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Honeymoon with My Brother: A Memoir | 
 enlarge | Author: Franz Wisner
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $12.94 (100%)
New (50) from $3.15
Avg. Customer Rating:  162 reviews
Sales Rank: 65718
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 0312340842
Dewey Decimal Number: 910
EAN: 9780312340841
ASIN: 0312340842
Publication Date: February 7, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Green Earth Books. Read -> Recycle -> Reuse!
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Amazon.com Review
Franz Wisner had the world by the tail. He was engaged to the beautiful Annie, with whom he shared a passion for conservative politics and a command of quotes from the movie This Is Spinal Tap. He worked as a government-relations official for a California real-estate giant, rubbing elbows with bigwig politicians. But then his fiancee dumped him days before their wedding, and his boss demoted him. So he dragged his younger brother, Kurt, a Seattle realtor and divorce, to Costa Rica for his already-scheduled honeymoon, where Wisner spilled his guts to a prostitute in the hotel bar. ("Not once did it occur to me that I was having a heart-to-heart with a woman who faked orgasms for a living.") Both inspired and desperate, the two quit their jobs, sold their houses, gave away their belongings, and traveled the world for two years, romping through Europe in a newly purchased Saab, then hitting the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South America, and Africa. Along the way, Wisner got to know his brother in a way he never had ("Kurt had become ... my new best friend") and fought to move past his failed relationship. Wisner's story is straightforward, heartfelt, and highly readable--though without any true, biting insights--and should connect with readers who've gone through a breakup, career change, or midlife crisis, or fantasized about quitting the rat race. His best travel tip? Throw away the guidebooks, and talk to the locals instead. --Andy Boynton
Product Description
This is the true story of Franz Wisner, a man who thought he had it all- a high profile career and the fiancee of his dreams- when suddenly, his life turned upside down. Just days before they were to be married, his fiancee called off the wedding. Luckily, his large support network of family and friends wouldn't let him succumb to his misery. They decided Franz should have a wedding and a honeymoon anyway- there just wouldn't be a bride at the ceremony, and Franz' travel companion would be his brother, Kurt.
During the "honeymoon," Franz reconnected with his brother and began to look at his life with newfound perspective. The brothers decided to leave their old lives behind them. They quit their jobs, sold all their possessions, and traveled around the world, visiting fifty-three countries for the next two years. In Honeymoon With My Brother, Franz recounts this remarkable journey, during which he turned his heartbreak into an opportunity to learn about himself, the world, and the brother he hardly knew.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 157 more reviews...
 If you stick with it, it does get better January 6, 2009
The first 1/4 or 1/3 of the book wasn't too exciting, it went on about his failed relationship and his life pre-honeymoon - the detail provided (with some large gaps still left) wasn't required for where the book heads. Once it gets into the travel, I got engrosed alot more and found it harder to put down. This part of the book has confirmed some countries I had on my list (Turkey/Russia), removed or downgraded others (sorry Syria)and reminded me of great trips I have had (Cambodia). The only outside travel component I loved was the one around the "grandmother" and the nursing home - it gave more of a human element to the book than the first 1/4. The best chapter - of a fellow traveller of "third world" countries - was This poor ole world of ours - seeing is so much different than reading
 Cultural insight, humor and brotherly love, what a ride! December 31, 2008
I loved this book. Bought it for my husband and read it first. Full of insights and fresh perspectives on multiple cultures and wonderful humor, I laughed out loud more times than I could count. I hated for it to end but look forward to the movie and a new brotherly travel read asap!!!
Enjoyable and Heartwarming December 18, 2008
I decided to read this book after seeing the likeable author interviewed on one of the network morning shows. But when starting the book, Franz Wisner immediately struck me, in the first fifty pages or so, as an arrogant, shallow, fast-talking, self-absorbed, narcissistic, cliquish, self-promoting, money-hungry, Orange County man-child. Also, his ten year relationship with his girlfriend/fiance struck me as bizarre and, as far as I could tell, seemed to have been based primarily on physical attraction.
In retrospect though, I appreciate his honesty in the early part of the book because it showed me how far he had come over the course of his heartache and travels. The change started on page 62, shortly after the non-wedding: "[The pain] heightened senses and opened my eyes...I felt I was becoming more human...Emotional depths I never knew existed...my heart pulled for the kid with the smudged, thick glasses or the overweight girl. I'd seen them before. Many times. Now I really saw them and thought about the teasing they likely faced at school. I was warmed by the spirit of a new mom...grieved for the elderly neighbor being loaded into the ambulance...The tanned, wrinkled homeless woman in the neighborhood became a person, not just someone I avoided when refilling my latte. I stopped to talk, actually listening to what she had to say, and thought about her words afterward." For the first time, it seemed, Franz discovered his capacity for empathy. This newfound quality would come in handy throughout his journey.
Franz's letters home to his elderly grandmother were heartwarming; his lessons learned were illuminating; his experiences were fascinating and often comical; his new and renewed relationships, both home and abroad, were genuine and heartfelt. So, toward the end of his travels, I cried with him as malnourished Malawian children entertained themselves by laughingly accompanying him on a morning walk and then lovingly embracing him before darting back to their shantytown homes. Franz had grown. I grew to both like and respect him tremendously. And I loved this book.
Absolutely amazing. November 16, 2008
This book is absolutely phenomenal!! I bought the book with Franz and his brother came to the UC Davis bookstore (and they both signed it for me!) but didn't end up reading it until 2 years later while I was on holiday in Japan and Shanghai.
I didn't have a highlighter with me so I decided to dog ear any pages that stood out to me...the whole book is pretty much dog eared!
seriously - it's a really FUNNY memoir of his travels.. and I think it definitely hits home more for anyone who has traveled (even if not to the extent they have!). He points out nuances about traveling that you will totally understand and you'll chuckle to yourself when you realize how TRUE everything he says is.
Definitely a must read!
unexpectedly shallow November 3, 2008
Loved the idea, but the writing disappointed me, and bored me in the second half. Too much annie rambling (grow up franz, sorry), and too much about himself, conquests (care factor : 0) and not enough about the countries visited in those two years.
Those places and people met deserve a better travelogue than this. Three stars is to oppose the current rating, i did enjoy the read but didnt found this an exceptional book.
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