A Collection Understood: An Essay Review of The Best American Travel Writing 2009

By: Phoebe Hyde

Introduction

 The Best American Travel Writing 2009 series, edited by Simon Winchester compiles 25 pieces of the best travel writing from 2009, and includes an introduction by the editor (Simon Winchester) as well as brief synopses of each author included in this series (“Contributors’ Notes”). Winchester’s British background made him once partial towards British travel literature, but he has since been able to overcome his admitted ethnocentricity. Winchester even goes as far as to state in his introduction that “American travel writing of a certain kind is better and more stimulating than anywhere else in the world” (xxii).

My lifelong desire to travel made it difficult for me to choose just one travel writing book based on only one place. My first attempt at reading travel writing, I thought, needed to be a well-rounded and all-encompassing experience—one that introduced me to a variety of places, journeys, sights and smells. Not that I don’t yearn to learn a detailed background of each place I visit, but I was motivated to learn about a multiple places in order to discover a diverse set of future travel destinations. Thus, I quickly declared The Best American Travel Writing 2009 my best option.

 Review & Reflection

 This being my first experience at reading professional travel writing, I found myself in constant amazement at the ability that these authors have to pull the reader in and describe what their eyes have seen in such an explicit manner. As explicitly detailed as these pieces can be, however, my first two readings did not have me hooked. Andre Aciman’s “Intimacy” and Karrie Jacobs’ “Terminal Beauty”both seemed a bit bland to me. “Intimacy” detailed a man’s revisit, with his two sons and his wife, to the street he lived on as a child in Rome. He discusses his inability to overcome his ill-feelings towards his neighborhood and how “parts of us just die to the past so that returning brings nothing back” (49). To me, a story based on a “memory of hating [one’s] street” is depressing (49). I also found the writing to be a bit insensitive and could not relate to his descriptions or his words. I was not impressed by the way he talked about being ashamed of the place he lived, on Via Clelia, and the people who lived there (46). It was pessimistic writing that simply rubbed me the wrong way.

Meanwhile, “Terminal Beauty”offered a very unique and brief discussion of traveling through an airplane terminal. While many travel writing pieces discuss a certain exotic and memorable destination, Jacobs chose to write about a place where people typically, and without much reflection, pass right through on their way to a particular destination. While the discussion of an airplane terminal is uncommon, and compelling points were discussed—like how today in our fast-moving world “glamour has been replaced by efficiency”—the visual appeal of this travel piece was absent (262). When reading travel writing, I expect a plethora of description to allow for a picture to be created in my mind, which then makes it easier to follow along with the text in a way that inspires me to get to that given place. In this piece, however, envisioning the “long…hall with a sloping white corrugated-steel roof supported by metal latticework” just wasn’t enjoyable (262). It’s not pretty. Overall, the verbiage, due to the chosen topic, was just too technical for this piece to have travel writing appeal applicable to my tastes. Clearly, other people who are not as fond of color and detail as I am may have thoroughly enjoyed the distinctiveness of the topic and the author’s noteworthy interpretation of change spurred by technological advancement, making this piece suitable for the series; but it just was not for me. I found confirmation in my feelings of both of the aforementioned pieces when I was not able to find any positive reviews of either essay in my research.

I proceeded to look up reviews of this 2009 series as a whole to determine the direction I would take my next readings. I found a couple of great guiding reviews on Goodreads and LibraryThing that gave a brief synopsis of a few of the titles contained in the book. Being personally driven to water, and often referred to as a “deep water girl” by my father, the stories discussing water and the ocean drew me in, naturally. A review on Goodreads about “A Tale of Two Crossings” quoted, it is a piece “which inspires others to visit the place they’re reading about.” This being my motivation for reading travel writing (to discover future travel destinations), I quickly flipped to page 266 and started reading Mark Schatzker’s “A Tale of Two Crossings.” This piece detailed the author’s experience traveling across both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by ship and how traveling by sea is an outdated but noteworthy method of transportation. Having originally read another Goodreads review, which explained the piece as one that described “the surprising differences between cruising the Pacific and the Atlantic,” I’ll admit that I was expecting the piece to more intricately discuss the author’s interaction with the ocean. Instead, the story focused on the Schatzker’s experience inside the ship. There was a lot of time spent describing the logistics and the inside views—inclusive of the casino, pubs, restaurants and indoor pools. Being turned off for I moment, I snapped into a realization that my expectations of the story, and his expectations of his trip, were maybe the same. This became evident when he noted, “despite being on the ocean, I found myself craving it” (271). This quote shed light on Schatker’s attitude towards his experience, further detailing how although he undoubtedly valued each trip across each ocean, it had its drawbacks—that of not experiencing the roaring ocean enough for what it was, and instead having to spend a majority of the trip indoors. Both myself as a reader, and Schatzker as the explorer and author, both wanted more intimate interaction with the water. This realization made me value the piece for its honesty, on top of the plethora of included description, for it did not sugarcoat the reality just to create a better story. This quality is to be much appreciated in an author—especially one of travel writing.

