Rattvig Hotel, Northern Sweden, Summer Pole

DREAMING ABOUT SCANDINAVIA

Maybe it is because of this string of hot-hot-hot weather we’ve been having in Arizona, but I’m thinking about northern climes–Scandinavian countries come to mind. I’ve spent quality time in Sweden, and a bit of time in Finland, but still have not made my dream trip to Norway’s fjords or the charms of Denmark.

It is possible that I can win a trip at this fascinating site about Scandinavia. And maybe you can, too. To win an I-pod and other goodies, submit a travel story. To win a trip to Scandinavian on Iceland Air, just comment on one of the stories you’ll find at the site.

Deadline: JULY 13  (HURRY!)

If you need some inspiration for travel to Scandinavia, here are some past articles from A Traveler’s Library.

Finland: The Year of the Hare; A Winter Book; A Summer Book.

Helsinki Outdoor Museum

Uh-oh, nothing from Denmark. (Need recommendations, please)

FLY TO GREECE

Temple of Hephaestus in Athens

This contest somewhat misleadingly says fly to your favorite Greek island and then offers a choice of Athens, Crete or Mykonos for your five-day/four-night stay. But, hey, ANYPLACE in Greece is fine with me, even if Athens is not an island, and my favorite island of Siphnos is not a choice. Besides, the contest is sponsored by Voskos Greek yogurt–always a GOOD thing, and a food I associate strongly with Greek islands. Check out the Facebook Page of Voskos Greek Yogurt.

Deadline: July 31

ANOTHER TRIP GIVEAWAY

Door of our VRBO Paris Apartment

HomeAway is celebrating its 20th anniversary (they also own VRBO, y’know.). Go to their website to learn how to win a $5000 vacation rental and airfare for FOUR–or nineteen other nifty travel prizes–adding up to Twenty–get it?

Deadline: August 12

WANT MORE CHANCES TO WIN A TRIP?

Travel Onion, a consolidator of Travel Blogs, offers a page with travel contests. Good stuff!

Like contests? Do you enter on-line contests? Ever win a trip somewhere? Those that came with “winner must participate in a seminar on time shares” does not count.

And how about Denmark literature–suggestions??

(I received no compensation for promoting these contests, and all the photos are the property of Ken or me. If you wish to reuse a photo please ask first.)

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British cover

Destination: The Mediterranean and Middle East

Book: The Way of Herodotus: Travels with the Man Who Invented History (2008) by Justin Marozzi (Also available for Kindle) (In England the title is The Man Who Invented History: Travels with Herodotus.)

This book has become even more appropriate since the wave of unrest broke out in Arab countries. We’ll be doing a series of articles on books relating to Arab countries over the next few weeks.

Poor Herodotus has suffered the fate of so many experts who make their subject accessible to the masses. He made history so interesting that he was exiled from him home town during his lifetime. Later, Plutarch dissed him and present day “serious” historians shun the father of their own discipline as an amateur.

Justin Marozzi, in Travels With Herodotus, runs the risk of being shunned himself by his fellow historians, since he dares to combine history with a travel memoir. Not only that, but his approach manages to make history–dare I say it–popular.

Marozzi, who says that when he read history at Cambridge, (American translation: when he studied history) Herodotus was off the table. His later introduction to The Histories created a dedicated fan and he decided to pursue the same journey that Herodotus undertook.

Although Marozzi makes no attempt to slavishly follow the physical path of Herodotus‘ travels around the Mediterranean and points nearby, he closely follows in the master’s philosophical path.  Since I have never read the entire Histories, the author reminded me that Herodotus set out to learn why two countries went to war. The Histories opens:

Herodotus of Halicarnassus here displays his inquiry, so that human achievements may not become forgotten in time, and great and marvellous deeds–some displayed by Greeks, some by barbarians–may not be without their glory; and especially to show why two people fought each other.

And while history still pursues many questions of human behavior, the question of why two countries fight each other still captures our attention.

