Are you Experienced? - William Sutcliffe

Dave is a 19-yr-old who embarks on an overseas experience to India during his off year in between school and university. He is not particularly interested in the trip but is very interested in sleeping with Liz, who is also going to India to find herself. Liz immerses herself, hugs the beggers and 'finds her Tantric centre' while Dave soon discovers he hates India and also hates Liz. Their relationship deteriorates to the point that they split up half way through the 3 month trip and Dave finds himself alone.
India is seen through his eyes and his view never really changes so it's always a horrible place to be endured. This is an amusing angle to be carried through out the entire book as the character does not decide to come to grips with his journey and learn to enjoy it - he probably misses an awful lot that the country has to offer.
Dave is somewhat pathetic in his motivations for the trip and his also his aspirations (packing 200 condoms into his luggage). He's closed off to possibilities but in his own mind makes perfect sense. The book is largely a collection of comedic encounters and they are often highly amusing. It's very easy to read and somewhat unchallenging. This is not a criticism, it's by no means a stupid book, it is just easy to unwind to and disengage yet still hold interest for it's genuinely funny, and easy to get into. It's relatively short at 230 pages of medium type and could be finished over the course of a day or a few hours, although I wound up taking about a week, squeezing it in here and there, I always looked forward to picking it up again.
It certainly not a book that you will feel intellectually richer for reading, but nor is it a book that will make you feel dumber either.