I then delved into Bronwen Dickey’s “The Last Wild River”, which quickly distinguished itself as the most colorfully detailed piece I’d read yet. The topics discussed in the piece were rich, ranging from appreciating nature and local characters to the discussion of an overpowering technological and man-made world as this woman sought to mirror an experience her father had with the Chattooga river back in the day (something seemingly harder to do than she anticipated). Not that Dickey’s intention was to sell her experience, in fact, it was probably to do that opposite in order to preserve the natural state of the area in accordance with the beliefs of the local residents with whom she interacted, but this piece truly resonated with me and sold me on the value of simple living and seeking out those opportunities to interact with untouched nature. Further, although frequent references to Deliverance, a novel made into a film written by Dickey’s father, poet and novelist (James Dickey) and one I have never seen, were dispersed throughout the piece, the piece was still easy to follow and understand. Even with my absent background knowledge on this piece’s author, the author’s famous father, and the popular film, the explicit description and flow of the piece allowed the piece to stand on its own, solely based on the high value of the writing. This piece was a demonstration of Bronwen Dickey’s exceptional talent for descriptive writing, for as a reader who did not understand any of the supplemental references I was still able to fully enjoy the read without feeling hindered. This, I learned, was a concept that plays into the overall theme of the pieces included in the 2009 series.

Theme

The Best American Travel Writing 2009 series is uniquely edited for the benefit of an inexperienced audience, and I mean that in the best way possible. The target audience of this series is those people who may have not yet had the ability or desire to travel the world. It appears that Winchester chose pieces that will make sense to most people, as well as pieces that will inspire the readers to visit the place they are reading about. He spends an extended amount of time in his introduction explaining how American citizens lack a desire to travel, how a limited number of American citizens even have a passport, and how “73 percent of American children can’t find France on a map” (xxi). He explains how his motivation towards choosing such vividly descriptive pieces was so that young Americans, including his fifteen-year-old friend from New York who could not locate Israel on a map, would be encouraged and eager to travel and learn the world (xxv). While vivid descriptions link each piece in this series together, that could likely be said about most travel writing literature. These pieces are connected in yet a more distinct way.

The readability of each piece, in a way that does not require extensive background knowledge of geography or cultural history (as mentioned about Bronwen Dickey’s “The Last Wild River”), links these works together. Each piece is so colorfully descriptive and eloquently written that one can still enjoy and understand each piece despite one’s inability to relate to the work because of his/her limited background knowledge.  This is unique about the 2009 series, and is a uniting theme that connects back to Winchester’s motivation to inspire American citizens to adopt the travel bug. In order to do this, it seems it would be most effective to include pieces in the series that would resonate with as many people as possible by being easily understood; and that is exactly what Winchester did. The terminology in the pieces is simplistic, the geographical references aren’t extensive (and if they are, they are explained), and each piece provides a well-rounded collection of information to backdrop each story being told, thus allowing for minimal confusion.

Further, in the Foreword, written by series editor Jason Wilson, a quote by renowned Paul Theroux is mentioned, stating, “The misperception is that the travel book is about a country. It’s really about the person who’s traveling.” The pieces selected for this series also directly parallel this quote. Each story is an individual’s account of a memorable experience that has in some way influenced him or her. Not only is this an aspect that distinguishes travel writing from guidebooks and the like, but this is certainly an aspect that connects each of the 25 pieces included in this series together. Stories ranging from Rome to Chattanooga, Tennessee clearly contain very distinct information and descriptions; however, each author of each piece is sharing something personal with the reader. These distinct aspects about the pieces included in Winchester’s The Best American Travel Writing 2009, truly help to distinguish this series as a notable and worthwhile piece of literature.

I have to admit I am thrilled with my choice of literature for my first effort at reading travel writing. I didn’t just get what I was hoping for out of reading this series; I got a little something extra as well. Yes, I discovered a variety of places that I, given the opportunity, would take a trip to without hesitation (like Cuba for example). Reading this series, however, also re-inspired me to maintain a journal and to write more consistently. I was once an avid journal writer—one who jots down loose thoughts and reflections on the events of the day, and who always recorded her stories throughout abroad travel—but that has become an old habit. I have always enjoyed writing, which undoubtedly contributed to my decision to declare a minor in Professional Writing, but I too often let other things dominate the way I spend my time. After reading this collection of travel writing pieces, however, I became inspired to write more frequently and more vividly. To write even when I think it may not have significance, and to write down my reflections on simple experiences. Some of the pieces in this series seem to have been derived by such a simple thought or impression, making me realize that any personal connection with an experience has the potential to make for a good story. This motivated me to ensure that I keep writing things down, because you never know what those once simple thoughts could turn into. I do feel as though I have the potential to write creatively like these writers do, and reading this piece of literature truly resonated with me and reminded me to stick with my inherent passions—namely, writing.

 

References