Book: America’s Great Railroad Stations. (NEW Oct. 2011)Photos by Roger Straus III and text by Ed Breslin and Hugh Van Dusen.

North Bennington Vermont,(1880) Photo by Roger Straus III

Toward the end of the year, we can count on some blockbuster books emerging to tempt us as we do holiday shopping.  I already told you about one of my favorites, in the Ten Perfect Gifts for Travelers Who Read post. Here’s another one.

At first I thought that America’s Great Railroad Stations would appeal to the narrow range of railroad “nuts”–those people who gobble up everything that has to do with choo-choos.  But as I paged through the book, I realized that even though I don’t count myself as one of that crew, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip across America.  My interest lies in the amazing story the railroad architecture tells us about the power of the railroads in the 19th and early 20th century, about the way that the country’s economy and general sense of well-being affected architectural creations, and how these stations tell more about our country’s history–a subject I’m always interested in.

My interest in railroad history was piqued when I read and reviewed Appetite for America, the biography of Fred Harvey who worked with the railroads to “civilize the west”. There I learned the meaning of “union” station. In the early days of railroading, each railroad had its own terminal, so you’d be faced with several in one city. It was more practical for the railroad companies to pool their resources and operate out of a “union” station.

San Antonio Sunset Station (1902) Photo by Roger Straus III, now home of Sunset Station Entertainment complex.

One more thing that sets the wheels of my brain turning in Great Railroad Stations is the story of preservation. In these pages you will see plenty of examples of where it has been done well (D.C. ‘s Union Station) and some very sad examples (New York’s Penn Station) when it failed. I also like the stories of creative measures taken by communities to save their stations.

The writers, however, apply a rather heavy hand in their appeal for preservation. While the photography is magnificent (and tempts me to look up at least one other travel-inspiring book by the photographer, Roger Straus ,

 Houses of the Founding Fathers) I found the writing awkward and over done. The photographs and their captions say nearly everything you need to know.

Garrison Station, New York (1900). Photo by Roger Straus III. Across the river from West Point, now houses a theater.

Although this book necessarily is limited to some of the grander examples of stations, with a few smaller ones of particular interest included (like Garrison Station- above), it made me think of all those small towns across the country that have rescued their stations to turn them into a tourism center or store. But others  (not all in the book) have become art colleges, sprawling restaurants (San Antonio Sunset Station–above), hotels (Nashville Tennessee houses a Wyndham),  or the home of excursion trains. Don’t you love the creativity that emerges when communities pull together? And how many times have the railroad stations served as that magnet that pulled the community together?

NYC Grand Central Terminal (1913) , Photo by Roger Straus III

My earliest imaginary travels included listening to the radio show, Grand Central Station. Part of the fascination of railroad stations are the stories they hint at. Think of all the literary uses of railroad stations– those movies where the chugging of wheels denotes the passage of time and movement through space. OR all the tearful farewells, with one person on the train and the other following them down the walkway getting one last glimpse. Makes me teary just to think of it.

I should mention that my hometown station, the Tucson Southern Pacific is one of the choices in the book. It is still used as an Amtrak station, but has more business as a trendy restaurant, Maynard’s  and a small railroad museum. My personal favorite railroad stations for travelers, both of which are included in America’s Great Railroad Stations, are Union Station in Washington, D.C., where you can still take trains, but also shop and dine; and Cincinnati Union Terminal, now a museum center, which was one of my absolute favorite visits in Cincinnati. The building is sleek Art Deco, the murals inside show midwestern history, and every inch of the vast space is crammed with delights.

Although I avoid traveling by Amtrak in most parts of the country, I was rather surprised when I stated recalling how many railroad stations (or former stations) I had visited in my travels. Of the ones in the book, I’ve visited Grand Central, Washington Union, Tucson, Santa Fe Sunset, Cincinnati, Sacramento, and Chicago Union, plus many others which did not make the book. Which, I guess, makes rail travel still an important part of the American travel experience, even if you’re not on the choo-choo itself.

Have you visited railroad stations in your travels–or former railroad stations? Tell us about your favorite.

Disclaimers: Amazon links included here are for your convenience. Although it costs you no more to use them to get to Amazon, each purchase provides a few cents to help A Traveler’s Library operate.  All photos are supplied by the publisher, who also supplied a review copy of the book. 

