Summer Reading (a little something from the archives)

If you're looking for some fun summer reading, may I recommend picking up...


Travels with Alice by Calvin Trillin (Avon, 1989)

In Travels with Alice, Calvin Trillin relates his adventures on several international vacations with his wife Alice and their two daughters. A series of loosely connected chapters, the book chronicles the family Trillin’s several trips to the south of France, as well as visits to Italy, Spain, Guadeloupe and Barbados. Trillin is best known as a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, where several sections of Travels with Alice first appeared. The book feels like the compilation of magazine articles that it is. On the bright side, that makes this collection of humorous, bite-sized tales a good traveler’s companion – something easy to pick up and put down as time permits.

In “Defying Mrs. Tweedie,” Trillin recounts his visit to the Sicilian resort town of Taormina, comparing his experiences to those of Mrs. Alec Tweedie, a late Victorian travel writer. Mrs. Tweedie is, according to Trillin, not easily amused or impressed. As early as 1904, according to her guide book, Taormina was already being “spoilt” by too many vacationers. “She sounded as if she might fit comfortably among those travelers whose measure of authenticity is so exacting that they tend to find even the ruins ruined.”

While the Mrs. Tweedies of the world are intent on visiting every castle, cathedral and major monument, Trillin is a low-key, off-the-beaten-path traveler. On one of the family’s extended visits to southern France, Trillin devises the guidebook he might write someday: The Hanging Around Guide to France. He goes on to devote two chapters here to one of his favorite vacation activities, visiting weekly farmers’ markets.

There is no better way to spend a morning in Provence than to go to a market in a town square, where farmer couples have set up small tables with what they picked just before dawn…. There is no better way to spend an evening in Provence than to eat the dinner that someone like Nathalie [Trillin’s friend who lives in Provence] has made out of the contents of the market basket. I can see having a swim or taking in a façade or two in the afternoon, but I would consider those strictly side activities.

Along with travel, Trillin regularly writes about food. And in fact, for him traveling seems to be largely about discovering, and then eating, a variety of local delicacies.

Such market visits also give Trillin the opportunity to look for fliers advertising local events – the kinds of attractions that wouldn’t make the cut for Mrs. Tweedie’s grand tour of Europe. In “Damp in the Afternoon,” Trillin tells of one such discovery: tauraux piscine, a French variation on bullfighting that dispenses with the usual red capes and swords in favor of a shallow swimming pool in the middle of the ring. In his quest to find out everything he can about this strange entertainment, Trillin not only attends a match but also tracks the down the game’s inventor. One of the funniest chapters in the book (along with “Defying Mrs. Tweedie”), this must be read to be believed.

Another chapter, “The Playing Fields of Mott Street,” lets the reader tag along as Trillin leads a Canadian friend on his standard tour of downtown Manhattan, from his apartment in Greenwich Village through Soho and Tribeca to Little Italy and finally Chinatown. After feasting on dim sum, Trillin takes his friend to the Chinatown Fair arcade, where he faces off (unsuccessfully) against a tic-tac-toe-playing chicken. While his prose is snappy and his tone humorous here, this chapter is not about international travel – or Alice – and consequently feels like padding.

Overall, though, Travels with Alice is excellent pool-side or in-flight reading material. With his insatiable curiosity, love of exotic foods and unflappable good humor, Trillin seems like he’d be a fun tour guide – or at least great company at the dinner table. It would be fitting to read about Trillin’s vacations while you’re on one of your own. And if you happened to be sampling some unusual local delicacy while you read, or sitting in a Provençal garden in the downtime between shopping at the market and cooking dinner, Trillin would surely approve.