The Road to Santiago

Odd little travel narrative about one woman's three trips on the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela told in a kind of mixed-chronological order.  First, the most recent trip, a weeks worth of the camino taken with her 12 year old daughter.  I have been thinking lately this would be a fun trip to take with my daughter when she is about 12, so this part became a kind of cautionary tale.  I pictured my sweet girl, age 12, wearing an i-pod for 200 km and rolling her eyes at me.

The next part was a short chapter, her first time on the Camino, which involved her arriving in Spain while 7 months pregnant to do some research for a book and stumbling upon the path, walking on it a bit, and then realizing she needed to come back someday. Walking the Camino while 7 months pregnant was not smart. Contractions ensued.

The last part was the second time she came, 7 years after her first try, and she walked to the end.   I was a little unclear how many km she actually walked, but I don't get the impression she did the whole pilgrimage.  It seemed like perhaps two weeks worth.  It was a solitary journey and one she embraced even though it was often difficult and painful. She was not so much interested in the sites along the way as she was her own personal solitariness and the spiritual experience of walking the Camino.

At the end I realized this short narrative was part of a series published by National Geographic which included all manner of places around the globe.  Somehow, the fact that it was a series kind of made it seem a little less that it should have been.  Somehow, it explained why it was thin.  But it made me want to go and try it myself.  I have begun planning.  I think my first goal is to simply get in shape.  I have 8 more years until my daughter is 12.  Think I can do it?

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail by Cheryl Strayed

I chose this book to bring with me on my Scotland adventure this week.  There was something about reading a woman's travel adventure while I had my own adventure that was comforting and exciting.  My adventure involved hot baths and a good nights sleep and thankfully, no rattlesnakes.

I first read Strayed in her essay about grief that got published in an anthology of the best non-fiction.  Her essay was a memoir of her grieving over her mother's death by shooting up heroin and sleeping with as many men as she could.  Both activities led to her divorce from a man she loved very much.  In the essay,  she alludes
to deciding to hike the Pacific Coast Trail as an antidote to her grief. She saves money, plans, buys equipment, and heads out for a 100 day journey through California and Oregon--through the high sierras-- where she quickly learns that though she planned and packed she probably should have trained as well.

Strayed voice is honest and humbled. She goes from novice to seasoned hiker. She grieves, she parties, she experiences solitude and companionship on the trail, kindnesses, and the aforementioned rattlesnakes.  Never in my wildest dreams, even when I was young and fit, could I have ever dreamed of this sort of solo adventure.  I probably enjoyed it so much knowing that she did something that I could never hope to do.

I loved this book and read it quickly on the plane and within 4 days of starting the trip.  I found Strayed's voice to be truly compelling.  I cared about her and wanted to see her complete her magnificent journey.

As a side note, I took this in e-book format and felt sort of guilty and slovenly.  I would love to hand it to a fellow traveler to read or at least leave it in a B & B. But alas cannot.  Also, I discovered halfway through the trip that a fellow traveler is reading the exact same book.   I never would have known had she not mentioned it.  I guess I am realizing that books are a shared experience for me, and that e-readers, don't allow for the sharing of story or the discovering of other people's story journeys.

But you should discover this journey and an important new voice in literature.

The Wilder Life

I picked up The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure on my birthday.  I, too, grew up reading and loving Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Little House books.  Ms. McClure has decided to follow Laura and go to her various homesteads around the country.  Who knew that this famous series of books would create a small cottage industry in tourism?

But the Wilder Life is more than just travel memoir, it is also social commentary on why we yearn for these simpler times. We meet fellow travelers who also share the fervor for Laura.  Some of whom have some pretty creepy reasons for learning homesteading skills.

McClure also takes a great portion of the book to talk about her own love of Laura and why she so desires to be part of her world.  Everywhere she goes, she lingers over artifacts and enjoys the sights and sounds that Laura and her family would have enjoyed.

I also loved the intellectual discussions of the fictional Laura versus the real Laura, and I learned a lot more about the role Rose Wilder had in bringing her mother's books to life.  At the time, Rose Wilder was every bit as famous as her mother.

