Seeing the world up close, honestly

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HONEYMOON WITH MY BROTHER: A MEMOIR

By Franz Wisner

St. Martins, $23.95,

274 pages

REVIEWED BY RACHEL DICARLO

Franz Wisner woke up on his wedding day with a hangover. Wine stains dotted his white kitchen chairs. Beer cans were strewn throughout the house. A deck railing had been broken and a random couple was passed out on the floor. But the bride never saw any of it. She dumped him a few days earlier. He just decided to have the wedding anyway -- sans bride. So he planned to move all his energy to his job as an executive for the Irvine Company. Except that when he got back to the office he was demoted. He needed a break. So he decided to go on the Costa Rican honeymoon he had already paid for and invite his younger brother Kurt to substitute for the bride.

Over margaritas they had the big idea. Why go home? Why go back to the same boring, monotonous jobs? Why not extend the honeymoon, see as much of the world as possible and in doing so get to know each other as adults? Franz could recover from his failed relationship and Kurt could get over his own recent divorce. So they did what most people can only fantasize about: They sold their houses, furniture, and cars; cashed in on bonuses and equity; got rid of cell phones and pagers (Kurt took a nine iron to his); and bought one-way plane tickets. In two years they saw four continents and 53 countries.

The original idea wasn't to write a memoir, but to soak up as much travel as possible. That's why they chose to backpack through third-world countries in Eastern Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa, rather than party at swanky hot spots in France, Italy or Spain.

The concept of "Honeymoon With My Brother" -- man gets dumped then gets healed after traveling the world and reconnecting with his slightly estranged brother -- had the potential to turn into a whiney, sappy, and/or maudlin story about family bonding and pining for lost love. Luckily that didn't happen. Mr. Wisner, a first time book author, has adroitly written a funny, highly-readable volume that is maybe nine parts travel and one part personal reflection.