Hannibal MO

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The Great American Road Trip

Destination: Missouri

Book: Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain, in The Library of America Edition

Mark Twain, who captured America like no other American writer, wandered the globe and lived abroad nearly as many years as he lived in the United States. As a matter of fact many of his most American books were penned while he luxuriated in villas in the Italian countryside.

He wrote follow-ups to his popular Tom Sawyer novel from a villa near Florence while fiddling with what was to become the final of the four masterworks of the Mississippi River, sometimes known as “The Tragedie” of Pudd’nhead Wilson. Of course I could have chosen to talk about his memoir of Life on the Mississippi or Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer, all memoirs to some extent of his years in Hannibal, Missouri, but being a contrarian, I wanted to read the lesser-known book as a salute to the state of Missouri.

Pudd’nhead Wilson made quite a journey itself, starting as a farce about conjoined twins, based on a pair of Italian sideshow noblemen that drew crowds in the nineteenth century Europe. However, by the time Twain finished his story, his interest had drawn elsewhere, the story had perhaps been influenced by his wife’s influence, and the twins, still noble, were no longer conjoined. The subsequent editing tends to rather sloppy and confusingly show glimpses of the previous “Siamese” twins.

As usual, Twain presents the accents and mores of his home town and the state of Missouri faithfully, although he was living in 1893 in a villa in Florence and had been for many years when he wrote this book. This is a book of memory. He is recalling the bad old days (1830) when a person like Roxy, the story’s main character, could be sold “down the river” because she is 1/16 black. “To all intents and purposes Roxy was as white as anybody, but the one sixteenth of her which was black outvoted the other fifteen parts and made her a negro.”

Even This long after the Civil War, such a strong condemnation of slavery sold more copies of Twain’s books in the north than in the South. He leaves no doubts of his feelings, not only about slavery but about the damage the aristocracy of the South wrought on the white population as well as the black.

Echoing his earlier story, The Prince and the Pauper, he switches two children but in this case, one is white and one is black (but in this case 1/32nd black, which serves just as well) and proving Twain is always up to date, he uses the latest science, in this case finger printing, to solve both a murder and the swapped-at-birth cases.

Despite the sloppiness in converting the Italian twins from conjoined to merely noble, this story deserves more attention than it generally gets.  For one thing, Twain has created a really interesting female character for a change in Roxy. And if his cynicism towards American’s racial attitudes began to emerge in Huck Finn, it came to full flame in Pudd’nhead Wilson. See how he weaves a detective story, social satire, Americana and vintage Twain into a story that makes a good addition to the traveler’s road trip history library.

What is your favorite Mark Twain novel? Why do you think this one never gained the popularity of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn?