Since Marozzi himself is a historian, his following in the footsteps of Herodotus  includes going to Iraq and pondering the American involvement in the Iraqui war.  This was the only part of the book where I felt the author let down his master.  Herodotus wrote with scrupulous even handedness about the Persians and the Greeks, assuming that while each side believes they are right, there is some justification on both sides. Herodotus says:’

Everyone without exception believes his own native customs, and the religion he was brought up in, to be the best.

That is a wise observation, and keeps The Histories from being a diatribe against the Persians and an apologia for the Greeks. However, Marozzi’s strong anti-war feelings come out in his long chapter on Iraq–much longer than is justified by Herodotus’ own brief visit to Babylon.  He shows us that there are differing opinions on whether Herodotus actually took an anti-war stance himself, but Marozzi hangs his hat on perhaps the best-known quotation from the father of history: “In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war fathers bury their sons.”

Detail of Ishtar Gate, now in Berlin's Pergamon Museum

Modern scholars also disagree about the accuracy of Herodotus, and about that, Marozzi says,

My own inclination is to believe him, while retaining a gentgly raised eyebrow at some of his taller stories.  If, in his foreign reportage, we judge him as an ancient travel writer, rather than as a twenty-first century historian, then the verdict is more favourable.  We shouldn’t forget that Herodotus is the first great travel wrier as well as historian and that travel writing has a long and distinguished tradition of artifice and exaggeration.

Despite the fact that he throws a bit of mud on travel writers, this strikes me as a reasonable approach to Herodotus.

An Egyptian enthusiast for Herodotus says, “I think he’s quite wonderful, charming, he’s an absolute riot, a great storyteller, the best way to get people to read history.” Egypt was totally unknown to Herodotus’ world, and he very accurately described mummification and the size of the pyramids. (See a Herodotean quote that opens a guest post on Egypt.)

If you are fascinated by the ancient world, don’t miss the site of Musee Achemenide.  This collection of 8000 items from 15 museums around the world, traces the history of Persia. Now what would Herodotus made of that, had he been a traveler with a lap top?

I liked this book and think it is a valuable tool for travelers to  Greece, the Middle East and north Africa. I like it so much that The Way of Herodotus will not show up in my next giveaway, so you’ll have to buy your own copy for your own traveler’s library.

Disclaimer time: I bought this book myself. So there! I did, however borrow that lovely Ishtar Gate photo from Flickr and I HIGHLY recommend that you click on it to read the narrative that goes along with it. Very informative.

And if you want to read more about Herodotus:

• Freya Stark follows Herodotus up the  coast of Turkey
• Find old travel books
• And on my personal reading list, I’m adding Travels with Herodotus (Vintage International) by Ryszard Kapuscinski and the classic travel book, The Histories by Herodotus.

Have you ever let classical writers guide your way? In what countries? We traveled with Thucydides at our side in Greece.

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Kate Nelligan in the title role of 1985 movie Eleni.

Destination: Northern Greece

Book: Eleni by Nicholas Gage

A GUEST POST by Michelle Duffy

Eleni is a story of passions. The passionate love a mother has for her children; the passionate fervor of men and women who take up arms to improve their world; the small passions which we call neighborly disagreements but which, given the right circumstances, can have terrible consequences. It is a story of family and of tradition told against the backdrop of the Second World War, the Cold War and the Greek Civil War. It is a story of immigration told by someone who knows what it was like to be left behind and then later, had to learn how to become an American.

Nicholas Gage starts with the execution of his mother. He tells his own story about his emigration to America and how he felt compelled to tell his mother’s story even from a young age. We learn about his first visit to Greece in 1963 when he realized that he was now a stranger in this village where, just 14 years before, ‘every tree and rock’ had been familiar to him.

We feel the depth of his emotion as he begins to understand that he cannot write his mother’s story from memory, that to tell it well he has to take the reader to Greece to the pre-war years and describe the hardscrabble life of the people in the bare, mountainous villages in the Mourgana mountains on the Albanian border – where his mother grew up. He has to accompany the reader through the war years in that village as the factionalism between the Democratic (EDES) and Communist (ELAS) groups was building even as the country was occupied by the Nazis.

Eleni’s story sets the tempo and emotional depth of the book. Gage skillfully alternates short factual chapters framing this tragic story within the contemporary political situation in Greece and the world. His training an investigative reporter for the New York Times comes out strongly as he maintains his powerful narrative while interspersing references to the people and sources he used to develop the factual basis for the story almost imperceptibly. You will feel the hunger of the children as the deprivations of WW II lift only briefly to be replaced by the harsher and more complicated Civil War. You will cry for the village girls wrenched from their conservative homes to be trained as andartinas – guerrillas. You will ache for the hearts and arms of the mothers whose children were taken in pedomasoma.

Like the British soldiers mentioned in this story, on my first visit to Greece – in 1991 – my expectations were heavily influenced by a “romantic mist distilled from the poetry of Byron and Keats”. Rudely awakened by the hustle and bustle of modern-day Athens, I went looking to learn more about this fascinating country and a family member recommended Eleni. Reading this powerful story has helped me understand Greece at a much deeper level than as a casual tourist, in fact, you might say that it started my love affair with this enigmatic country. I’ve been back to Greece twice since that first visit  and I plan to return many more times if I can.

Michelle Duffy

Michelle blogs as WanderMom and is co-author of Wanderlust and Lipstick: Traveling with Kids. She is currently planning a 15-month round-the-world trip with her family. She is a co-founder of the travel bloggers’ fund-raiser, Passports with Purpose and of BestFamilyTravelAdvice.com.

Michelle is a busy lady, and we are fortunate to have her share one of my own favorite countries, and a book I also found inspiring.  I particularly want to put in a plug for Passports with Purpose. Please check it out. I’ll be participating. Last year we built a school in Cambodia. This year the goal is a whole village in India. Good for the founders, including Michelle!!

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It’s a meme?? As Barbara Weibel at Hole in the Donut Travels says, Remember playing tag when you were a kid? Slapping someone on the back and yelling, “Tag, you’re it!” Well, I’ve just been been ‘virtually tagged.’

My friend and fellow travel blogger, Donna Hull, My Itchy Travel Feet was ‘tagged’ to participate in the meme known as My Three Best Kept Travel Secrets, and after telling us secrets about Tucson,  she tagged me.

In Barbara’s blog she explained (a meme, which rhymes with cream, is a catchphrase or concept that spreads rapidly from person to person via the Internet). This particular one was started by Katie of Tripbase.com So here goes.

My 3 Best Kept Travel Secrets in Greece

Mani village

The Mani Peninsula. The Peloponnese Peninsula of Greece teems with variety. The ancient sites of Mycenae (where Agammemnon hung out), and Olympia (where you can run on the ancient track–but not in the ancient dress style, that being nude), beach towns, Kalamata olives, mountains and rushing streams–and the strangest bunch of domiciles I have ever seen. In the Mani, you will spot clusters of tower houses–square, one room atop another with no door on the ground level.  It looks like a medieval attempt to protect against another kingdom, but in fact it is 19th century attempts to protect against neighbors.

Keriamakos Cemetery, Athens

The Kerameikos Cemetery in Athens.  Starting in 1980, on-line friends suggested I go there, people who lived in Athens said it was one of their favorite sites, and still I hesitated. Not that I have anything against cemeteries, but there is SO MUCH to see in Athens.  Last year, on my fifth trip, I finally walked the short distance between my Syntagma area hotel, past the Monastraki metro station (you can take the metro from Syntagma to Monastraki if you’re a real wimp). Everything they said was true. For 1000 years Athenians were laid to rest here. The ancient  markers include some gorgeous carving. The small museum’s display about the mass graves during the plague brought me to tears. I could not believe my luck at being able to walk in the path of Plato. Okay, Matt Barrett--I finally went. And now I’m telling others and they are probably saying, “but there is SO MUCH to see in Athens.”

Vai Beach, Crete

Crete’s Eastern Beaches. Quiz question of the day. Where is the only place in Europe you will find palm trees? Oh, yeah, you probably read the heading, didn’t you?  Well, it is true.  A beautiful  beach on the east coast of Crete makes like Miami with palm trees and soft sand.  Now you know I love Greece, but, folks, when you go to the islands for the beaches, you are barking up the wrong country–those beaches are mostly rocks and pebbles. Not at Vai. And when you think about it, the next stop south is Africa–across the Libyan Sea, so of course there are warm waters and palm trees.

