Batfishing in the Rainforest: Strange Tales of Travel & Fishing

The '60s new journalism is now producing a second generation of ``gonzo'' travel writers, postmodern reporters and skewed naturalists: White is all three in this collection of 23 short pieces, some of which have appeared in Playboy , Southern Living et al. Reports of adventures in Central America, Asia and Floria are frothy with peculiar insights on politics, flora and fauna and local character. This travel writing freestyle event offers an antidote to prepackaged armchair adventures and New Age ``sacred tours.'' Even in the company of the Navy SEALS or the Seward (Alaska) Polar Bear Jump crew, White's viewpoint oscillates between quirky subjectivity and transcendence. No tourist board should let him into its country, but fans of P. J. O'Rourke and David Quaamen will find a kindred spirit. (Nov.)