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1. Public Libraries. Travelers are not likely to be borrowing books, but here are the benefits of the ubiquitous public libraries: Free or minimal charge computer use; tables on which to work, and a place to plug in your laptop and get WIFI; clean restrooms; information on the surrounding area; a schedule of lectures, story hours for kids, and lots of newspapers and magazines to read for free.
2. National Parks. America had the first National Parks, and the concept has spread to many other countries. National Geographic Adventure has these nice articles about our National Parks. Nowadays you probably have to pay a fee, but look into special discounts for Seniors and other programs. At National Parks, take advantage of Park Ranger programs, guided hikes, maps and brochures that come along with your admission.
3. QUICK! What is the best travel bargain in the United States? Smithsonian Institution. You can browse to your heart’s content for free ANY time at the Smithsonian Institution’s Washington, D.C.-based facilities, like the National History Museum, the Air and Space Museum, and the newer Museum of the American Indian. Plus they have the most intriguing gift shops anywhere.   On Saturday, September 25, 2010, the  Smithsonian museum affiliates across the country will open their doors for free admission to everybody. The Museum Day Tickets are available NOW for download from www.smithsonian.com/museumday.   I will take advantage of the free pass close to home at the museums listed at the Guide to Arizona Museums blog.
4. Fast Food Restaurants. We love to hate them, but they provide a clean dependable place to eat and free, clean restrooms. I do seek out the locally owned one-of-a-kind restaurants when I can, but I can’t imagine a road trip without a stop at a few fast food chain restaurants, and some fast food places are actually healthy eating.
5. Chain Motels. Again, the benefit is that you know what you are getting.  Holiday Inn was the first chain motel, starting in 1952 to meet the needs travelers on  the new national highway system that was beginning to cross the U.S. It is fun to explore the little independent places, and with the Internet that is easy, but sometimes you just want to stay at a familiar place.
6. Toll-free Super Highway. The U.S. major highway system started in the fifties, and as Ken and I and our children crisscrossed the country from Arizona to Ohio in the 1960′s and early 70-’s we saw old Route 66 slowly morph into US 40. And each trip was faster and easier. Toll roads are a logical way to earn enough money to maintain highways, and our mid-twentieth century roads are showing their age, however, I still enjoy not having to drop money in a box every few miles.
7. Coasts that belong to everyone. Since this is a state thing rather than a federal thing, it does not apply universally to our Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, however in California, in particular, the public is entitled to access to almost all of the coastline. Google “Public access shorelines” for the scoop on whatever state you are looking for.
8. City and state parks. From the biggest urban park–16,000-acre South Mountain Park in Phoenix, Arizona (and you thought it was Central Park in NYC, didn’t you?) to small town parks like the historic one we discovered in Fillmore Utah. Stay and hike, or stop for a picnic.
9. The Great Lakes–FIVE of them. Well, okay, Canada gets to claim half of four of them, but they are the largest inland fresh water bodies of water in the world and offer an endless variety of recreation for travelers.
10. Roadside rest stops. These range from barely helpful–a picnic table surrounded by dirt and pavement–to absolutely gorgeous–landscaped, dog play areas, snacks, clean restrooms, maps and information.

What did I miss? What are your favorite things to love about traveling in America? And remember, your comment (one per post but as many per day as you like), enter you in the contest for the “I guess there will never be enough books” t-shirt.

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A waterfall like the Cave Dweller's shower.

Destination: Arkansas

Book: Farther Along(2008) by Donald Harington

This book’s characters talk through musical instruments.Which makes it a natural to pair with Kerry Dexter, my partner on this Great American Road Trip. See what music she recommends for your drive through Arkansas at Music Road.

Farther Along may puzzle you and challenge you, but surely it will tell you about life and the links between generations and in the end, it will  have you humming along and considering your own life. Not to mention laughing out loud. If you want to see more of Harington’s humor, see the video in the News section of his web site

Summarizing the plot puts a reviewer on dangerous ground, because each reader will want to make his/her own discoveries. Even the publisher’s blurbs venture only into the very early portion of the book. What author was it, when asked what his book was about, replied that he couldn’t say–that’s why he had to write a whole book? (Or words to that effect).

So… after a divorce, the main character leaves his job as an expert on “vernacular” furniture to live as a prehistoric native in a cave in the Arkansas woods, thus becoming “The Cave Dweller.” A waterfall serves as a shower. He has a dog, and he plays the comb. The comb requires a lot of toilet paper and the dog resents it when the man kills deer. He befriends an old woman who used to be the postmistress of the village, and a young man who makes moonshine. Through them, and a few other characters, he is drawn into the life of this nearly deserted town and its past.

In real life, (such as it is) I have only visited the northern part of Arkansas. Very pretty, but mostly populated by retirees from other parts, and condos and golf courses vie for space along with the native woods. The descriptions in Farther Along of the hills, waterfalls and mountains make me want to go back and explore some more.

In post-modern fashion, Donald Harington allows his characters to comment on the style of the novel. His characters are clear and distinct and speak with individual voices. His discussion of their various odd lives makes the reader think about modern life and its meaning and the thin line that separates the living from the departed. If it is hard to understand life now, we are supposed to understand “Farther Along.” That phrase comes from a funeral hymn, (You can see a video of the song at the link) whose entire music and verses are reprinted in the front of the book.

