED
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	5.18(w) x 8.01(h) x 0.81(d)

Table of Contents

	Introduction	xiii
Part 1	The Things They Do
	The Perfect Punch in the Face	3
	Devils Thumb	6
	The World's Most Dangerous Girlfriend	31
	The Lure of Danger	38
	Wild Turkey	50
	A Fine Boyo	63
	Fire Beneath the Skin	68
	In Chief Yali's Shoes	89
	Applause in Calcutta	92
Part 2	When They Hear a Different Drummer
	Trail Mix	97
	Turn the Tables	114
	Original Sin	124
	An American Hero	130
	The Pilot and the Elements	138
	The Longing	152
	On the Road	159
	The Blue Man	169
Part 3	In Their Own Shadow
	Crevasse	179
	Breathing In	202
	Into the Abyss	220
	Kharkov and the Lubyanka	244
	The Thrill	256
Part 4	Into the Light
	No Like A-feesh?	265
	A Room of Men	281
	Heading for Home	287
	Acknowledgements	295

Editorial Reviews

A disparate collection of articles that circle around the nebulous but recognizable notion of manly episodes, where the best material is so fine it casts a radiant shine over the entire lot. Sports, adventure, raw experience, and a couple of profiles make up these 29 uneven pieces from the likes of Tim Cahill, Jon Krakauer, and Frank McCourt. The worst is typified by, surprisingly, Sebastian Junger, who contributes ill-considered and witless thoughts on risk. Everything is "jacked" or "cranked" to the point where readers will feel they are in a tire repair shop, and he ends preposterously with "that is the reason to take risks, because otherwise, you don't truly understand what you have to lose." At the other end are essays like the one from Charles Bowden, when his newspaper beat entered the dark side: "For the next three years I lived in a world where the desires of people, almost always men, to touch and to have their way with others makes them criminals." Or Craig Vetter's account of radical caving, climbing a few thousand feet into the earth and then diving into a flooded snakehole: "I decided I'd sooner light my hair and try to roast hot dogs over the flame." Two articles absolutely glow, and both come from Richard Sterling: one on an existential, transhistorical punch to his own cheekbone from a boxing master, another on the fine and mad sport of luring pickpockets into a trap. Sterling's writing is like spitfire, foursquare and jazzy with crackle, and his behavior is just scary enough to make you glad you're not approaching a touchy border crossing in his company. A busy, unruly crossroads of war and playing baseball and men who get silicon breast implants on a betand a mass gay sexfest in a Florentine hostel and leaving your friend to die in a crevasse. Another strange and compelling day for man on planet Earth.

Kirkus Reviews