Regina Porter

While flawed in a few ways, this very New York-y, timely novel hit a lot of the right notes for me, and I had a hard time putting it down. It's a COVID novel, beginning at the start of lockdown in March 2020 and moving forward a few months. The main story is of a husband and wife who have a fight while upstate for a weekend; the wife disappears and the husband, an incredibly complex character, doesn't react well. I actually found this part of the book the least interesting. I preferred the show more secondary characters - a teenager unmmored by online school and a mother on a ventilator, and a Black woman and her Japanese partner trying to keep their Michelin-starred restaurant afloat. There is a lot about alienation and connection, class and racial differences, sexuality and sex... you know, all the good, meaty stuff. At heart, I think it's about grit and the imperative to keep moving forward, to caring for our communities and for each other. show less

This quietly spectacular debut novel revolves in concentric circles around two white families, two Black families, and the narrows where they intersect. Each chapter builds on the events and the meetings in both earlier and later times. The Vietnam war has its impact, as does infidelity, rape, domestic violence, and parental neglect, but the overwhelming atmosphere is simultaneously solemn and joyous. Settings are as varied as the Bronx, Portsmouth, NH, Berlin, and Buckner Co, Georgia. show more Characters range from James Joyce scholars to crabmeat pickers to a Black woman pilot. Each coincidence and unlikely meeting comes as a delightful surprise, and each chapter could stand alone magnificently as a short story on its own. A must read.

Quotes:" I remember how still the room was when he died. How the air just left him and there was no difference between his corpse and the metal bed that held it."

"It's like once he says he's leaving he's got to follow through and they are both stuck on stubborn." show less

Enjoying The Travelers by Regina Porter really comes down to what kind of reader you are: one who prefers a linear narrative with fully fleshed characters who fall easily and precisely into said narrative, or one who can appreciate something else. The Travelers definitely falls into the latter. Sprawling does not even begin to describe the sheer quantity of characters (as evidenced by the three pages list at the beginning of the book), time frames and locales visited. Eventually, everyone show more links in some way as Porter weaves a larger and larger web around the last 50 years of US history with the years highlighted at the beginning of chapters as road maps. It is impossible to summarize a book like this since it covers nearly everything a book can be about--love, race, family, class, and belonging. As a reader who very much enjoys that something else, I found The Travelers engaging and well worth the effort. show less

Tragedy, sir. Deaths and disclosures, universal and particular, denouements both unexpected and inexorable, transvestite melodrama on all levels including the suggestive. We transport you into a world of intrigue and illusion...*

Yes, it's true that this novel is prefaced with a Cast of Characters two pages long: firemen, professors, cannery workers, Vietnam vets, husbands, wives, children (legitimate and not), cousins, lovers. It jumps back and forth through time and space from the 1950s to show more 2010, from Georgia to NYC, from California to Germany, and everywhere in between. The long list of characters pop up in unexpected places, connecting in myriad ways.

I almost gave up. There's a lot to track and many of the episodes are dark: racism, sexual assault (off stage), alcoholism, infidelity, etc. But there was just enough light that I stuck with it and I'm glad I did. Ms. Porter has painted a fascinating portrait of America through these four extended families -- two white and two black -- as their lives and fates overlap time and again. Her many characters are complex, believable, and often sympathetic, once you get to know them. Except Charles Camphor. That man was just an asshole. I'd like to take a golf club to him.

Ms. Porter has written an ambitious, remarkable debut. I look forward to her next novel.

*These lines from [b:Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead|18545|Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead|Tom Stoppard|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1338735611l/18545._SY75_.jpg|73811] are recited by a character who becomes obsessed with the play as a coping mechanism. References to and lines from the play are sprinkled throughout the book, but this quote also applies to the novel. show less