Farther Along we’ll know all about it; Farther Along we’ll understand why; Cheer up my brother, live in the sunshine; We’ll understand it all by and by.

Will we? That is the question. An the story without an end leaves you to find your own answers.

I do not read about the author, or read other reviews until I have figured out what I think about a book. Harington has an intriguing background. He has been deaf since childhood, which makes his reproduction of the rhythms of speech and his fascination with music particularly notable. I was also intrigued to learn that he has written 12 novels about a small town he calls Stay more, which echoes a reall town in Arkansas, Drakes Creek, where his own grandmother was the postmistress. I liked the description by Entertainment Weekly that called Harington, “America’s Greatest Unknown Novelist.”

The photograph above, comes from Flckr complements of Creative Commons license. Click on the photo to learn more about the location and the photographer.

For road trips IN Arkansas, see this Road Trips for Families article. Next stop on OUR road trip: Mark Twain’s Missouri.

Farther Along talks a bit about preservation vs. restoration. I found this interesting article about the restoration taking place at Drakes Creek. Hmmm, it does not mention Harington. Wonder if he approves of what is being done?

Have you traveled in the Ozarks? Are there times when you would you like to live in a cave?

Leave a comment for a chance at the “I guess there are never too many books” t-shirt.” Entries through Friday.

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Temple Bazaar in Tiruvannamalai

Destination: Southern India

Book: The Writerly Life by R.K.Narayan, ed. by S. Krishnan

A GUEST POST BY MS. KIRAN KESWANI

If you would like a glimpse into India and its people, reading the writings of R.K.Narayan is a wonderful way to do it. He is a writer who wrote as if he were enveloped in quietitude, situated in an Indian setting which could have been everything but quiet! He seemed to have read deep into the minds of people in his family, in his street, in his town and in his country. He did this in a way that made every moment and the happening that belonged to it seem like it had a meaning and a purpose.

The Writerly Life is a collection of several essays and R.K.Narayan’s travelogue, My Dateless Diary, which uncovers an Indian mind as it discovers uncharted territories in America.The collection represents his non-fiction writing from the 1930s to the 1990s.

R.K.Narayan is one of my favourite Indian writers writing about India. With his acute sense of observation, he must have seen also the darker sides of India, but he did not write about that. He chose instead to dwell on simple people and their simple ways. In ‘The Crowd’, he writes, “Any crowd interests me: I always feel that it is a thing that deserves precedence over any other engagement. I always tell myself that an engagement can wait, but not the crowd.”

Kapaleeswarar Temple in Chennai

It is true that Narayan’s writings are based mainly in South India but it is a large part of the Indian sub-continent. For me, this was a great way to learn and love a part of India that I had known little about till I moved there with my husband, who belonged there and found it best to initiate his North-Indian wife into his culture through Narayan’s beautiful depiction of it.

Eventually, I became addicted to the South Indian coffee, because in a South Indian household, the day starts with the aroma of coffee wafting through the whole house.

I  read R. K. Narayan’s essay on ‘Coffee’  many times over the years and found it delightful every single time!  He says he never tired of writing about coffee. He was planning a noble work on coffee running to two hundred thousand words, that would be called a Study of Coffee. The first part would describe the philosophy of Bababuden, a Muslim saint who brought coffee to India and prove that the origin of coffee was saintly.

He writes, “A few observations will be necessary on the question of coffee temperature. This section will be called Thermodynamics of Coffee. In this section we shall strive to decide the right temperature at which coffee may be sipped. It must be understood that the temperature has to vary according to the occasion; the hot cup you may demand at home may not be suitable when you have to gulp down a mouthful and run back to your seat in a train whose engine has just whistled and just started moving.”

The Writerly Life also includes essays such as “Noise,” “Of Trains and Travellers,”  “Toasted English,”  “Bridegroom Bargains,” and “Reluctant Guru”. Narayan always said that he wrote all these essays only because he had to meet a deadline every Thursday in order to fill half a column for the Sunday issue of The Hindu and he somehow managed to do that for nearly twenty years without a break.