So time for me to tag someone:

• Jessie Voigts of Wandering Educators
• Craig Martin of Indie Travel PodCast
• Alexandra Grabbe of ChezSven

YOU’RE IT!

Photo of Mani from a web site that identifies it as taken by cantaloupe99 at Flickr. The photo is no longer in that collection. But click on the photo to see a quote from fav author Leigh Fermor from his book on the Mani. Photo of Athens Cemetery by Vera Marie Badertscher, all rights reserved. Photo of Vai beach from tournet.gr–click on image to see more pictures and get more information on eastern Crete.

And what are the secret travel spots that you have not told us about? Time to come clean.

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Zorba dancing

Place: Crete, Greece

Book: Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis (1946)

Movie: Zorba the Greek with Alan Bates and Anthony Quinn(1964) and subsequent musical, Zorba

Several years ago, during our travels in Greece, Ken and I had a marvelous 10 days of driving back and forth across the mountains of Crete and exploring its rough-edged beauty. I was particularly happy to learn that we could stroll on the very beach that Anthony Quinn and Alan Bates danced across to the unforgettable (and in Greece, at least, inescapable) theme song of the move, Zorba The Greek.

The Greek director, Michael Cacoyannis, shot the film on Akrotiri peninsula of northern Crete in Chania . The famous Zorba dance (click for you tube clip) took place on the beach of the small town of Stavros, and these many years later, the town’s tavernas still make a buck off of the honor.

Zorba continued to haunt our travels in Crete, not just because you cannot get through an evening without hearing the song and watching somebody try to do his best Zorba imitation on the dance floor. But also because his spirit so reflects Greece. And why not, Kazanzatkis, the creator of Zorba in the novel also named [amazonify]0684825546::text:::: Zorba the Greek[/amazonify] , himself born in Crete, still ranks as one of the most evocative writers about Greece, its religion and thought.

During our journey, we stopped at a small mountainside village hoping for a cup of tea, but the makeshift cafe on the front porch of an old couple had only cafes (The powdered Nescafe foisted off as coffee on Americans.) When she saw I was disappointed, the woman came out with a big bag of gray-ish dried weeds.  By gestures, she told me that she had collected them herself in the mountains above her house, they grew only in Crete, and they cured many things, particularly women’s complaints and colds. (I am always amazed by the depth of conversations carried out with complete lack of the other person’s language.) I recognized it as a sage plant, perhaps a variety that grows only there. Someone told me it was probably dittany, but she used the leaves, not the blossoms, so I still think it was sage. Years later when I opened my paperback version of Zorba the Greek, I was amazed to see it opens with Zorba having a cup of sage tea.

When we sat on the old couples’ porch, we could see the characters in Kazantzakis’ novel and the movie passing by on the street, or peering suspiciously at us from the more populated cafe across the street. The exuberance and love of life of Zorba were all around us.

I remember many images from the movie, but the strongest, most disturbing scene convinced the young scholar (Alan Bates) to leave the hedonistic life of Zorba and return to his studies.The villagers gather at the home of a dying woman like so many vultures, and the moment she is pronounced dead they swoop in and strip her house. The scene disturbs and opens the traveler’s eyes to a darker  side of the carefree-seeming image created by Zorba with his ready smile and willingness to ignore convention.

I truly believe that Zorba and his creator Kazantzakis provide the best guide to the Greek traveler. Despite all his novels about Greek Orthodox religion, Kazantzakis turned to Buddhism, and I have a t-shirt with a quote from him, in Greek: “I hope for nothing, I fear no one, I am free.” Perhaps that is the secret to the exuberant love of life experienced in Greece. If you hope for nothing, you are free of yearning.

The author also said: “Every perfect traveler always creates the country where he travels.”  Let’s hear your reaction to Kazantzakis’ quotes. Please join the discussion.

For other posts about Greece and Crete, see the By Country page.

