Without Reservations: The Travels Of An Independent Woman (2002) - Plot & Excerpts
Now that summer is officially over, and I spend most of my waking hours sequestered in a classroom, I seek out travel books so that at least my mind can pretend it is somewhere else. Usually, I am attracted to exotic travel tales, so at first I was not that impressed that Alice Steinbach chose to spend her six months abroad in western Europe. I could not imagine what exciting adventures she could get into in England, France, and Italy, but as I read on Alice explained that the point of her trip was not to discover a crazy adventure but to rediscover the adventurer she used to be before life and responsibilities took over. As a divorced woman with two grown children, Alice decided that she had reached a point where she could go out and find the woman she used to be. Traveling along with Alice was like sitting down and taking some good life lessons from a wiser, older woman. I saw that in her fifties, she was dealing a lot with looking back at the past, at those who she had lost throughout her life, and reconciling those loved ones with the new people she was meeting in her travels. A bittersweet element came out. A big lesson that I try to learn is to say yes to more things than you say no to. Just the other day, as I was taking a walk around the corner from my parents house, I stopped in front of a large McMansion. Its garage was open, and a lady sitting on a lawn chair was barbequing something that smelled delicious. In all my years of growing up in Plainview, I had never seen someone bbq in front of their house. Practically no life happens out front. The food smelled so good, so even though I just had dinner, and I never do things like this, I called out, "It smells really good.""What?" the lady called back."It smells really good," I called back."Come," she said waving the spatula. "Come get something to eat." It was with this last sentence that I heard her thick accent and felt things made more sense. I wondered what country she was from, where they make really good bbq and talk to their neighbors. Was I the first neighbor to ever greet her. It was possible in Plainview. And then I said, "No. No thank you." and I continued walking around the block. The no was a reflex action based on too many demands too many times in too many days. I hated that reflex action. Like Alice, I want to say yes. I want to wander around again and hopefully next time join this woman for a bbq. I like spending time with women older than me, who seemed to have their life figured out in one way or another. I spent some time with my grandma and her friends at an ORT dinner. They had nothing to prove. THey didn't even do the typical grandma game of one-upping the other == my grandchild is better than yours. Then, when Jenny read her speech on ORT, everyone was proud of her, The biggest question was over who prepared a dinner for their husband and who actually let their husband fend for themselves. Of course, Florida real estate, insurance and the cost of hurricanes came up, but even those who made mistakes, didn't spend too much time discussing it. They all seemed happy just to have a chance to spend time together with each other.
This is the kind of memoir I hope I never write.As cruel as that sounds, it's what was going through my head as I read Steinbach's tales of her so-called "Year of Living Dangerously." (Actually, she may have called it something else but I really don't want to re-read any of the book in order to find the correct wording.) Steinbach's telling of her "adventure" consisted almost entirely of pre-made plans that were completely safe and her being chatted up by entirely harmless and friendly people who somehow were all the same.I consider myself a traveler. I think I have made a great effort in my life to not only see new places but to experience them as well. Because of this, I felt a sharp tang of disgust as a I read Steinbach's supposedly risky adventure. I'm going to go right ahead and sound pretentious and say there really wasn't much risk involved. This woman went to Paris, England, and Italy, staying in hotels and often participating in tour groups. To top it off she clearly had no financial concerns even with being away from work for an entire year. Please note that, in direct contrast with the book title, she wholeheartedly made reservations for every stop on her trip. Yawn.Don't get me wrong, I'm all for traveling in ways that best suit you. My own "adventures" are in many ways not so different. But if you're going to write a memoir about, there needs to be some pizzazz. By the end of the book I could guess what was going to happen - somewhere in town someone was going to randomly speak to her, they would talk, get tea, connect, maybe hang out for a couple more days, and then the cycle would repeat in another location. Oops, maybe I should say spoiler alert.Sorry, I didn't even realize how much this book bothered with me until I started writing this review. I should pull back a little because I don't think it's entirely useless. I think Steinbach had a great year of travel and I love that she did it. I just regret I had to read about it in the way I did. I think Steinbach has a good writing style (if quite clipped, likely from years in her profession as a journalist) and she did make some wonderful observations from time to time. Sometimes she really made me think and there is one particular chapter about rain in Rome that allowed me to connect with her. But one chapter out of an entire book just isn't enough. If you want a good travel memoir, bypass this book. On that note, in case you were wondering, bypass Eat, Pray, Love, too (I swear, they are almost the same thing). There are so many wonderful tales out there about women adventuring and traveling alone - like Somebody's Heart Is Burning: A Woman Wanderer in Africa or even, Nothing to Declare: Memoirs of a Woman Traveling Alone. Read all my reviews at: www.theroamingreader.wordpress.com
What do You think about Without Reservations: The Travels Of An Independent Woman (2002)?
