The Paradise Trail

The Paradise Trail

Calcutta 1971. A city in black-out as India declares war on Pakistan. Even so, the backpackers who end up in the flea-pit Lux Hotel are determined to have a good time. That is, until two mysterious deaths amongst them change their lives forever. Thrown together in the city are - Anand, the jazz-loving insomniac hotelier; Gordon, one of the hotel's dope-smoking guests; the philandering journalist Hugh, covering his first war; Britt, a Californian photographer with a jealous boyfriend; and the enigmatic Freddie Braintree, who interprets life through the lyrics of Bob Dylan and the Incredible String Band. Is it possible that one of them is behind the deaths? And why will it take more than three decades and three continents to find out?

The Flumes and Trails of Paradise

Empire in Waves

Surfing today evokes many things: thundering waves, warm beaches, bikinis and lifeguards, and carefree pleasure. But is the story of surfing really as simple as popular culture suggests? In this first international political history of the sport, Scott Laderman shows that while wave riding is indeed capable of stimulating tremendous pleasure, its globalization went hand in hand with the blood and repression of the long twentieth century.ÊÊ Emerging as an imperial instrument in post-annexation Hawaii, spawning a form of tourism that conquered the littoral Third World, tracing the struggle against South African apartheid, and employed as a diplomatic weapon in America's Cold War arsenal, the saga of modern surfing is only partially captured by Gidget, the Beach Boys, and the film Blue Crush. From nineteenth-century American empire-building in the Pacific to the low-wage labor of the surf industry today, Laderman argues that surfing in fact closely mirrored American foreign relations. Yet despite its less-than-golden past, the sport continues to captivate people worldwide. Whether in El Salvador or Indonesia or points between, the modern history of this cherished pastime is hardly an uncomplicated story of beachside bliss. Sometimes messy, occasionally contentious, but never dull, surfing offers us a whole new way of viewing our globalized world.