A very interesting approach to travel writing-philosophical, with social and spiritual insights related to the many unusual places visited. Mr. Iyer is East Indian by blood but was born and brought up in England. He has traveled extensively to some unusual places including Tibet, Bolivia, Cambodia. His insights are wonderful and he reminds me of why I love to travel. Not just for the sights, the art or culture, but to gain understanding of the world from really seeing its various facets, both be...

Iyer shared some great stories in this book. I really enjoyed his piece on the Dalai Lama. Just one example of where Iyer mixed his own experience with an entertaining history lesson. His writings on Cambodia had a profound impact on me. I'm dying to learn more about the horrors of the past. At the same time, I want jump on the next flight to Angkor Wat. "Making Kindness Stand to Reason", "Happy Hour in the Heart of Darkness", "A Journey into Light", "In the Dark", and "A Haunted House of Treasu...

I would like to start this review by saying Iyer is one of the best travel writers I have read, which would be true, but also needs the qualification that I haven't read many travel writers. Having said that, I will be finding and reading his oeuvre pronto. (Did I just use "oeuvre" in a review? Forgive me. It's 2 a.m. in Barcelona and I'm jet lagged!)

Always love to journey with Pico Iyer. Especially topical" his essay on meeting with Leonard Cohen in his Zen monastery setting.

Travel stories always ignite my interest, especially those set in remote parts of the world, journeys that require courage, stamina and patience. And a great deal of luck. This book fulfilled my vicarious need to travel to offbeat destinations, especially during these prohibitive times of pandemic, and established Pico Iyer as the next generation Graham Greene for me.Iyer covers India, Tibet, Cambodia, Aden, Bolivia, Bali, Japan, Easter Island and Haiti (I hope I haven’t missed any), many of the...

Something has become more muted in the essays of "Sun After Dark" -- the heavy romanticism demonstrated in "Abandon" is not there, and the tone of these essays seems less melodramatic than his other essays somehow. Was it something in him that had changed, I wondered, or was it me as the reader, or was it both of us... in his essay on Cambodia, I noted the tone of detachment adopted in his description of the moral cesspool of the country, which was usually perversely attractive to people looking...

I have mixed feelings about travel writing. The best kind of travel writing, to me, is the sort that is so evocative, so vivid, that it makes you want to pack your bags and see the place for yourself. Not necessarily because that place has charming cobblestoned streets or breathtaking vistas, although those always help. But because the writing, in bringing the foreign so tantalizingly close to you, makes you want to take off to explore that Foreign Other. Yet, travel writing is about impressions...

Perhaps I'm missing something, given that this is my first Pico Iyer book, but this doesn't make sense to me as a book. I don't see the thing that's holding all these essays together, even though the subtitle -- flights into the foreign -- suggests otherwise. A lot of the stories seem very familiar to the author. Although my favourite stories are the ones not-so-familiar. It's mostly a hit-and-miss for me, but the hits really hit.

I have loved Pico Iyer's insights into the farthest corners of the world ever since I read "Video Nights in Kathmandu." I somehow missed this collection of essays published in 2000 and titled "Sun After Dark: Flights into the Foreign." Pico Iyer,who has maintained a multi continental global identity is particularly skilled at observations of all places "in between." Each essay in this collection is a jewel. In "Nightwalking" he portrays the psychological displacement of the feel of jetlag. "A Fa...

Pico Iyer is one of my favourite essayists. His travel writing combines poetic and uniquely layered observations with meditations on the nature and purpose of travel itself. He often writes about places he's visited again and again, giving his work a depth unusual in the genre. This book has a number of brilliant essays, including a portrait of Leonard Cohen at a California Buddhist monastery, a haunting essay on Bolivia and a profile of the Dalai Lama based on decades of intimate encounters.

A new addition to my "favorite authors" list. Iyer's proesetry is mesmerizing. Perfect for the world globetrotter or the armchair traveler. Not "just" travel writing ... he explores the worlds inside our brains as well as the ones outside our doors.

Pico Iyer has earned a name for himself as a travel writer, and this book is a collection of mostly travel articles he wrote for various magazines. It also contains a scattering of articles that are book reviews, short biographical pieces on famous people, an analysis of a writer, some reflections about well-off travelers encountering poverty, and so on.This collection is impressionistic, as is Pico's writing. He daubs his work with touches of things he's seen and heard. It's a unique literary s...

i close my eyes and numb my senses every time i buy any of Iyer's books. they come at a hefty price but before i can reason with myself, my hands (which lie closer to my heart) impulsively sort out the cash and before i know it, the cashier's handing me my receipt. there goes my salary is what i always say but the thing about money is that it can be earned but these rare gems--ideas fitted onto pages---are hard to come by. the first two Iyer books i got were gifts from an Indian friend who had b...

I am a Pico Iyer groupie ever since I heard him interviewed several years ago on NPR and realized that no one else, from Paul Theroux to Tony Bourdain and back, has the same combination of curiosity, genius, wanderlust and insightfulness. I have to say, when a writer is that good in speaking extemporaneously in an interview, his writing and ideas have to be worth a read.I love his travel writing and Sun After Dark is no exception. Pico Iyer travels to what can only be defined as the road far, fa...

At times I feel Iyer is less a travel writer than an evangelist/philosopher, intent on pushing his readers toward Buddhism (although he is not Buddhist) or some practice, which is ok. He also seems to focus on similar images, possibly as a result for his penchant for going to similar places. Not that any of this is bad, and I like his writing, though this collection of essays pleased me less than some of his work. I enjoyed the material on Cohen and Cambodia, and his biographical sketch on the D...

Where do I even start with Pico Iyer?I always used to read travel writing literature as a destination-specific story, informing me about a place or the adventures had along or during the journey. While that still holds fort for me, off late it's the 'Why we travel?' question that I seek answers to. Iyer's work always gives nuanced responses to that question. His work stands out amidst the travel writers in the sense that his writings are also about the inner journeys one undertakes during the ex...

I've been reading Iyer with pleasure for a number of years and this is a favorite. His writing is reflctive and poetic, relying on astute observation of the world and creative synthesis of those observations. This book includes both stories of physical travel and journies through realms of inner space and the contemplation of space and identity. The collection includes fascinating profiles of Leonard Cohen and the Dalai Lama, voyages to Bolivia and Cambodia as well as a brilliant meditation on j...

That Iyer is an essayist of finesse is a given, but what I like best about this collection is the keen eye that he casts over every place he visits, usually on New Year's Eve. I particularly loved the essays on places like Bali, Tibet, Cambodia and Easter Island with none of the touristy afflictions that writers to such places tend to suffer from, nor the angry disbelief at the depths of human depravity.Also loved the essays on Kazuo Ishiguro, on jetlag and on grandmothers, in a voice that I've

I read this as part of an assignment for finishing up my MFA program, and overall, I felt the book was just alright. I think Iyer is an exemplary travel writer, and especially the essay in there about Grandmothers, and Nara park touched me, but that was only because I too have been to Nara, Japan.Overall, the collection focused on places of poverty; places that generally are kind of forbidden to the average traveler. And while the insight on lands I'll never visit is interesting, I kept thinking...

It was a tough travelogue for me to follow as there are too many stories which don't seem to be connected very well. I was intrigued by some if the places Pico visited but was short of contextual details. For me a good travelogue is one where historical context is juxtaposed with current predicament of the focus country. Pico should have detailed the historical summary of the obscure countries covered as he would have done a great service to their little known prominence in the world. The only c...