Punch your ticket and enjoy the trip with Schur in the heartfelt and funny essays collected here, which tell the story of her journeys—both literal and figurative—through adulthood and around the world in an era of historical turmoil. Covering 18 months worth of travel adventures in the early 1970s, these sharp-eyed but often poignant essays (originally appearing in newspapers, magazines, and anthologies, starting in 1990) find Maxine and her husband Stephen kicking off married life with a globe-crossing honeymoon, visiting 32 countries. They encounter all the breathtaking sights you would hope for (“I see a camel caravan and get the eerie sense that it was deliberately placed there to mark the horizon lest we forget the separateness of Heaven and Earth”) but also many amusing and sometimes frightening situations, like the “Mutiny of the Crockery” on the SS Evelyn, whose crew discovered that the captain had gambled away their pay.Throughout, Schur captures each new milieu in striking detail: the “knotty pine walls” and “emerald meadows” of the fir-wood chalet the couple acquired for $25 a week in Troistorrents, Switzerland, will warm readers, characteristic of Schur’s assured, compelling scene painting. In Schur’s telling, though, the couple’s travels are as much about the people they meet as the places they visited, brought to life here with quick, vivid portraiture. Readers will marvel at the couple’s resourcefulness—whether securing passage on a ship or recruiting new friends to construct a home in their van—and ability to connect with key figures in every region of the globe.
Among the most memorable are Serkan, in Turkey, who tells the couple over raki “The people of my country are very good” and then offers a gripping story as demonstration. The travelers, too, exhibit a welcome authenticity as they make friends (during a singalong in Antalya, Schur does a Betty Boop impression), face dangers, and continually make discoveries, with courage, luck, and an infectious zest for life.
Takeaway: Arresting memoir of a globe-crossing honeymoon in the early 1970s.
Comparable Titles:Rosita Boland’s Elsewhere, Terry Tarnoff’s The Bone Man of Benares.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
These essays are memorable in their reach. Schur's fascinating account of her young life as a trusting, traveler will make the reader long for the seemingly carefree travel of the days before 9/11/"
"The tales take on a transformative power. Maxine writes with so much humor, suspense and wisdom. This is what travel memoirs should be, and so seldom are."
