This was an enjoyable read and I would recommend it. thanks for letting me have an advance copy. I'm new to this author.

FIVE FERRIES by William Michael Ried is a story that seems to be a hybrid of some actual events that have taken place in the author’s past along with some fiction thrown in along the way, as a young college graduate in the ‘70s makes a European trip on the cheap; meanwhile going against his father’s wishes in doing so.

Steven is dead set on making the trip as a tribute to his late brother who was killed in action in Vietnam, and he has never really gotten over the loss which seems to have further alienated him from his father.

Several countries are included, and accounts and descriptions make it seem likely that the author has experienced a lot of what has been written, and while enjoyable at times it is often bogged down with Steven’s political views that are based on the loss of his brother, along with the youthful idealism that while entirely believable makes this book a slow read at times.

3 stars.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
After the death of his brother in Vietnam, Steven, recent college graduate, decides to take a year off and travel across Europe for "zero dollars a day". He relies on a cast of generous and quirky strangers for food and shelter, meets new friends, and ultimately learns to let go of his grief over his brother's death.
While this sounds like an awesome experience, something I would love to do myself, I can't imagine total strangers taking anyone in in this day and age. It really makes you long for that more trusting generation. I thought this book was fun and lighthearted and I enjoyed the strange experiences he had with total strangers. Great adventure story!

Five Ferries has real-life and fiction entwined, and this usually makes for an interesting read as you try and point to what is fiction and what is real. However, I battled to stay interested in the book as the beginning chapters were rather boring and that set the pace for the rest of the book. At one point I forgot that I was reading the book and picked up a new book to read. It was only when the reminder on my phone chimed, that I remembered about this book.

The book rambled on and I did consider putting the book down and marking it at not read but decided to push on. I was hopeful that the flatline narrative will change. Unfortunately, it didn’t and the only time I reacted with an “Oh my word!”, was when Steve met Georg in Zurich.

I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

Since most of my traveling is done vicariously, I’m always on a lookout for travel stories, fictional or nonfictional. This one is kind of both, since it is a fictionalized account of the author’s actual adventure in Europe. Set 40some years ago, this is a story of a young man, fresh out of college, who, driven by an undeniable wanderlust and a traumatic death of his brother, decides to take some time off and travel Europe. And, admirably, he tries to do so on No Dollars a Day. This, of course, leaves him relying on the kindness of strangers all too often, not to mention results in a dangerously terrible diet, but then again he’s young enough to survive the latter and the former seems to be fairly readily available, which might be a thing of a bygone era. Even when things turn weird with people he meets, it still works out fine. There is no real drama, outside of the one of romantic kind and even that isn’t really especially serious. Probably because life mostly isn’t all that serious at 22. The protagonist is perfectly nice, his main quality seems to be amicability, his main arc (since there doesn’t really to seem much of any) is coming to accept his brother’s death. But the book’s general tone is light and breezy and the ending is appropriately optimistic. Travelogue wise, he doesn’t really go to that many places, a lot of mainstream destinations, but because he does so back in the 70s and mostly by walking or hitchhiking and, of course, taking ferries, it adds something extra to the experience. Plus he reads important books, which is always admirable, especially for one so young. So the narrative, much like its protagonist is nice, which is a somewhat milquetoast thing to be, but there it is. Possibly due to being a fiction debut, possibly due to being an adaptation of what seems to have been travel journals, there is a sort of narrative flatness to the experience, lots of details, not enough dramatic flair sort of thing. Quite possibly it would have read more engagingly had it remained a personal account, but at any rate it’s perfectly decent as is. For an armchair reader, it may not be the journey of a lifetime that it was for the author and his protagonist, but it’s enjoyable enough of a venture. Thanks Netgalley.

Thank you to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The author details his clueless wandering around Europe in the 1970s, in his early 20s. Parts of his story were amusing, parts were poignant, but quite a bit was the self-indulgent self-centered reminiscing of a young man who has no idea that he's not as fascinating as he thinks he is. Of course, that's part of the charm of the early 20s, isn't it, so I suppose the author got the story exactly right.

I like this book so much. Thanks to the publisher and netgallley for sending me the advanced reader copy. Eagerly waiting to hear more from the author