Whereabouts: Notes on Being a Foreigner
by Alastair Reid
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Description
A book about living in foreign places as opposed to traveling in them.A Scottish-born writer based in the Dominican Republic here brings together seven of his pieces that originally appeared in the New Yorker, remarkable stories about his experiences in Spain, Latin America, Scotland and New York. The subject matter ranges from the lives and works of Borges, Neruda, Gracia Marquez and Jimenez, to learning a foreign language, to the differences between living in a home of one's own and living show more in the houses of other people. Reid also discusses his reasons for choosing to live under the Spanish dictatorship, toward which he had a strong antipathy. "Being in Spain always felt much more like belonging to a conspiracy against the regime than like condoning it." The best known of these essays is "Digging Up Scotland," a long account of the author's return in 1980 to St. Andrew's on the North Sea with his son Jasper and friends to find a box they had buried in 1971. show lessTags
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Author Information
18+ Works 356 Members
Alastair Reid was born in Galloway, Scotland on March 22, 1926. He was a poet, translator, and essayist. He wrote more than a 100 articles and poems for The New Yorker, beginning in 1943 and ending in 2004. He translated the works of Jorge Luis Borges and Pablo Neruda. He was the author of several collections of poetry including Oddments Inklings show more Omens Moments, Passwords, Weathering, Inside Out, and Outside In. He died on September 21, 2014 at the age of 88. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Whereabouts: Notes on Being a Foreigner
- Alternate titles
- Whereabouts
- Original publication date
- 1963
- People/Characters
- Alastair Reid; Pablo Neruda; Jorge Luis Borges; Robert Graves; Amanda
- Important places
- Scotland, UK; England, UK; France; Spain; Greece; Switzerland (show all 7); New York, New York, USA
- Important events
- World War II
- Dedication
- For John Alexander Coleman
and Thomas Colchie
se todos fossem no mundo iguais a voces - First words
- I come suddenly into a foreign city, just as the lamps take light along the water, with some notes in my head.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"It's just that I throw the I Ching a lot. Have a good trip."
Classifications
- Genres
- Travel, Fiction and Literature, Literature Studies and Criticism
- DDC/MDS
- 828.91409 — Literature & rhetoric English & Old English literatures English miscellaneous writings English miscellaneous writings 1900- English miscellaneous writings 1900-1999 English miscellaneous writings 1945-1999 Individual authors
- LCC
- PR6035 .E4 .Z478 — Language and Literature English English Literature 1900-1960
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 41
- Popularity
- 717,845
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 4