I found this book to be insightful and funny. I enjoyed Ms Mclure's travels and insights and sense of humor.  Although I have not read those books in more than 30 years, it was fun to relive all the moments from the books that I could remember through the lens of a fellow Wilder fan and insightful writer.  I think anyone who loved Laura Ingalls as a girl would enjoy this fun look at her and her writing.

India Becoming by Akash Kapur

I have vivid and a bit disjointed memories of my one very short trip to India many years ago.  I visited what was then called Madras and is now called Chennai as part of a student group that was sailing the world.  Since that amazing trip, I have had many encounters with Indian Culture and have always been fascinated by the country, its people, food, religion and place in world history.

Akash Kapur was raised in Southern India near Chennai, leaves for the West for many years, and then returns with his family to live and work.  He has written a memoir/literary journal/portrait of the new modern India which seeks to explore all the beauty and beastliness of this ancient and provocative nation.

He paints many individual character portraits of men and women caught in the crosshairs of change:  a young gay man struggling with his identity, a young woman who divorces and then chooses to live with her boyfriend and not marry, another young woman who moves to the city to take advantage of all the amazing work opportunities, but chooses to retain a very traditional lifestyle regarding dating, a man from the dalit caste who defies local customs, a farmer and his wife living apart: country mouse and city mouse.  All these stories he follows over several years. 

Part II of this book is kind of character study of India itself: a painting of the price of progress.  He profiles the immense poverty that still exists in the cities that sits on the backs of the new Indian elite, the huge problem with waste and pollution that plagues even him and his family, the disorganized state of the police and the vast contempt for the rule of law, and finally the state of India once hard times hit the newly prosperous nation.

All of the stories are varied, interesting, often disturbing, and well written. I felt that he could have spent some more research time on some of his topics. He seemed to rely almost solely on anecdotes told by friends, and friends of friends, to make points about poverty and pollution.  A few facts and figures could go a long way to bolstering some of the portraits of people and problems.

All in all, a great read.  Mr Kapur reminded me somewhat of an Indian Malcolm Gladwell.  This was enjoyable.  I plan to share it widely. 

A book and a movie

Several years ago I read a fabulous travel memoir by Tim Moore, humorist and traveler. He wrote Travels with My Donkey, an account of his trek with a donkey named Shinto along the pilgrimage path from St. Jean Pied de Port in France through the Spanish Pyrenees to Santiago do Compostela near the coast of Spain.  I loved the tale and I became fascinated by the idea of pilgrimage. What do modern day pilgrims seek? Why do they walk 500 miles just to reach a church that is purported to hold the remains of one of Jesus's apostles?  It has been awhile since I read this, so the details are cloudy but I know he met fellow travelers, ruminated about the history of the pilgrimage and wrote about Spain and being companionable with a donkey for a few months.  I always wondered if it was something I could do.

Last week, I had the opportunity to see a fabulous new movie, The Way, that just came out which follows a man as he journeys on the camino to Santiago.  A fictitious story about Tom Avery (played by Martin Sheen) who travels to St Jean Pied de Port to retrieve his only child's body after he is killed on the trail in a freak accident.  Avery is filled with grief. He has an empty, lonely life and was far from understanding his now deceased son (played by Martin Sheen's real life son Emilio Estevez, who also made the movie).

In a bold move, Avery decides to pick up his son's backpack and gear and take the trek himself, in an attempt to honor his son and try to understand what he was trying to do with his life.  He takes along his son's remains and begins to scatter them along the path.  Of course Tom is sad, angry and alone, but he begins to meet other travelers, all who have their own path and their own reasons for trekking the camino.

Some might call it predictable and the movie might be a little long, but it was beautiful and gave me a chance to see what the pilgrimage might really look like. I did love watching crusty Tom Avery begin to melt away, dig through his layers of grief, and connect with his travel companions.  I love how travel thrusts unlike people together. You never choose your travel companions; they choose you. All the shots are filmed in Spain along the trail with a musical score that made me want to sing: a gorgeous and thought provoking film.