R. K. Narayan (1906-2001) was born in Madras and studied at Maharajah`s College in Mysore. His work includes numerous novels, five collections of short stories, two travel books,and other writing. He is well-known for his novels, Malgudi Days and The Guide, which was also made into a film. In 1980, he was awarded the A. C. Benson medal by the Royal Society of Literature. Narayan was also made Honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

My deepest gratitude to Ms.Kiran Keswani ,who is an architect based in Bangalore, India, for writing this guest post AND providing the pictures. Kiran is currently researching the traditional bazaars of India. I met her through the Lonely Planet Blog Sherpa program. Her photo-filled, colorful blog  has been featured on Lonely Planet.com.

Please do not use the photos without the consent of Ms. Keswani. Thanks.

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And if a cookbook explores a region in depth like the Dordogne, then you have the best of all worlds, a travel cookbook.

Destination: Louisiana

Book: The River Road Plantation Country Cookbook by Anne Butler

In the introduction to River Road Plantation Country Cookbook, the reader gets a bit of history — the Mississippi’s impact on the development of Louisiana and the business, culture, and cuisine of the row of plantations built between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana along River Road. Butler says, in her introduction:

The refined culinary customs transported from France soon mingled with hot seasonings and cooking techniques from other countries and incorporated native game, seafood and fresh local produce unknown in European kitchens. The resultant dishes were and are superlative…

Although the sepia tone photographs used throughout the book give it a historic feel, the author swerves back and forth from historic recipes in plantations to much more modern developments and modern recipes. You soon figure out the book is not all about plantations.

The recipes come from a variety of sources and many are skimmed from other cookbooks (with attribution). I think I might have been more charmed by one of the plantation cookbooks quoted that gives both the old “receipt” and the modernized version.

The travel part of the book held my interest more than the hodgepodge of recipes. The author introduced me to the LSU Rural Life Museum, which sounds particularly fascinating, and she  also clarified which plantations are open to the public, their hours, their restaurants and gardens. She tempted me to show up for the Jambalaya Festival some late May in Gonzales, when a cookoff is held. Possibly the best ever recipe for Jambalaya (a former champion contributed it) is included in the book. Another place I’d like to visit, the Cabin (restaurant, cottages, a whole Cajun Village of historic structures) will lure me to Burnside, Louisiana some day to try the Buttermilk Pie.

But overall, this book was disappointing. The layout and graphics did not inspire me. A prime factor in a good cookbook , the index, also left me searching. Despite the fact that the book is more travel book than recipe book, the index lists only recipes and not destinations.

Destination: Texas

Book: The Tex-Mex Grill and Backyard Barbacoa Cookbook by Robb Walsh

Texas and Louisiana, neighboring states, are about as alike as Hawaii and Alaska. As Robb Walsh talks about food as culture, it becomes clear why they are so different. In this book he is writing particularly about the Mexican influence on Texas cooking, and some of that sounds very familiar to an Arizonan like me.

I laughed out loud when I saw that he included a chapter on Taco Trucks. We have those portable restaurants in profusion in Tucson. The nickname here is Roach Coach, but in fact the cooking is good and inspected by the health czars just like restaurants.

It should not come as a surprise that Walsh includes those humble Taco Trucks–he does not leave anything out.  I’m still flipping through the pages and learning new things about cuts of meet, types of charcoal, varieties of chiles, and much more.

This is a lively, colorful cookbook with terrific black and white photos–many historical. How can black and white be colorful? You will have to see the great design work to understand.  Full page and double page spreads of closeups of food and/or people include a priceless picture of Fidel Castro in a ten-gallon hat tucking into some barbeque on a visit to Houston in 1959.

Walsh says,

“I hope this book encourages you to get out your grill.  I also hope it puts you in closer touch with the foodways of Texas and Northern Mexico and brings some exciting new flavors to your table.  Most of all, I hope it makes your next fiesta a lot of fun.”

You see, he assumes that you are going to have a fiesta–and the whole book assumes you are going to have fun cooking. Now there’s a book with personality.