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Greek Fishing Boat

Destination: An Anonymous Greek Island

Book: Pascali’s Island by Barry Unsworth

From yesterday’s book of treachery and deceit in the pre-Iraq we move today to an earlier book by Barry Unsworth about treachery and deceit in pre-modern Greece.

[amazonify]0393317218::text::::Pacscali’s Island[/amazonify] deals with many of the same themes as Land of Marvels, but in this literary novel, everything works. The author focuses once again on the dying  Ottoman empire and the struggle of the Americans, British and Germans to pick up the spoils. But here the story spotlights the rot and corruption of the weakening government instead of the imperialistic aims of the stronger nations.

Another similarity to Land of Marvels comes with the ever shifting line between truth and self-serving lies, and the exploration of the act of story telling.  The main character, an informer to the Ottoman ruler can be defined by a circular equation: writer = informant =spy = writer. Writers/spies tell tales that  recreate people, action and scenes so that someone else can draw meaning from the words.

Pascali tells us plainly that he is an undependable narrator. Not only does he state, through his reports to the Sultan that he  sometimes invents people and events, but he also wanders far away from the task and embellishes with so many details that the reader wants to scream, “Get to the point!” However, gradually, one realizes that the wandering IS the point.

Greek Island

Because of Pascali’s charming diversions into scene setting, Pascali’s Island becomes an appealing book for travelers.  Not only does it lend some insight into a formative point of Greek history, but it also paints a picture of a Greek island that rings very true.  Oddly, even though the island is never named–we know only it is in the Eastern Aegean, near Turkey–the descriptions seem to be so precise that you could paint it.

“Below me I can follow the sweep of the bay as far as the headland, and see beyond to the pale heights of the mainland, across the straits.  In this thickening of atmosphere, the sand and stones of the shore appear slightly smoky, as if enveloped thinly in their own breath.  Beyond this the sea is opaline, gashed near the horizon by a long, gleaming line of light. The light fumes upward into the sky.”

Reading a passage like that, I found myself thinking, yes, it is exactly like that, and then snapping back to realize that he was not describing a real place, but rather an amalgam of Aegean islands–perhaps the Platonic ideal of Aegean Island. Unsworth/Pascali speaks frequently of the quality of the light, which always impresses visitors to Greece. But also refers to truth as light when he says that “humans could not live long in the light, it would shrivel them up.”

Finally, I cannot resist quoting his comment on writing. Pascali says parenthetically in a report, that he has recently discovered he has a wish to suffer and gives examples. “That is why I became a writer of reports, Excellency.  Otherwise why would I wrestle with words, go on wrestling, when every bout ends with me thudding to the canvas.”

I would say that in Pascali’s Island, the decision goes to Unsworth.

Photograph by VMB. All rights reserved.

Thanks to the friend who suggested I read this one. A reader sent me a note on Facebook saying that she hoped the next book by Unsworth that I discussed would be Sacred Hunger. Do you have a favorite Unsworth book? Or have you seen the movie starring Ben Kingsley–filmed in Rhodes, by the way.  It’s in my Netflix queue.

For more books on Greece, go to Articles by Country

See Independent and Foreign Films on DVD at Amazon.

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Greek Bell Ringer on Siphnos, Greece

Destination: Greece

A Crowded Heart by Nicholas Papandreou

This is a new soft-cover book, only read by me, no marks. A novel that might well be a memoir of the childhood of the son of a very important political family in Greece and how the ups and downs of politics affects the family’s everyday life.  Good details of Greek culture in this poetically written book.  Discussed here very recently– on July 29.

Photography by VMB. All rights reserved.

It is not too late to enter! Following the rules that you will findwhen you click here, make a comment on any post or tweet me a reply message @pen4hire. Be sure to follow the rules.

And don’t miss announcements of prizes and winners. Subscribe by RSS feed (click that big obnoxious orange button above) or if you want me to send you each post to your inbox, click here to Subscribe to A Travelers’ Library by Email.

