When we think of travel books we often think of the guidebooks that help us plan our next trip or of works of fiction that may take us to another time or place, but sometimes we forget about travelogues. What makes them unique is that they may read like fiction, but are in fact someone else’s experience of that place. In planning this column I thought it might be fun to pair travelogues with fiction by authors from the same region.
The first book to catch my eye was Robber of Memories: a River Journey through Colombia by Michael
Jacobs. The dual narrative of Jacobs’
Magdalena River journey and his parents’ decline into dementia and Alzheimer’s
respectively makes for a riveting tale.
If the interwoven stories of Colombia and London weren’t enough we also
join Jacobs in meeting Gabriel García Márquez in the prologue.
Now you might presume
that I would pair this book with 100Years of Solitude by García Márquez, but I did not give in to that
temptation. Instead I have selected The Sound of Things Falling by Juan
Gabriel Vásquez. Why this choice? Well it doesn’t hurt that in the very first
paragraph the Magdalena Valley is mentioned and both books deal with the very
serious challenges faced in Colombia. These
two books offer a fascinating view into a country which is so much more than
the headlines about Farc rebels and the drug trade.
After our time in Colombia let’s
travel east to the Himalayas. For our
non-fiction counterpart I selected Walkingthe Earth’s Spine: A 2,700 kilometresolo hike through the Himalayas by Jono Lineen. I resisted the urge to find two books on
Everest as I feel most of us have at least a passing familiarity with that
mountain. Lineen spends four months
hiking from Pakistan to Nepal through the mountains and shares his experiences
with us in this book. Walking the Earth’s Spine has a very
different format from Robber of Memories
in that it is set up as journal. For me
this is one of the great things about a travelogue, much like fiction the
structure is truly up to the individual author.
So even within this genre we have subgenres to explore. However, like Jacobs’ book Lineen also has a
very personal story to share regarding the death of his brother.
Even avoiding Everest there was a
great deal of choice for me when looking for a novel to partner with Walking the Earth’s Spine, I ended up
with The Blind Man’s Garden by Nadeem
Aslam. Initially undecided as to whether
I would start with a Pakistani or Nepalese author it seemed right to travel in
the same direction as Lineen. While
Aslam is not writing about the Himalayas here we have the story of two (foster)
brothers and the different paths they take, only to join forces sneaking into
Afghanistan. The events of this book
occur post 9/11 and are a powerful reminder that like Christianity Islam has
many faces.
I’ll leave you here with hope
that you are as eager as I am to travel to new worlds through both fiction and
travelogues. I had intended to share
several other locations and books, yet find myself running out of space. Instead then I encourage you to check out our
diverse collection and find the trip that’s right for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment