Novel Destinations

This book is a great idea executed only about a third as well as it deserves.

On the positive side, it's a valiant effort to cram in mentions of every sort of book-related holiday activity possible. There are museums, authorial birth- and burial-sites, festivals, hotels, libraries, and even a page explaining Bookshop Tourism.

This is exciting for me (I thought I invented Bookshop Tourism!) but leads to one of the negative aspects--it's a rather disorganized book. I don't think this was particularly avoidable, since if you organize activities by geographical location you'll separate those related to authors who lived in different places, and vice versa. But I wish there were an index--perhaps this will be in the published version--and I show more really think that some of the material could have been grouped better.

More important to me is what this book is missing. It seems that the authors were working from a definition of literature straight out of their old high school English anthologies. Britain, Paris, Russia, and New England are abundantly represented; Hemingway and Steinbeck pop up everywhere, but that's really it.

Every author associated by this book with a site of interest is white, save two--Zora Neale Hurston and Frederick Douglass. Harlem itself barely rates a mention.

I don't understand the authors' policy toward the rest of the world, either. They don't restrict their book to sites of English literary interest, since they represent Hugo, Tolstoy, and Dante. Nor can they be prioritizing accessible sites--many of the destinations and activities they mention are tremendously expensive. So I can't see why they leave out Latin America, Australia, Africa, and the entirety of Asia. It's as though they forgot that the non-Western world might also be capable of producing and commemorating great writers.

So whether you're an armchair traveler or really planning a literary holiday, Novel Destinations won't give you a chance to contemplate the tiny Mexican villages Mariano Azuela fought in as he reproduced them in Los de Abajo, Assia Djebar's Algiers, Aime Cesaire's Martinique, Ngugi wa Thiongo's Kenya, Kate Grenville's Sydney, Graham Greene's Freetown, even Toni Morrison's Ohio... in other words, for the average American reader this book fails the National-Geographic promise of expanding horizons and instead remains, in the end, very provincial. show less

I enjoyed sampling the entries from this book, but it wasn't particularly useful when I went to use it to plan some literary adventures. The layout stymied me when I approached the book from a planning standpoint. I felt like I had to search around quite a bit to find what I was looking for, both when looking for everything for one author and for everything in one geographical region. I wanted to be able to say, "I'm in New England; what can I do that's literary?" but it didn't work that way for me. (It's possible this was due to user error.) I also could have used a book more centered on North America because that's where I am and that's where I plan most (or, so far, all) of my road trips. I liked reading about the destinations in the show more UK, but having never been there and having no immediate plans to go there, it was difficult to envision the locations.

I do plan to pick this one up again as my kids get older and they and I plan trips together. Or at least I hope that's what will happen. My kids and I all love to read, and the whole family loves road trips; literary road trips seem like a logical outcome of all of this reading/road-tripping love, but it's possible I'm not taking into account the feelings of pre-teens and teens about traveling with their mom. show less

Admittedly, I'm a sucker for anything that combines travel and literature, but I thought this book was terrific. It combines a wealth of information organized in a way that makes it a delight to peruse. The forward (by Matthew Pearl) was engaging, as was the introduction by the authors. And the voice of the text was lively and fun. Section titles like “Eat Your Words: Literary Places to Sip and Sup” and “Unpersuaded: Jane Austen’s Persuasion and Nothanger Abbey” are just the start. It’s sprinkled throughout with interesting tidbits on the lives of the writers, things like Dickens’ Gad’s Hill Place being coincidentally cited on the locale Shakespeare set Falstaf’s highway robbery in Henry IV and Robert Frost's struggle show more to make a living farming while suffering such stinging rejection of his poetry as “We find that The Atlantic has no place for your vigorous prose.” Since Agatha Christie is my weakness, I was delighted to see the pages on her. I left the book feeling I would have enjoyed it even if I were only an armchair traveler, but, since I’m not, already planning my next excursion that might combine my two loves. show less

- A nice idea of highlighting literary connections with various travel destinations that unfortunately doesn’t quite work. But I think this book’s failure is more down to its design and layout than it’s content. It falls between two stools and ends up as neither a literary overview nor a practical travel guide. By organizing the content by genres and jumping from author to author with no clear delineation the information soon blends together. I ended up cherry picking entries by searching for authors in the index. Talking of indexes the book desperately needed a dedicated index of locations mentioned to aid any travel planning with a literary twist. I was hoping that this could be the book to help me figure out a few fun places to show more visit the next time I’m in New York for a few days, or on a future trip back to the UK. The frustration is that the information is all in there, it’s just not presented in a useful way. show less

Novel Destinations is a bibliophile's dream. A compact, attractive volume, it's chock full of enough information to fuel a lifetime of literary tourism.

The book is divided into two parts. Part One consists of a potpourri of literary attractions, ranging from author houses and museums to destinations frequented by writers ranging from Edith Wharton to Ernest Hemingway, to literary festivals and bookstore tours (a pastime I've engaged in with great pleasure) and concluding with literary lodgings, restaurants and bars.

Part Two focuses on tourist opportunities in places associated with the lives of ten famous writers, from Dublin (Joyce) to Concord, MA (Alcott) to Key West (Hemingway), for literary types who want a more in depth travel show more experience.

Like a pair of chefs writing about their favorite restaurants, the authors are knowledgeable and informative, consistently conveying their enthusiasm for this unique project. A previous reviewer has noticed the absence of an index, but I assume that's only a deficiency in the ARC, as the table of contents identifies indices for both authors and destinations. There's ample contact information that will allow readers to conduct their own followup research.

This isn't the type of book anyone is likely to sit down with and read from cover to cover. But whether you're actually planning a literary trip, or simply want to sit by the fireside contemplating that delightful possibility, it is a volume guaranteed to provide many hours of pleasurable and rewarding reading. show less

Erica McDonald:

Literary-minded travelers rejoice! As I really can’t see myself ever jumping out of a plane like they did in the movie, “The Bucket List,” this book instantly became my bibliophile “bucket list.” Numerous destinations based on the wanderings and residences of my favorite authors as well as their most memorable settings and characters are presented here alongside practical travel information, fascinating facts, literary gossip, and great reading suggestions. My first literary-minded trip centered around Anne of Green Gables when my mother brought me to Prince Edward Island. I spent a semester of college in Jane Austen’s Bath, and even visited her home at Chawton in Hampshire. Next on my “bucket list” is show more Louisa May Alcott’s historic home in Concord, MA, where she wrote and set Little Women. Whatever your bibliophile “bucket list” includes, you are sure to find them here in Novel Destinations. Makes a great companion book for reading groups! show less

This book definitely meets my expectations of a National Geographic publication. I expected descriptions of places where authors had lived and worked but was thrilled to find tours of the places within these great authors' novels mapped out for me.

These are not the staid entries of most travel guides. The authors provide a bit of history and biography with each entry. This, combined with quality writing, makes Novel Destinations a great read for any lover of literature, travel, or both.