Steinbach, Alice. Without Reservations: the Travels of an Independent Woman. Random House, 2000.
Reason read: According to the web, Steinbach celebrates a birthday in October. Read in her honor.
In January of 1993 Alice Steinbach decided to take a leave of absence from her job as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun. Her two sons had grown up, no longer dependent on her. Influenced by a “journalistic idol” who wrote about Paris for fifty years in The New Yorker, Steinbach headed to France first.
Admittedly, Alice has become a sort of hero for me. I loved how she easily met people by joining them at a cafe table or sharing a seat on a train. Striking up random conversations affording her a travel companion everywhere she went. I loved how she wrote postcards to herself as a shorthand journal and a keepsake for the future. I loved Steinbach’s fond memories of her mother and grandmother. They served as virtual travel companions.
What would have put Without Reservations in a completely different class is if Steinbach has taken a nod from Nick Bantock and made the postcard pages feel real. Instead of back and white photographs, Steinbach could have printed them on different paper and in color. On the reverse page, (think just like flipping over a postcard), Steinbach could have included her message.
A question: when is travel really travel? Is it when you are on the move, physically going from one place to another? Or are you traveling simply by being away from your own hometown and cozy bed?
Steinbach blurs the lines between solitaire and independence. As I mentioned earlier, no matter where she goes in what country, she always ends up sightseeing with someone else. Not much of her travel is truly alone.
As an aside, I was going to say imagine going to a cafe that was once a favorite spot for artists like Picasso or F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, but I do know what it’s like. I listen to music in a venue that was once haunted by the likes of Bob Dylan, James Taylor, and Carly Simon. The cushions are as old as the hills so maybe Dylan sat on them before I ever did.
Confessional: I want to adopt Albert’s Theorem: mishap equals excellent adventure.
Author fact: Alice Steinbach won a Pulitzer for feature writing in 1985.
Book trivia: my copy of Without Reservations includes a reader’s guide, questions for discussion, and a list of books for suggested reading.
Music: “Who-o Goes the Wind,” “How High the Moon,” Charlie Parker, Frank Sinatra, Edith Pilaf, Oklahoma, Mozart, Chopin, “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees. Vera Lynn’s “We’ll Meet Again,” Ella Fitzgerald, Cole Porter’s “My Funny Valentine,” Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’ Armore,” Fred Astaire’s “The Way You Look Tonight,” Verdi, Caberet, and “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.”
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Explaining Europe: the Grand Tour” (p 82).
