Title: Prodigal Girl
Author: Emma Wright
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781545387575
Pages: 314
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Reviewed by: Anita Lock
“One day I will travel and see this world … and make my own stories!” Even though Jamie Welch made that promise back when she was kid, it sparks a “terrible, insatiable itch that still persists and pesters to this day.” The traveling itch doesn’t come to fruition until Jamie, who is in her early twenties, divorces from her first marriage. Nine years later and now in her early thirties, Jamie trades in an upcoming marriage for an “around-the-world ticket.” What she doesn’t know at the time is that her expected three-month venture will stretch out into eight. On her list of places before returning home to London are China, New Zealand, Australia, Bali, Java, Sumatra, West Malaysia, Singapore, East Malaysia, and Thailand.
Based on a true story, author Emma Wright’s Prodigal Girl captures one woman’s adventures during an era (the early 90s) when travel was quite different than it is today. Wright’s first person narrative set in British lingo, presents a portrait of restlessness amid introspection and life’s decisions.
Jamie constantly vacillates from pure enjoyment to self-doubt, often wondering if she did the right thing by leaving her fiancé to fulfill her dreams. Fortunately, as Jamie takes in the sights and sounds of each place, she doesn’t have to experience these moments alone since she makes new friends—some tag along, most are momentary, while others met up with her again at a later point in her journey.
Amid a plethora of varied situations, Jamie has to deal with crowded hostels, cranky lifts (elevators), plenty of yin and yang moments (i.e., beautiful scenery as opposed to dilapidated neighborhoods), close calls with vehicular accidents, motion sickness, and promiscuous men. Jamie’s ventures with her newfound friends run the gamut from sublime to—let’s say—exotic: sailing, working on a cattle station, parasailing, swimming, snorkeling, hiking, discovering a male circumcision ceremony, and forging river rapids on a disintegrating raft—just to name a few examples. She’s even able to visit with relatives she’s never met.
Wright’s writing style feels like a journal without the date entries. Although she sprinkles in dialogue between Jamie and various traveling friends, there are a couple conversational sections that allude to Jamie’s introspection: “heated argument[s] between [Jamie’s] mind and body.” Even though Jamie claims that the missing element in her life is passion—“I’m missing the passion that comes from having a man’s affection in my life, and I knew where it would spill over. With me not being me”—she realizes after her many relational situations just how mislead she was in believing that to be true. How it all ends is uncertain when she returns home; however, Wright gives enough inference that Jamie has learned a thing or two about herself along the way.
Prodigal Girl is an interesting read, especially for those who are restless at heart.
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