The journey down memory road is a coming-of-age excursion that takes armchair explorers on an odyssey of life, love, and loneliness.
Fate throws two people together, and tragedy compels them to stay as one even though they both know they'd be better apart. MEMORY ROAD TRIP is a diary of growth composed of brutally honest musings and retrospective tales. Alcoholism is an unspoken companion that goes along for the ride in a pre-Covid world that spans from the early '90s to the fall of the Twin Towers.
The journey down memory road is not only an adventurous journey to certain parts of the globe but also an introspective and witty journey to the mysterious self. The author's passion for nature, art, history, and architecture gush across the page, along with her contagious curiosity in life and her pragmatic acceptance of death. The writer does not shy away from her developing political and environmental musings, for traveling opens her eyes to see a fragile and connected world.
My expectation with this book was to be a series of adventures, more or less outstanding, that the author experienced in her travels. I have recently read Steinbeck's Travels with Charlie and was thinking about a parallel. Both authors start from the roughly same geographic area, and both of them use travels as an opportunity to look inside and think about things. But that is about it. Memory Road Trip is a mixture of travels and thinking that very much appealed to me. Mosly because I am a contemporary of the author and I can relate to most of her points of view. It is a sensible insight into the author's views on things that interest her most.
This is a book that makes you want to reach out to google or a map to look up images and locations, because of the author's "knack for painting pretty pictures inside people's heads". It is a book from which you can learn stuff (I admit that I am ignorant in many aspects). Or at least makes you want to find out more on certain things. I particularly liked the fact that the author admits her ignorance in some areas, and she does not flog herself for that. It is human not to know everything in this big big world. And it is good not to know everything, because that gives one the impulse to travel and learn.
The author is not trying to convince us of anything, except to love the planet we live on and to live our short lives so that we won't regret.
I'm glad that I had the chance to read this book and to start my second reading journal with it.
I love books that teach me something, and this book achieves that. I especially enjoyed the author's perspectives on the world, environment and people. She has a unique perspective on the world, and it forced me to look through a different lens several times.
Even though I haven't visited half of the places the author describes, I felt like I was hearing an interesting story from a friend over coffee.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