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Book: A Crowded Heart by Nicholas Papandreou

Temple of Hephaestus, Athens

Anyone who is tuned in to Greek politics in the past fifty years, has heard the name Papandreou.  Son Nicholas, who started as an economist, left the “family business” to become a writer and share his short stories and poetry with the world.  His novel, [amazonify]0312186851::text::::A Crowded Heart[/amazonify] (1996) tells the story of a family dominant in Greek politics, but it is, the book title assures us, A Novel.

Papandreou’s love for Greece and his mixed feelings about the family dynasty as portrayed here certainly make for “a crowded heart.” A small boy sees and observes much in the small details of life.

When he was only eight years old, he was assigned to go to a small village and become the godfather at a baptism, because hundreds of requests flew in Make a comment or from political supporters and his father could not fill all the requests himself. When the boy is expected to make a speech he recalls his beloved grandmother telling him a story about his grandfather.

“I’m jealous of you politicians,” a poet once told my grandfather, “because you meet so many people.”

“I’m jealous of you poets,” my grandfather replied, “because you meet so many uncontrollable passions.”

The writer in the Papandreou family, Nicholas, in his novel’s opening lines show the poetic touch that makes you want to travel to Greece.

“To describe Greece I would share with you a tomato on the sandy beaches of Skopellos, open a sea urchin with my penknife and serve you the scarlet eggs inside while the salt stetches the skin on our backs…I would dry you a starfish and hang it on your wall so you could smell the salty Aegean in your room, and ask you to breathe in the aroma of osier, broom and ginger root.”

Reading that makes images of Greece flood into my mind from my five visits there and roused the yearning I always have to go back again.

His depiction of the devotion of the Greek people to their socialist heroes  in A Crowded Heart, and the loving relationship he has with his grandparents and sister make it very hard to believe this is a novel rather than a memoir. At any rate, this book, even if it is not strictly memoir, or strictly travel literature, paints a detailed, beautiful, and culturally educational portrait of modern Greece.

Does a novelist ever escape from being a memoirist on some level?

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Wintry Icicles. Photo courtesy of A House Called Nut

Destination: Finland

Book: A Winter Book by Tove Jansson

Finnish Winter Retreat

Guest Author Michele Simeone

If you’re tired of hearing about summer, how does a good dose of Finnish winter sound?

It was during my second year in Finland that my friend surprised me with a copy of [amazonify]0954899520::text:::: A Winter Book [/amazonify]. With one bitterly cold winter under my belt, I was now less worried about basic survival and more concerned with keeping cabin fever at bay during the long, dark months ahead. No matter how many winter sports a person picks up, I’d discovered, the extremity of the Finnish winter means spending a lot of time indoors. Thank goodness for books, piles and piles of books.

Finland. Ice in Winter. Photograph courtesy of A House Called Nut

A Winter Book (2006) is the first collection of Tove Jansson’s short fiction for adults to appear in English translation in almost forty years. Jansson, probably Finland’s best-known queer figure, is so overwhelmingly famous for authoring the Moomintroll series, that her contributions as a visual artist and writer of adult fiction have frequently gone unmentioned. But the popular reception of her novel The Summer Book (originally published in 1972 and reprinted in English in 2003) sparked a renewed interest in Jansson’s adult prose.

In addition to previously published stories and a selection of black and white photography, this latest compilation includes the piece “Correspondence,” appearing for the first time in English translation. This spare, poignant story is based on the actual letters exchanged by an elderly Jansson and a young Japanese fan. Tokyo resident Tamiko first writes to Jansson hoping to learn how to write stories, and a friendship soon buds. Tamiko’s letters reveal—we are not privy to Jansson’s side of the exchange—a great intimacy and understanding that defies cultural difference, age, and a vast geographic divide. In one letter, Tamiko writes:

How many lonely islands are there in Finland?

Can anyone live there who wants to?

I want to live on an island.

I love lonely islands and I love flowers and snow.

But I can’t write how they are.

Together, the stories collected in A Winter Book form a moving, but wholly unsentimental meditation on aging and youth. Unlike The Summer Book, not all the stories are confined to one season; here, winter takes on the more symbolic meaning of age. The first two parts of the collection are made up of stories told from the perspective of a child, while the third part takes an enormous leap into old age. Most of the pieces are semi-autobiographical and portray real people and events from Jansson’s life.

