Are You Experienced

Are You Experienced? is a scathing satire of the enthusiastic gap year tradition of students heading to mystical climbs to 'find themselves.'

When 19 year-old Dave decides to take a gap year, he is cajoled into testing his parameters, settling on a journey to India despite his apprehensions: 'Suffering, danger and poverty are all fine by me, but dirt and disease are two things I happen to hate.' Following a girl he is infatuated with, Liz, he heads over to the sprawling Delhi hoping to take their burgeoning relationship to the next level. However, they are suitably mismatched and on leaving the plane, find themselves on the outs: Liz embraces India, hugging beggars and wearing saris, while Dave's dry-humoured rants, scepticism and fear of the unknown eventually drive her away in search of her centre.

Dave catches food-poisoning, and the description of the stomach-churning experience will be instantly relatable to anyone who has travelled somewhere exotic. While exploring India's subculture of hippy travellers, we learn a lot about cultural proprieties, those who 'find themselves' in India and peer pressure, making this a great book about the experience of going to India but never actually seeing it, only seeing the tried and tested 'travelling hippy tourist' trail, while at the same time, finding yourself. Very funny.