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Boggy field, Culloden, Scotland

Destination: Scotland

Inspiration: Museum at Culloden Visitor’s Center

By Dr. Jessie Voigts

Imagine the moors of the Scottish Highlands – it’s a rainy, misty day, with a bit of a chill in the air. The sunken bogs are wreathed in fog, and human noise is eerily absent – just a raven’s caw in the air. You almost feel as if you’ve stepped back in time – maybe you have?

You’re at Culloden, the site of the battle that changed the course of Scottish, British – well, truly, world history. On April 16, 1746, the Jacobite army fought the British army, to reclaim the throne of Britain for Bonnie Prince Charlie. It was an incredibly uneven battle – the Jacobites weren’t fully prepared, were starving and cold. A surprise night attack plan failed, and in the day, the exhausted Jacobite soldiers surged to their death.

Culloden tower, Scottland

As the National Trust for Scotland web site says:

Towards one o’clock, the Jacobite artillery opened fire on government soldiers. The government responded with their own cannon, and the Battle of Culloden began.

Bombarded by cannon shot and mortar bombs, the Jacobite clans held back, waiting for the order to attack. At last they moved forwards, through hail, smoke, murderous gunfire and grapeshot. Around eighty paces from their enemy they started to fire their muskets and charged. Some fought ferociously. Others never reached their goal. The government troops had finally worked out bayonet tactics to challenge the dreaded Highland charge and broadsword. The Jacobites lost momentum, wavered, then fled.

Hardly an hour had passed between the first shots and the final flight of the Prince’s army. “Although a short battle by European standards, it was an exceptionally bloody one.

Before we headed to Scotland, I taught our daughter the history of Scotland, the political and personal struggles, the way that the conquering English (and earlier, the Vikings, Romans, Dál Riatans from Ireland) changed everything. She was fascinated, and wherever we were in Scotland, she wondered what happened in history there.

One of the best places to learn about and experience Scottish History is the Culloden Visitor Centre, located just south of Inverness, Scotland.

Opened in 2007, the Culloden Visitor Centre is run by the National Trust for Scotland. It’s a low-slung building made of local stones, and doesn’t impact the landscape as much as enhance it.

Once inside the visitor centre, we learned the small details of history – the spent and flattened bullets, found on the moors decades later; clothing; maps showing troop movements; weapons; an interactive battlefield map; costumed troops wandering the halls; voices and videos.

Leanach Cottage Scotland

And then…we went outside. We took along the personal audios available from the desk at the door. We walked into the misty rain, along clear paths through the battlefield. We saw Leanach Cottage – an original cottage, still on the battlefield hundreds of years later. I was surprised by the closeness of the sheep, grazing in the farmland nearby.

We wandered the paths, avoided slugs stretched out, listened to history, and FELT the spirit of Culloden, surrounding us. I teared up at the Clan grave markers, gazed at the wet marsh off the path (wondering HOW those soldiers were able to fight there), and honored those that had fought so hard for their country and beliefs. Our daughter stretched her time out, going back to certain parts of the long battlefield, looking off into the hills while listening hard. She did NOT want to leave. We closed the place down, the very last ones to leave – and we had a difficult time exiting. Culloden had a firm hold on our souls.

Clan Fraser Marker, Culloden Scotland

Jessie Voigts, of Wandering Educators, is a regular Contributor to A Traveler’s Library, bringing us cultural inspirations for travel.

All of the photos in this post are the property of Jessie Voigts. Please do not use without permission.

Note from Vera Marie: I have frequently been inspired by a museum to look more deeply into a place. For instance, when I went to Ireland, I was inspired by the  Blascaod Centre in Dún Chaoin (Dunquin) on the Dingle Peninsula and learned about the people of the Blasket Islands.  Have you visited a museum that enriched your travel? Please share, so we can visit, too.

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Book: The Portuguese: A Modern History by Barry Hatton (NEW 2011)

Planning a trip to Portugal? Or wondering why you should go to Portugal? If you want to read a book that will enhance the trip you are planning, you could read a historical mystery novel (review to come) or you could read The Portuguese, which is a novelistic history.