I began to wonder, would I ever have the opportunity to walk this trail?  I told my theater companion that when we retired we were going to take this walk together.  Perhaps get our kids to come and carry our packs?  Will you join me?

Following Josh by David Norman

As a twenty something traveler I always dreamed of doing what Dave Norman and his friend Josh do:  travel the world via the Trans-Siberian railroad.  Dave flies to Seoul, Korea where he meets up with Josh and together they form a roving fraternity duo heading their way through China, Mongolia, Russia and Eastern Europe to the tune of booze and bad moods.

I have read a lot of very good travel memoirs.  Most of them are extremely well written and full of witty observations and self-deprecating humor.  I love a wry take on the theme of a stranger in a strange land.   Dave Norman does not seem to understand the genre, rather he seems to have published his travel journal and included every whimsical thought and internal monologue that he had while trekking across the North Hemisphere.  Each page was full of half thoughts and slang terms and fevered experiences and elipses.  This book could have used a good editor. From the absense of any acknowledgements in the final pages (which I always love to read) I have to believe he forgot to run this by anyone.

This is why, strange to say, that in the parting pages of this book, when Dave Norman promises his next book will be about part two of this grand tour with another friend named Jake, I actually felt a little interested in it.  Was it true that I stuck with the writer long enough, through enough eye rolling, angst ridden travel that I actually want to see how this turns out?  Perhaps.

Also,  once I waded between the awkward prose, I did enjoy seeing parts of the world to which sadly, I will probably not venture.  My rugged, youth hostel, strange meat eating days are long past me. So Dave Norman, if you read this, I am one of those Saints who would sit with you at dinner and hear your whole travel story from first to last and ask you about all the crazy adventures you had and admonish you for having a perpetual bad mood all the way around the world.

This was an early review book and if anyone wants to journey on the Transiberian railroad please let me know and I will send it along.

A week at the Airport by Alain be Botton

"The stock market could never put an accurate price on thousands of moments of beauty and interest that occurred around the world every day under an airline's banner:  it could not describe the site of Nova Scotia from the air, it had no room in its optics for the camaraderie enjoyed by employees in the Hong Kong ticket office, it had no means of quantifying the adrenalin thrill of take-off."  from A Week at the Airport by Alain be Botton.




Veteran writer Alain de Botton, who has written prolifically on questions of home, life, travel and friendship, was asked to be the writer-in-residence at Heathrow International Airport for one week.  The airport paid to put him up and put no restrictions on what he could write.  They only asked that he spend the whole week within the confines of the airport.  They even gave him a desk in a public space near terminal 5 where he could sit and write and talk to people.

He produced a really fabulous essay, almost a work of prose poetry, on all aspects of the airport:  departure, arrival, food (from the elite lounges to the food courts), baggage claim, ticket desk, shopping.  He met pilots and employees and baggage handlers and many many travelers and stopped to ask them their stories.

This little book was filled with pictures of the variety of scenes one encounters at the airport like the beauty of the engineering of the airport terminal, the airplanes lined up on the tarmac in the breaking morning sun, meals bring prepared en masse by hairnetted Filipino women, businessmen working in the airport lounge and bags rolling off the conveyer belt.

His stay at the airport produced a love letter to Heathrow, a wide-eyed wondering of the marvels of modern day travel and the people that live the stories under the fabric of the terminal.  It made me wonder about possible companion positions like writer-in-residence at the mall, Disney or the hospital.   It is not a learn-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-inner-workings-of-the-airport piece, it was just a lazy stroll and a week of ideas about how the terminal--much hated, little noticed is a profound place in our modern age.  Less than 100 pages and chock full of pictures, it reads like a long poem.  Think Virgil for the airport.

A Walk in the Woods: Bill Bryson Love Part II

A lovely stroll along the Appalachian trail:  wit, middle-aged men doing the mid-life thing, history, friendship, sadness, environment, botany, biology and some southern states all in one easy to read travel memoir.  I can't believe it took me this long to discover this author.

I requested this book from my local library, waited at least 6 weeks to get it, and was delighted to get to read a very dog eared and much loved copy.  Has there been a waitlist for this book since its publication date of 1998?

