I loved this book. It is honest and heart felt. It tells her story, her view with out worrying about giving a complete guide to the areas she travels. It is full of the brief evocative moments that make your travels memorable. The conversations, the miscommunication, the friendships made while being in a foreign place. Any traveler knows it is those moments that stay with you. The conversation in the market where you honestly connect to a women so different from you- the time you follow the advice of a fellow traveler and wander someplace untraveled and have a transcendent experience, or the friendships formed that change you forever. It is these brief unplanned moments that make traveling a joy and a revelation. This is a book that collects those magical or sometimes heartbreaking moments in the author's life on the road. There is an especially touching chapter about her many years in Thailand that moved and inspired me. I can't recommend this book highly enough.
Friday, June 24, 2011
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I loved this book too, Polly! I read it about 5 years ago (I think), and it remains one of my top-10 favorites for travel books. Very inspiring. On the other hand, as with any long-term adventure and quest to satisfy personal yearnings, her choices did impact other people in her life--mainly her two children, who were young adults but perhaps needed her guidance when she was unavailable. She notes this as one of her regrets. On a final note, Rita is also the author of one of our favorite children's books--More Spaghetti, I Say! We loved the rhythm and flow of words in that book.
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