If you think that history books are too dry and boring to hold your interest, you have not read Barry Hatton’s The Portuguese: A Modern History.  While he does go back as far as the Age of Discovery, the bygone age when Portugal spread its empire around the globe, most of the book focuses on history closer to our own time–and indeed Portugal–a shrunken Portugal– today.

Throughout the book, Hatton is most interested in exploring what makes the Portuguese the way they are. How did a world power sink from view on the world stage? Why do they currently occupy a very low rung on the Eruopean economic ladder?

And when is the last time you read a history book that provides a travel guide for high points to visit?  About the size of the state of Indiana, (350 miles by 130 miles–561 by 218 kilometers) it contains enough charming landscape to keep tourists busy for weeks. Even those tourists who think they are visiting just another province of Spain–since many foreigners’ get confused about where and what it is. Hatton’s descriptions made me scribble a list–

Portugal, the Algarve

• The Algarve, known for upscale resorts.
• Lisbon, “There is little sense of a rat race going on.  It feels–and this is intended as a compliment–more like a gentle canter towards lunch.”
• Belém, the suburb of Lisbon where the Monument to Discovery celebrates those little wooden ships that ventured out in the 16th century to change the map of the world. Vasca de Gama, and Ferdinand Magellan and a dozen other intrepid explorers and traders sailed out of this port. (The cover of the book shows a detail of the Monument).

Alantejo Cork Oak Tree

• Alentejo, unspoiled coasts (go quickly, they’re being developed) and forests of cork trees. “Alentejo’s low, whitewashed farmhouses with thick walls and small windows against the heat stand in solitude….In spring these silent plains are thick with the fragrance of wild herbs and colored with vast patches of purple, yellow, and red flowers around the cork trees.”

Sintra, Portugal

• Sintra, “It is the perfect cliché of rural beauty.”  Lord Byron called it a “glorious Eden. “Northern provinces of Minho and Gerés, “the land that time forgot”, and the home of festas in August which are giant family reunions for those who moved to other countries to make a living.

Hatton, who has lived in Portugal as a correspondent for more than twenty-five years, is married to a Portuguese woman.  He talks about food and music because he believes they are a key to understanding the Portuguese psyche.

They have a collective angst, which is expressed in the sad fado (pronounced fardo) music of their country. Portugal is summed up by the nearly untranslatable word “saudide” which kind of means a sweet sadness–a desire for something unattainable, but hoped for nonetheless.  The people accept their fate, Hatton says, with a peaceful shrug and a sardonic comment rather than taking to the streets and demanding change like Greece, which in many ways is similar to Portugal.

“The Portuguese feel that destiny has dealt them a poor hand and they shake their fist at their lot in life, but they do not as a rule express this indignation in a constructive way. ” Instead, Hatton says, “sidestepping the law offers the thrill of successful transgression.” He calls it “a tame insurrection.”

Even in the revolution that overthrew the 30-year dictatorship of Antonio Salazar, the soldiers sported carnations in their guns, demonstrating their unwillingness to fire on anyone. But the 1974 coup was quick and complete, and the growing pains of democracy followed, until they joined the European Union in 1986 and went on a growth and spending spree, largely at the cost to other countries in the EU. This tendency, and the cheerfulness of the people (despite that saudide), the focus on family and church before country, the clinging an ancient and glorious past, all reminded me of Greece.  In many ways Portugal seems to have a Mediterranean nature, even though it is actually an Atlantic Ocean country.

I first dipped into this book to see what light it would shed on A Small Death in Lisbon, the mystery novel I mentioned in the first paragraph. This history was very helpful in orienting me as to the 1940′s-90′s , but it also seduced me with its descriptions of a beautiful and historic country that would be well worth visiting in the 21st century.Unfortunately, the index is skimpy and makes going back to look up a bit of information very difficult, but that is a small complaint in this light-hearted, entertaining history of Portugal.

Thanks to Interlink Books who provided a review copy of the book. You can order directly from Interlink by clicking on the book cover. Or, you can order from Amazon if you are going there from  the link to A Small Death in Lisbon. I earn a few cents from any purchases made at Amazon when you use my links. Pictures are from Flickr with Creative Commons license. I encourage you to click on the picture and learn more about each photographer.

