Evanston: lost jewels
Evanston: lost jewels
Let me begin with a disclaimer. I know Tom Swick. I like Tom Swick. Tom Swick has given me money. None of which affects what I am about to write, except that if I had not met him, I might not have read his book, A WAY TO SEE THE WORLD, just as some of you probably wouldn’t be reading this if we hadn’t met somewhere along the way.
Tom is the travel editor of the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and bought some of my articles a half dozen or so years ago. We have only met three or four times and don’t even email regularly. I think the last time was a year ago. Perhaps because I happened to notice a piece of his reprinted on the first page of the travel section of the Chicago Tribune, which owns the Sun-Sentinel, a few Sundays ago, and needing a break from studying online manuals--the five-part Aperture documentation totals more than 600 pages--I took his book, A WAY TO SEE THE WORLD, from the shelf yesterday.
I read it when it first came out, which I am surprised to see was 2003, and enjoyed it very much. I thought all of the pieces were good, and some exceptional.
This time I didn’t begin at the beginning, but started with the two that remained most vivid in my memory: ‘Cartoon Dinner’, about an unexpected dinner with political cartoonists in St. Petersburg; and ‘I Must Upgrade My Husband’, describing an encounter with a beautiful Malaysian woman in Penang. ‘Cartoon Dinner’ was as good as I remembered, and “I Must Upgrade My Husband’ even better . Clever, Intelligent, generous writing about the loneliness of travel and the human condition, and with an unexpected ending.
Since then I’ve picked the book up a couple of times and reread other chapters at random: a paean to tennis; Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama; the introduction to Part Two about Florida’s 150th anniversary of statehood.
I think I prefer reading the book this way rather than cover to cover. Certainly the second time. It is like picking a foil covered piece from a box of chocolate and not knowing what you are going to get. Unexpected pleasures.
Tom’s book made me wonder how about many other fine books are out there, lost jewels. I’ve written elsewhere of Gresham’s Law, how the bad drives the good from circulation and not just in currency.
I knew that Tom had written an earlier book about Poland--I think that somewhere in HOW TO SEE THE WORLD he describes how he met his Polish wife, but I haven’t come across it yet. I tracked the earlier book down at Amazon yesterday. UNQUIET NIGHTS. And ordered a copy.
Sunday, June 24, 2007