Amsterdam by the book

A novel approach to travel

By Edysutio

YOU COULD SAY I VACATION FOR A LIVING. But apart from escapes with my family, the truth is I’m either busy reporting or diving in and out of destinations while on business. And the idea of taking time off for myself-forget it.

Last December, though, I took a vacation, in Antigua. Five days alone. To do what I wanted, when I wanted. I sailed, visited historic Nelson’s Docyard, and drove up to Shirley Heights, where the views are the best on the island.

I rarely get to lose myself in novels, but that’s how I spent the rest of my time. It was pure luxury. When I travel, I look for a book that evokes the spot I’m visiting. On this trip I took Jamaica Kinccaid’s A Small Place, with her Antiguan perspective on an island she believes has been treated unkindly by tourism. “And so you must devote your self,” she writes, “to puzzling out how much of what your are told is really, really true. (Is ground-up bottle glass in peanut sauce really a delicacy around here, or will it do just what you think ground-up bottle glass will do? is this rare, multicolored, snout-mouthed fish really an aphrodisiac, or will it cause you to fall asleep permanently?)”

I also reread The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, set in the Belgian Congo-my birthplace. I was almost four when my family left, in the 1950s, to escape the riots that would lead to the nation’s independence from Belgium in 1960. I had only family lore and faint memories of what happened; Kingsolver’s novel took me home. It brought the Congo alive, creating a context and a visual landscape that might have been lost to me forever. Such books conjure a strong sense of place and give insights beyond a guidebook. That is the point of “Around the World in 80 Books,” on page 75, our selection of narratives that we hope will inspire and inform your next trip.