Keeping A Weather Eye

HUNTING MISTER HEARTBREAK

by Jonathan Raban

HarperCollins; 372 pages; $25

British travel writer Jonathan Raban is at his amiable best when his narrative is adrift, even awash. It is easy to see why. Sooner or later a professional journeyer meets boring people in tedious circumstances. Here the land-based pilgrim must lie entertainingly, which is hard work, or tell the ghastly truth. The writer who travels by boat need only conjure a storm, or describe his great relief that the weather is fine. The reader, charmed or alarmed, follows wide-eyed. Raban weathered bores effectively in Coasting, a wry account of a voyage...