A journalist and divorced grandmother renews her sense of spirit by living and traveling in Europe alone for a year.Focused on Venice, Paris and England- it was an easy read but a bit boring. If you want to read this genre I prefer Under the Tuscan Sun or the follow up entitled "Educating Alice."Author: Alice SteinbachPublisher: Random HouseCopyright: 2000Genre: Travel MemoirPages: 278Date Read- 8/1- 8/4/08NOTES______p. 5To much of life- my life, anyway- seemed to be aimed at achieving success and avoiding failure. I was determined not to carry that baggage with me on this trip.p. 13When I was a child, very little that happened in the real world escaped my attention.....what adds up in life is nothing more than the accumulation of small moments.p. 15 (TS Eliot)Life burns in every momentp. 37Sainte- Chapelle (in Paris) is a must. Go there and stand in the light.p. 94 GO SEESissinghurst Castle (Kent, England)Garden of Vita Sackville-West& Giverny Monet Gardens (Outside of Paris)p. 161Travel Theorem of M=EAMishap= Excellent Adventurep.162The secret to staying young is to respond to life like a child and seeing the world as it is, not as we wish it to be.p.185
—Carrie
The topics of the book-traveling through parts of Europe, and becoming independent as a mature woman-were interesting to me, but I was disappointed in the structure and flow of writing in this book. The story was told in an uneven fashion, with lingering descriptions of seemingly minor incidents, and quick summations of major travel events. The writing often seemed disjointedl ike a list of events, or quick notes on a postcard (which is a device she uses to begin each chapter). Toward the end of the book, the form breaks down altogether, with asides and out of sequence events that seemed to have escaped her notice earlier, making it seem like she was rushinf for a deadline. It's similar in style to "Eat, Pray, Love", but not nearly as well-written.
—Gayle
I think I'm too cynical for books like this. I think I like the idea of them more than I like the reality. The basic premise - middle-aged divorced mother of two suffering from empty-nest-syndrome drops out of her life to travel around Europe alone and 'find herself' - is so overdone, so clichéd, that I almost found myself rolling my eyes on every page.I found it an enjoyable enough read, don't get me wrong - it's always entertaining to see familiar places through others' eyes, and Steinbach is a lively, engaging writer - but I didn't find it inspiring or motivating, powerful or insightful. Taking six months' out to visit three countries, stay in fine hotels and eat out in restaurants and cafes for every meal is, to me at least, hardly bold or daring, hardly a radical change of life. It's basically the extended holiday we'd all love to take.Her depictions of Paris, London, Oxford, Venice and Rome may seem exotic to those who have never visited them, but her stereotypical, idealised depictions bear little resemblance to the places I've visited. Every alley is a hidden gem of cobblestones and unique boutiques; all the women are chic and elegant, the men handsome and interesting; the food is always good, the wine excellent, the art and history inspiring, the company apparently immediately friendly and engaging. If only we could all move through life like this!I feel churlish writing like this - Steinbach clearly found in her travels what she was looking for, and who am I to denigrate someone else's experience? But reading this book it all felt a little too good to be true, a little too air-brushed and white-washed to be credible.
—Caroline