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Richard Couer d'Lion

Destination: Europe and the Holy Land

Book: The Lute Player: A Novel of Richard the Lionhearted by Norah Lofts. (Original 1951, Reprint 2009)

Norah Lofts said that when she told people the subject of her new book,  The Lute Player, they responded, “Oh, Richard I.  He was one of my heroes!”

By contrast, the newly released reprint that I read, a book club edition, in its questions for discussion asks, “What knowledge, if any, did you have of King Richard prior to reading The Lute Player?”  I imagine that in America at least, people’s knowledge would be very fuzzy. Few would know Richard I or Richard the Lionhearted and fewer still could distinguish between 1st, 2nd and 3rd Crusades.  (Let alone select Richard I as “one of my heroes.”)

To the author’s credit, one need not be a history whiz to understand the book.  She tells a very human story, focused on four main characters. The beautiful Berengaria loves Richard, the handsome young King; her half-sister, the mal-formed but intelligent and witty Apieta,  loves the lute player, Blondel. Blondel pines for Berengaria.  And whom does Richard love? You will have to read the book.

Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard’s mother, narrates one section of the book, but nearly fades from sight after that. I found myself wanting to follow her story, which I knew from the movie Lion in Winter. (I will forever picture Eleanor as Katherine Hepburn.)

I did think it was deceptive marketing to subtitle the book A novel of Richard the Lionhearted.  Of the four main characters, his role is the smallest–but he is the fulcrum that holds them together.  Although mentioned earlier, he does not set foot on the stage until page 148, in the 2nd section–the one narrated by his mother. She might be speaking for the reader when she says “I hungered for the sight of Richard.”

The story of the Third Crusade starts a hundred pages later–in the section narrated by the lute player.  In the foreword Lofts tells us that although the other characters are real people, Apieta is entirely imagined, and Blondel was perhaps not a real person.

So does The Lute Player belong in the Traveler’s Library? If you have the patience to read a slow-paced plot because you like well-formed characters and lively dialogue, yes.  If you are curious about the history of England in the 1100′s, and any historian would tell you that the facts are scanty, an imaginative retelling based on good research is as true as a history book. If current events suggest that you might profit from learning about the Crusades, which lie at the root or at least illuminate some of the current Arab-Euro-American strife, yes, read the Lute Player.

If you want a more straight-forward account of the Third Crusade or Richard I, you may want to go elsewhere. The links here lead to university lists of books.

But whether you want the romantic or the slightly more factual accounts–think a moment about his travels–from Normandy through Italy and Sicily to Cyprus to Turkey to the Holy Lands and back through Austria (well you can skip the being imprisoned part) and then to Normandy again. You might want to hop over to England, but he was rarely there. His Lion-Heart is in the cathedral at Rouen. You can visit the ruins of the  Kuenringer castle in Durenstein where he was imprisoned in Austria.

Okay, fess up, how much do YOU know about King Richard I?

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Calcata, Italy, picture by David Farley

Destination: Italy

Book: An Irreverent Curiosity by David Farley

I love launch days for new books. Particularly when they are written by friends. An Irreverent Curiosity by David Farley, launches officially tomorrow, July 9. I’ve known David as an on-line friend for some time through the Travel Writer’s hangout known as travelwriters.com, so I was very happy to have the opportunity to read a review copy of his new book.

You could not ask for a more evocative description of Italian small-town life than this book. Yes, An Irreverent Curiosity is about Farley’s quest for an alternate Holy Grail, but it is really more about an American learning how to navigate communications in Italy.

David Farley impressed me with his methodical quest to find one of the more bizarre relics of Christendom–the foreskin of the baby Jesus.  He uncovers a wagon load of legends, rumors, and gossip while he reads serious history everywhere he can find it, including the Vatican library.

I was intrigued with the organization of An Irreverent Curiosity.  Here’s what David said:

“It took a lot of planning. I had to juggle 3 different story lines—present times, living in Calcata searching for the relic and writing about the village itself; the history of the village; the history of the relic, which I tried to sprinkle throughout the book in a chronological way and balance that with the present in a way that made sense all together.” He adds, “Actually I was surprised at how well it worked out.”

The title refers not to an object that is a curiosity, but the feeling of curiosity that a person experiences when exposed to something different.  David’s curiosity about the physical object and its whereabouts is the very thing that sets the Papal teeth on edge. These relics are meant to stimulate reverence, not curiosity–idle or otherwise.