I want to thank Pelican Publishing Company for sending me a review copy of River Road Plantation Country Cookbook and Broadway Books for a review copy of the Tex-Mex Grill.

How do you read cookbooks? Only when you need them? Or curl up with them like a sizzling novel?

And by the way, have you subscribed to A Traveler’s Library? Next week we’ll visit India, Carmel California, Arkansas and Arizona. Now surely you would not want to miss a line up like that.

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Carnival Masks

Destination: New Orleans, Louisiana (1817)

Books: A Free Man of Color by Barbara Hambly (1997)

New Orleans Noir, edited by Julie Smith (2007)

People of color could be classified in a dozen ways like mulatto, griffe, octoroon, musterfino and more. But whites were classified, also. Besides the Spanish, there were the Creoles–French who had settled in New Orleans, frequently coming up from Caribbean islands.

“White Creoles, by the way, had an intricate hierarchy of words to categorize each other as to social standing and how long their families had been prominent in New Orleans society, so they evidently just liked to label things.  Americans, of course, simply did not count.”

A Free Man of Color

It takes a scholar of medieval history to explain the complex social system of early nineteenth century New Orleans.  In A Free Man of Color, Barbara Hambly*, who studied medieval history, manages to familiarize the reader with New Orleans society’s nuances while Benjamin January, the main character, weaves and dodges through a suspense-filled story line.

This book defies skimming. Getting through the first couple of chapters felt like pushing through a murky swamp, because of all the background information that the author needed to convey. But give the book time and you’ll embark on a series of action-packed scenes as January fights to save his own life by uncovering who killed a glamorous octoroon in Mardi Gras season.

Candlelit dinner in New Orleans

Hambly skillfully evokes an era that we romanticize, seeing it lit by soft candlelight or gas lamps. But even though he is a highly educated free Black man, January’s life reminds us of the daily humiliation of living as a black in the days of slavery. Trained as a physician, he works as a musician, and frequently has to duck his head and act subservient for his own survival. Because he has recently returned from several years in Paris, we get his fresh observations on New Orleans.

The book also serves as a reminder that New Orleans did not become instantly American when the Declaration of Independence was signed in far away New England. I once talked to the owner of a French language bookstore in New Orleans who told me that in the 1700s, the newspapers in the city did not mention the Declaration of Independence or victory over the British. To these French speakers, America was a far-off place, crude and without culture.

That flavor of the nineteenth century lingers in New Orleans and makes it distinct from any other city in the United States. That is why A Free Man of Color, or any of the other Benjamin January series that came after it, belongs in the traveler’s library.  The ninth January novel, Dead and Buried, became available last spring, after a hiatus of several years since the eighth.

*The website linked here has an up-to-date blog, mostly not written by Barbara herself and a lot of outdated pages. For another route to Hambly updates, follow her on Twitter, where for some reason she has only 102 followers.

Lagniappe

In New Orleans, you frequently get a little extra–the 13th doughnut in a dozen philosophy expanded to life in general. So here’s another book.

Old New Orleans

New Orleans Noir (2007), edited by Julie Smith, pulls together a collection of stories written by New Orleans writers just a year after the devastation of hurricane Katrina. Each story was crafted specially for this book.

Barbara Hambly presents a short Benjamin January mystery with humor and other New Orleans writers reflect on mystery and violence, both fictional and real, that take place in various parts of the city.

This book, by the way, is also part of a series that presents noir in various cities–for example, Brooklyn, London, Miami, Rome, etc.  I’m off to seek out the Paris Noir.

(And meanwhile you can read more about New Orleans at a number of my posts, starting with New Orleans writers;  plus for lagniappe, this post on Girls’ Getaway to help you plan your trip to New Orleans.)

See Music for New Orleans (it is not all jazz) at Kerry Dexter’s wonderful musical guide, Music Road.

What do YOU like to do in New Orleans? And what do you read to get into the New Orleans frame of mind?

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Comments until midnight on Bastille Day (July 14) make you eligible for France prizes. See the News Page for another book giveaway.

