World Hum | Travel | GQ: Literary Travel, Elizabeth Gilbert in France and How Not to Look Like an American Abroad

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TRAVEL BLOG

7.26.06

GQ: Literary Travel, Elizabeth Gilbert in France and How Not to Look Like an American Abroad

In its August issue GQ devotes 14 glossy pages to interesting travel stories, including three pages to “The Traveling Library,” which features a black-and-white photo of a sexy woman reading a book and a round-up of eight novels and memoirs that capture “what you’ve come looking for” in a destination. Among the recommended books and places are: Henry Miller’s The Colossus of Maroussi (Greece), George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia (Barcelona), A.J. Liebling’s Between Meals (Paris) and Jan Morris’s The World of Venice. Walter Kirn also picks three books to read when you hit the highway—Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim Thompson’s The Getaway and Charles Portis’s The Dog of the South. The story itself isn’t available online, though, of course, the photo of the sexy woman is. So are some online-only additions to the piece, including Geoff Dyer’s pick for India: V. S. Naipaul’s An Area of Darkness.

Elsewhere, Devin Friedman tells Americans how to dress like a local in Italy (Shorts, no. Red pants, yes.) and Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert chronicles a two-week walk across Provence.

There is something about entering an ancient town on foot that’s radically different from entering the same place by car. Keep in mind that these old French towns were all designed by people on foot for people on foot. So when you walk in, you’re approaching the palce as it was intended to be approached—slowly and naturally, the way Dorothy came upon Oz (spires rising in the distance, a sense of mounting mystery: What kind of city will this be?).

Unfortunately, Gilbert and Friedman’s stories also aren’t online.

Posted by Michael Yessis • 7.26.06
Categories: Weblog • Literary Travel • Media Addict

Permalink • Comments (1)

COMMENTS

My father just gave me this article to read and I loved it---I want to go and walk the Provence trail that Elizabeth explored for my 40th birthday. Is it feasible with little to no french language skills? Let me know, I’m ready to go.
-Matthew

By on 1.22.08 at 08:11 PM