If this book were only about one of the thousands of bits and pieces of holy personages that populate Catholic churches (bones, skin, organs), particularly in Italy, I would lose interest fast.  But cleverly, Farley mixes religious history with present day culture, and even the clash of various national cultures together with a crystal clear picture of an idyllic medieval village in Italy.

Even though Calcata, the town he and his wife live in, is more international hippy-hangout than typical small-town Italian, he gets plenty of exposure to new cultures–including the culture of the Vatican and Catholic priests. This means An Irreverent Curiosity is definitely a book for travelers–whether they are looking for history, religious enlightenment, or mysterious energy from rocks.

Anybody out there been to Calcata?

For other posts about Italy, see the “By Country” page.

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Book: 1776 by David McCullough

On the Fourth of July, we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  But this book focuses on the war that preceded the Continental Congress and continued after the important paper was signed;the war that gave the document meaning.

George Washington

In 1776, David McCullough transports us to October 1775 through the end of the war. We are with the troops day by day, hour by hour.  We also read what the British were doing and saying.  The British soldiers were far from home and not overly enthusiastic. While the rag tag American troops–the home team–were cheered and urged on by villagers and farmers along the way.

In the background, the politicians met in Philadelphia and carried on their (to British eyes) treasonous business.

“We are in the midst of a revolution,” wrote John Adams, “the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations.”

And as the delegates to the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence, McCullough writes:

“..the citizen-soldiers of Washington’s army were no longer to be fighting only for the defense of their country, or for their rightful liberties as freeborn Englishmen...It was now a proudly proclaimed, all-out war for an independent America, a new America, and thus a new day of freedom and equality.”

The war dragged on but the book ends with New Year’s Day 1777. It ends with just a mention of the surrender at Yorktown and the final treaty that was not signed until 1783.

What better way to celebrate July 4th than to visit some of the less-frequented sites related to the Revolutionary War.

In New York City, you can travel to the very southern tip of Manhattan and be amazed at the cobble-stone streets and 18th century buildings that remain. This was pretty much all there was of New York when the war began. It is easy to miss the small Fraunces tavern where Washington said goodbye to his troops.  A restaurant serves patrons on the ground floor, and when I was there, I had to ask a waiter to allow me up the stairs to see the rooms where Washington met with his troops.

The entire National Historic Park at Valley Forge in southern Pennsylvnia is beautiful, peaceful countryside, unlike the rough conditions soldiers faced there in 1776. My favorite spot was the stone house that served as Washington’s headquarters. There you can actually walk up the wooden stairs that Washington climbed to the bedroom that served as his office.

I loved the Pennsylvania park at Washington Crossing (there is another park on the New Jersey side.)  Made famous by the exaggerated painting of Washington standing up in the boat, the park now incorporates some 18th century buildings that you can tour. Drive down the River Road where the troops walked during that bitterly-cold winter crossing that proved a brilliant move as the British were not expecting company in Trenton, New Jersey. I did not go on to the Trenton battle site monument, the spot of the decisive battle, but that is on my list for another time. Just a small crossroads at the time of the war, the city has obliterated the site of the battle, but a 150′ monument stands where the Americans had their artillery. Fittingly, George Washington stands atop the pillar, towering over the city, as he did over our history.

Finally, visit Yorktown Virginia, where the last battle took place and the British surrendered after being let down by their hired Hessian troops. Just a small crossroads at the time of the war, the city has obliterated the site of the battle, but a 150′ monument stands where the Americans had their artillery. Fittingly, George Washington stands atop the pillar, towering over the city, as he did over our history.

Note, if you’d like to read more about the book 1776, see this excellent blog post at Navy Reads blog.

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Roman Forum evening shadows

Destination: Rome

Books: The Masters of Rome Series by Collen McCullough

It seems to me that is essential to have some understanding of ancient Rome if you are going to travel to today’s Rome. All those piles of rock and bits of arches in the forum, with the magnificent hulk of the Coliseum watching over it all look a lot less confusing if you know something about the daily life of the Romans at the pinnacle of the Roman Empire.

I imagine that I see togaed figures reclining on benches in the baths, or scurrying around from shop to shop trying to strike a good bargain so they can afford all those splendid mosaics in the courtyard of the summer place down at Herculaeum.