Destination: Paris

Movie: Amelie (2001) (English subtitles)

But surely you have seen Amelie? Have a listen to a piano version of the sound track:

I had indeed seen Amelie, when it first appeared, but what a delight it was to see it again on a DVD, and particularly to follow along with the director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet as he discussed the making of the film. Jeunet drew my attention to many things that had escaped my attention the first time around, plus answered questions I would have asked if I had met with him in person.

First the irresistible Audrey Tautou makes the movie unforgettable. The casting is one of those rare moments of bringing together the perfect actress with the part. The huge brown eyes, the whimsical smile, the dreaminess she portrays make it impossible to imagine anyone else in the part.

Then there is the equally picture-perfect setting of Montmartre with its village feel. While many movies that we are watching as a prelude to our trip to France  give only fleeting glances of Paris, or soundstage recreations, this one sticks to the narrow streets and shops and parks of Montmartre.

Some movie goers get impatient with whimsy, but the layers of Amelie keep everyone interested. As Amelie flits through life fixing other people’s lives like a fairy godmother, we see her own sometimes ridiculous attempts to direct her own destiny.

It is hard to pick perfect scenes, but the very old painter who lives in Amelie’s apartment building and recreates ancient masterpieces intrigues me.  Amelie gives him helpful hints and in a sense paints herself into his picture as her little romance develops.

So if you have not seen Amelie, take a trip to Montmartre with the movie. If you saw it long ago, take another look and check out the fascinating director’s notes. Me–I’m off to see if I can find a copy of the soundtrack to add to my I-pod.

What is your perfect French movie? Is it set in Paris, like most movies that want to say FRANCE, or elsewhere? Period or contemporary? American-made, French or from somewhere else?

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The Great American Road Trip

Destination: Mississippi

Author: William Faulkner

THE CORN SHUCKER’S COUNTRY

A Guest Post by Paul William Kaser

To understand the world you must first understand a place like Mississippi. William Faulkner

Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha (the name is borrowed from a real stream in Layfette County, Mississippi), is a fictional county that may be more real to millions of readers than any place they have actually visited.

Yankee travelers hoping to rediscover, or redeem, William Faulkner’s South may miss the whole point if they look only at his handwriting on the wall of Rowan Oak house, or the Nobel Prize enshrined in the J. D. Williams Library at Ol’ Miss, or the Sartoris-like statue of Great- grandpa William C. Falkner (sic) in Ripley Cemetery, or the fine collection of Square Books in Oxford. Though they can learn much in these places, the essential truth of the Faulkner’s eloquent creation must be heard in the living voices of Faulkner’s neighbors.

Everything comes; the people, the place, the story, and you just act like the fella feeding the corn shucker. — Ltr to Stephen Longstreet

Since I was a Yankee devourer of Faulkner’s tales, like the macabre A Rose for Emily, the brutal As I Lay Dying and Barn Burning, the hilarious Spotted Horses and many others, when I first visited Oxford and Old Miss three decades ago, my mind was haunted by those rambling, elegant sentences that rolled along like caravans of cotton wagons on meandering Southern roads. I thought I had the rhythm and full understanding of the place, but I didn’t get close to the truth until I went there and listened to the subdued voices of the people who had personally known the writer or had grown up with those who did.

He was a quiet hunter. an Oxford neighbor

Faulkner knew deeply that it little matters whether a foreign government decides to give you the greatest literary prize in the world, presented by the King no less, if you are not respected by the folks back in your own Yoknapatawpha County. He knew who he was because he knew so intimately the place from which he had emerged and which could never really leave.

When a friend was asked about his memories of the world-famed writer, he answered, “He was a quiet hunter.” That is what mattered in that time and place, and it must have mattered greatly to Faulkner to be remembered in that way.

My wife and I took our boys, then five and seven years and appropriately restless with all the chatter about the past, to a local restaurant owned by a woman who had been acquainted with the writer. She told us, “I thought he was okay. Lived up there with some freeloading relatives and wrote a lot.”