Tove Jansson’s success in making a family of plump, white trolls the symbol of a nation must be proof of her great mastery as a storyteller. Her adult fiction, though less known, is no exception. Whether you’re lying on the beach, or escaping the cold like I was, A Winter Book will transport you to Jansson’s universe—funny, sad, and always wise.

Michele says: I’m a freelance writer and award-winning literary translator. Since moving with my husband to our friend’s lakeside eco-cottage, I’ve written A House Called Nut about our pursuit of a simpler, greener life in the Finnish countryside.

Michele, thanks once again for sharing a look at Finland with A Traveler’s Library. Your blog, A House Called Nut is another wonderful virtual trip to Finland. What an interesting life you lead.

I am curious to know if anybody here has read those Moomin books? I read that they are the best selling book in America by a Finnish author, but I had never heard of them. Multi-talented author, huh? And in case you missed it, Michele discussed Tove’s Summer Book here earlier.

More reading on Scandinavia: Books, Movies and Plays about Sweden, A PBS Movie set in Sweden

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Paris Carousel, photograph by Shawn Duffy

Destination: France

Book: Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik

I seem to be reading backward in time through my pile of French books. First I read A Sweet Life in Paris, released just this year and about an American in Paris in the present. I have just finished Paris to the Moon, published in 1999 about..well read on.

Soon I will be reading the expanded version of Hemingway’s Moveable Feast, about life in Paris in the twenties. Although I read the original years ago, I did not think about getting a copy of the expanded version in time for the publication today, unfortunately. My recollection is that the book is more about Hemingway and the Americans who hung out with him than it is about Paris, but from what I read in Christopher Hitchen’s review in the Atlantic, the new sections may relate more strongly to the other two books.

I found it very interesting to read two such different books about Paris and come away with the same general definition of what it is to be French.  David Lebovitz simply shows us the culture through his experiences with minimum comment, whereas Adam Gopnik philosophizes at length on the exact same observations.

• Parisians worship bureaucracy and filling out the correct form, the way we worship the rule of law and hiring lawyers.
• Parisians don’t like to stand in line.
• Parisians sound rude to Americans because Americans say things that sound rude to them.
• Paris does not represent the whole of France, instead it is even more insular than Washington D.C.
• Everyone dresses well, even the garbage collection men, and particularly the apartment owner carrying the garbage out to the curb. In short, appearance counts.
• Eating is an appreciation of food in the way that museum attendance is an appreciation of art.
• They are inclined to sympathize with a strike by workers or students or anyone.

Lebovitz takes food as his theme, naturally, since he is a chef.  Gopnik’s book revolves around the raising of his child. He and his wife moved to Paris when the child was born to keep him away from American TV and Barney in particular. (Of course that did not work.)  They stayed five years and when they had a second child, a girl, they said  a sad goodbye to Paris in order to enroll their boy in an American school. (The pieces were written for the New Yorker originally, and the direct appeal to the narrow, upper middle class liberal private-school obsessed Manhattanties means there are frequent references that go right over my head.)

We all hang on every amazing development of our first child. For Gopnik, his first child is a foreign culture within a foreign culture, and he observes and analyzes both with intellectual acuity worthy of the French intellectuals and journalists he pals around with. He also uses the ever-so-clever statements of a three-year-old to illustrate his truths, in the way, according to Hitchens, Hemingway uses his son in one of the restored sections to Moveable Feast.

Gopnik, with some very fine, evocative writing goes deep into the history and traditions that shaped today’s Paris, and tries to puzzle out the answers to “Why are they the way they are?” I like his eventual conclusion that instead of comparing them to us, we need to just say, “this is what they are.” Perhaps a good guideline for dealing with all of our culture shocks.

Do you agree with Gopnik’s conclusion that we should just say “this is what they are?”  I am also interested in people’s reactions to the Carousel Photograph. Gopnik’s book ends with a carousel moment, introduced early in the book as a metaphor for his child’s development. But to me this photo had more to say than just a direct reference to his choice.

Photo obtained by Creative Commons license through Flickr by photographer Shawn Duffy.

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