Colleen McCullough’s book are just the time ticket you need to get a look at Roman life among the wealthy, and a few hints about the life of other people in the Roman Empire also.  Like every period of history, when I imagine myself in a far distant time, I pick a good stratum of society. Wouldn’t you love to have lived in Renaissance Italy? Well, as a noble, or at least high merchant class, not as a peasant. With my love of Greece, I daydream about living in Athens in the 5th century B.C. However, not as a slave, of course. Although some scholars claim that all women were treated pretty much as slaves, others say the mothers and managers of households were revered.  And in the Roman Empire, I am the wife of a Senator (at least–if not a Caesar.) And as in Greece, the female role of courtesan sounds pretty cushy.

Back to the point. McCullough wrote seven books based on life in Rome.  The First Man in Rome started the series, and while I enjoyed it, I found it had almost too much detail. There are Roman experts who quibble with her history, although for a novelist, she did a mighty fine pile of research, in my opinion.

So dramatic was ancient Rome that many fiction books exist based on the real history. A web page devoted to such books,  Fictional Rome, contains a page on Colleen McCullough. If you love Rome, or love ancient history, you’ll be trapped and find it difficult to emerge.  Try to get out by tomorrow when we talk about the movie Angels and Demons, which looks at ecclesiastical Rome rather than ancient Rome, but provides a heck of a travelogue along the way.

————–

Photograph by VMB, all rights reserved.

We have  spent this week  at A Traveler’s Library focused on Italy. Do you like several days of focus on one country? Or would you rather mix things up and have a different destination each day? Let me know, because I’m planning a celebration of the opening of the Greek’s New Acropolis Museum in June. One day or several?

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Naples, photographed by Ginaluca Ruggiero from Flickr

Destination: Naples, Italy

Book: Naples ’44: An Intelligence Officer in the Italian Labyrinth by Norman Lewis

Have you discovered the British travel writer Norman Lewis? Between 1938 and 2003, he published 23 travel books and 15 novels that can serve as travel books. I owe my discovery of Lewis to the manager of an inn on St. Lucia. Being British, he was quite astounded that I, a travel writer, did not know Norman Lewis’ work. He was quite right.

As a young soldier, Lewis was dispatched to (practically abandoned in) Naples after the Allies had driven out the German forces, but before the German army had left Rome.  A fact that complicated communications greatly, and gave a job to Lucky Luciano, who later became a Mafia chief in America.

The high command scarcely knew what to do with this situation.  One example of the idiocy that the occupation forces had to deal with. The people were starving. One of their mainstays before the war had been fishing.  But the army declared that no small boats could venture into the bay. So the fishermen lashed together doors to make a raft. The land was bare for several miles around the town, as the people walked out each day to harvest every blade of grass and stalk of weed to eat, sometimes having to walk ten miles for a couple of handsful. Much of the book deals with the lack of food.

Italian culture has enough inexplicable quirks on its own, as was pointed out ably in Italy Out of Hand. Pile on top of that decisions by military brass miles, if not continents away, and the friction between American and British forces and you have a situation both tragic and comic.  Sometimes I thought of Naples ’44 as the true forerunner of Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 or M.A.S.H, except that Naples ’44 is not fiction.  Lewis lived through this. The people of Naples lived through it, amazingly.

I did not visit Naples when I was in Italy, but this books makes me want to go back, wander the streets and wonder at the resiliency of people.  A reader’s comment on Amazon caught my eye.  The reader, from Naples, wrote “The way people live then and now has not changed. Minus having sex in the cemetery.”  The book, from page to page, is filled with moments that catch your attention like that second sentence.

One paragraph, particularly, made me pause and think about the aftermath of war.

Learn more about the life of Norman Lewis in the Guardian’s obituary.

Have you been to Naples? What else should we read before going to Naples? And what are the not-to-be-missed sights?

If you have not yet subscribed to read A Traveler’s Library every day, please consider the RSS subscription button, or the opportunity to subscribe by e-mail.

Photograph by Ginaluca Ruggiero, Rome. Book titles that are linked to Amazon allow you to purchase directly and benefit  A Traveler’s Library without costing you extra money. Magic!

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.