“What did you think when he won the Nobel Prize?” I asked.

“Then we guessed he was probably a pretty fair writer. Anyway I think he was okay as a neighbor. He let my kids play around the old house [Rowan Oak], and he never yelled at them.” With an understanding smile, she glanced at our kids, who were trying to help themselves to the offerings of the pie case.

What finally counts, then, as Faulkner revealed in so many of his stories, is not gaining the adoration of the greater world but winning the simple respect of your neighbors.

Nevertheless, “Bill” Faulkner, who both loved and chided the South, chided especially in regards to its racial history, did not always win the unqualified praise of his fellow Southerners. Despite this, he once said that in a war between the U.S. and his state, he would, like his ancestors, fight for his state. I told a student-guide from Ole Miss at Rowan Oak house that this was hard for a lot of people to understand. “It wouldn’t be hard to understand if you were born and raised in Mississippi,” he answered unapologetically –perhaps a little scornfully.

I don’t think anyone did more for this particular region. He showed us how to make literature from these materials. Robert Penn Warren

But did William Faulkner make Yoknapatawpha County or did it make him? The answer lies in the living voices of memory from Mississippi today. It’s worth a listen.

Paul Kaser

Paul Kaser lectures about literature and film (or movies to his less pretension audiences) after retiring from a long and distinguished career as a college teacher in California. Not a little of his love of Faulkner shows in his novel How Jerem Came Home, which is well worth looking up at an on-line used-book store. It pays tribute to a county in Ohio. Although he tries to disguise it as West Virginia, everybody from Killbuck knows the truth.

If you have any questions about Faulkner, you’ll have to address them to Paul, since I gave up wrestling with Bill Faulkner long ago. It was swell of Paul to drop by and raise the standards of writing here a A Traveler’s Library, and I am very grateful.

And don’t forget to check Music Road to see what travelin’ music Kerry Dexter has on tap for our road trip to Mississippi.

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Road Trip Book Cover

Destination: Alabama

Book: Gods in Alabama (2005) by Joshilyn Jackson

There are gods in Alabama: Jack Daniel’s high school quarterbacks, trucks, bit tits, and also Jesus.

Sorry, guys, but this book is going to quack like Chick Lit to you.  The retelling of a road trip that more or less proves that you CAN go home again, centers on the relationship between two women, and mothers play the supporting roles.  If that does not cinch the deal, be further warned that a great deal of the book takes place in flashbacks to high school, which definitely does not make it teen chick lit.

While the women are interesting characters, the author has made the supporting role of boyfriend to Arlene, the main character, perfect waaay beyond belief. One other male character only appears in the high school scenes and the other shuffles on as a sweet contrast to his strong wife, Lena’s Aunt.

Gods in Alabama weaves a suspenseful tale that explains why Arlene (or Lena her up-north-in-Chicago name) has refused to return to her home town in Alabama for more than ten years before she makes this life-changing road trip.  The author explains the motivation with a plot structure that double dares you to figure out how it is going to end.  Jackson mixes humor with a deeper purpose of investigating the meaning of truth in the midst of Bible Belt mores.

I read this first novel because of a suggestion from Twitter. (In the 5 years since it was published, Joshilyn Jackson has published three more novels, one of them a mirror image of this one.)While I am not as enthusiastic as the person who recommended it, I breezed through and frequently laughed out loud at either the self deceptive contortions of Lena or the revealing attitudes of her small town family members.  The recreation of small town family doin’s made for a good stop on our Road Trip through the South.

The thing that I found most distracting about Gods in Alabama (which definitely has the best opening sentence I have read in a long time–see opening of this post), was the perfection of Lena’s boyfriend, Burr.  In Lena’s family’s eyes, Burr is a lawyer (good), a Baptist (good), an American Baptist rather than a Southern Baptist (bad) and black (unforgiveable). Whether to ameliorate Lena’s family or to toe the politically correct line, author Jackson creates a man without personal flaws. (Unless, of course, you are a Southern Baptist). Setting him down next to the neurotic and seriously misbehaving Lena or her whacked out family makes it even more obvious that he is not a real person, but a foil.