I commented to my husband that the book seemed eerily pre-9/11.  Travel memoirs read with more suspicion and more snark in this era of travel.  No pat-downs or criminal background checks to get on the trail in 1998.

The book is dedicated to Katz.  I must say, I loved his travel companion Katz more than I can possibly say.   I breathed a heavy sigh when I finished the book and went back and read the dedication.  If you haven't already read this one it is worth an afternoon.

Reading this made me know, deep down in my heart, that I will never ever aspire to hike the Appalachian Trail. Not even in my wildest fantasies.  I am glad Bill Bryson did.

My Family, A Symphony: A memoir of global adoption by Aaron Eske

Here's one more entry in my never ending fascination with adoption memoir.  I spied this one on the table at  my local bookstore just before Christmas and lo and behold, Santa brought it for me.  Thanks Santa!

Mr. Eske writes this memoir at age 25.  Although his story is compelling, it felt like it could have gelled a few more years.  I never thought I would say this but 25 is far too young to write a memoir.  The book tries to do too much in a relatively short space.  My family, A Symphony is part adoption history (interesting), part global economic theory that leads to a the phenomenon of orphans in developing countries, Eske's own story of being the biological child of parents who went on to adopt 4 orphans from India and Korea, and a travel memoir as he sets about traveling the globe to visit his siblings' origins.  Got all that?

Although it is an interesting entry in the adoption memoir canon, and does have some really lovely moments, it felt largely thin and in need of so much extra story.  I really wanted to read so much more about his family as it was forming.  What were his siblings thinking and feeling as they came of age in that household?  His older siblings must have registered some immediate response to being moved from a life of poverty to a life of family and the riches of America, I would like to know more about those moments?  I felt that his own story, while interesting, was missing many  angles and details.  It was like being invited to a sumptuous buffet and being offered only some cheese and crackers.  Good cheese and crackers, but I knew there was so much more out there.

As someone who has been part of an international adoption myself, I was particularly interested in the works of Holt International and how they began the modern international adoption movement.  His stories of Grandma Holt and her eight Korean adoptions has lead me wanting to read her biography.  Also, his own travel memoir felt slightly abbreviated as well.  Again, I felt like it was just skimming the surface of what could be a fascinating travel story.

I will look forward to reading Aaron's next book and perhaps each of his siblings' books as well.

When Wanderers Cease to Roam: A Traveler's Journal of Staying Put by Vivian Swift

So here's this little gem of a memoir that I stumbled upon at a sale at my local bookstore.  It turns the concept of the traditional chronological memoir on its head by offering a kind of kaleidoscope of memories from the writer's past traveling life and her present staying put life.

She observes the seasons of her life month my month and each month she offers a wide array of watercolor paintings of her world plus observations about her town and her present life but then she writes what she calls micro-memoirs about her years of travel:  birthday memories, husbands and fiances, adventures in exotic locations, danger while traveling.

Each month is loosely thematic like March is tea month and November is good-bye month.  The whole book read like a poem.  It was peppered with quotes and ticket stubs and cats and odd people she met. I loved the drawing of the dozens of odd lost mittens that she had found in her town.

It conveyed warmth and sentimentality and a life really well lived.  It is possible to write an interesting memoir if you have a regular life and don't star in a movie or have some terrible disease.

This book reads quickly and it becomes a kind of almanac:  a book I could leave on my bed table and refer to again and again.  For this reason it is not a great book to check out of the library.  It is charming and worthy of an afternoon and a cup of tea especially if you are looking for ideas and inspiration and another way of telling a true story.

Best Summer Read: Lost on Planet China by Maarten Troost

Maarten Troost wrote a great travel memoir a few years ago called The Sex Lives of Cannibals. It chronicled the two years he lived on a remote South Sea Island. Nothing I would ever want to do after reading his book. It sounded awful, but it was a fun read.

My husband picked up Lost on Planet China and I read it this summer very quickly. Our intrepid traveler spent a few months wondering around that enigmatic country known as China.

He is funny, thought provoking and simply a master at translating his own experiences to meaningful tales for the armchair traveler. You'll laugh; you'll cry; you'll want to run out and learn Mandarin.