But then, you shouldn’t pick too hard at a boiled-frosting-topped chocolate cake or the whole thing will collapse. Just enjoy the visit to rural Alabama, say your prayers, sip your sweet tea, and eat your cake. But this being Joshilyn Jackson, watch out for what’s hidden in the cake.

Remember to check out the Musical road trip at Music Road, where Kerry Dexter always has something interesting for our ears while we’re on the road.

Thanks for sticking around the Library while I’m on a road trip of mine own.  Since I won’t be here to keep reminding people to read A Traveler’s Library, I would consider it a real big favor, if you would please remind people for me. Just use one of those buttons below, post it on Twitter or Stumble Upon, or e-mail a few friends. Thanks!

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Calabria

Place: Calabria, Italy

Book: Old Calabria by Norman Douglas

I love to time travel with writers from the 19th or early 20th centuries and even earlier.  I enjoy seeing a place and its people brought to life in an era before antennas sprouted on top of every mud hut and CNN images reached everywhere.  What was their world view before they had automobiles to take them to the next region? What did they enjoy that might be missing in today’s zoom-zoom world?

Actually learning about the traveler can provide as much entertainment as learning about the place traveled to. What are their expectations? Through what lens do they observe?

Palgrave, an imprint of MacMillan, has a great idea. They bring back to life older travel literature in attractive trade paperback editions with lovely covers and readable type. I will be talking about several of their titles.

Norman Douglas’ Old Calabria, first published in 1915, recounts a journey around the southernmost part of Italy, then as now the least visited part of the country.Old Calabria tells us a great deal about Norman Douglas and the aristocratic tradition of European travel in late 19th and early 20th century. Unfortunately, Douglas’ book did little to persuade me to head to this remote land.

Contrary to the worshipful preface and lush back cover notes, I found the book ponderous and unlovable. After attempting to join Douglas on his trip through Calabria,Italy, I have to agree that he is erudite. Almost more an encyclopedia than a travel book, Old Calabria makes me wonder at how large the original reading audience could have been.  How many people in Europe in the early 20th century had an education that prepared them to pick up on threads of history at the mere mention of a name (without explanation)? How many could skim through the untranslated phrases in Italian, French and Latin scattered through the book?

Calabria Procession 1974

Here is a passage near the end of the book.

Calabria is not a land to traverse alone.  It is too wistful and stricken; too deficient in those externals that conduce to comfort.  Its charms do not appeal to the eye of romance, and the man who would perambulate Magna Gracecia as he does the Alps would soon regret his choice.  One needs something of that ‘human element’ which delighted the genteel photographer of Morano–comrades, in short; if only those sages, like old Nola Molisi who have fallen under the spell of its ancient glories.

When Douglas travels, he carries books. As he goes, he reads what others from Greek or Renaissance travelers wrote and he folds their versions of Calabria into his own.

At last we have discovered something that we can agree upon. Reading about the place you are visiting can enhance the journey. Travel literature is good company for travelers.Unfortunately, Douglas’ erudite spills over into the pedantic, and in my opinion loses its value for the 21st century Internetized reader traveling to Italy.

I thank Palgrave McMillan for providing me with a review copy of Old Calabria. Unfortunately I started with my least favorite of their series of reisussued travel classics–but I still believe publishing these old travel books is a great idea. If you would like to try Old Calabria, you can buy this attractive reprint from Amazon with the link above. Or you can download an e-book.

(Photos are from Flickr, with Creative Commons License. Guissepe Quattrone took the landscape and Fiore S. Barbato  the haunting black & white. As usual, I encourage you to click on the pictures to see more of their work.)

A year ago, I devoted a week to travel classics, writing about Eric Newby, Bill Bryson, V. S. Naipaul,  and Bruce Chatwin.  Have you ever delved into travel books from the past? What value do they have for you? Perhaps someone reading this post has read Norman Douglas and would like to provide a counter view to my opinion?

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