EATING EUROPE: A META-NONFICTION LOVE STORY is travel writing in its most hilarious, poignant, and consequential form. It is the year 2000, and Jon has a grant to write about "the Euro-transitional era." From Amsterdam to Alsace, the tourist life is good. He and Janet eat and drink and spar with breezy affection while Jon pays scant attention to his project. As they drive on toward southern France, it becomes clear that something has gone very wrong-both in the journey itself, and in the telling of the journey. Jon the author steps in to explain that he had stopped writing for three years. In the meantime, the tragedy of 9/11 and the drum-beat of war have changed everything. Janet has launched into peace activism and spiraled into depression. In the very month of the Iraq invasion, at the height of America's anti-French hysteria, Jon goes to France to try to the finish the book. But the ground beneath his story has shifted. The gloom of the real world bleeds into his writing-where it finds parallels in the pain of personal relationship and in the lies of every claim of "nonfiction." In the end, EATING EUROPE strives for reconciliations: the author to his wife, the wife to her character, the author to his work, the work to its genre, America to France. About the Author JON VOLKMER has written numerous travel features for newspapers and magazines. He is director of creative writing at Ursinus College, where he teaches travel writing and travel literature. He is an award-winning fiction writer, essayist and poet, with publications in such journals as PARNASSUS, PRAIRIE SCHOONER, TEXAS REVIEW, and PAINTED BRIDE QUARTERLY. He is the author of THE ART OF COUNTRY GRAIN ELEVATORS, a poetry collection with photographs by Bruce Selyem (Bottom Dog Press.) He holds an MA in Creative Writing from Denver University, and a PhD in English from the University of Nebraska.
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About the Author
Jon Volkmer has written numerous travel features for newspapers and magazines. He is director of creative writing at Ursinus College, where he teaches travel writing and travel literature. He is an award-winning fiction writer, essayist and poet, with publications in such journals as Parnassus, Prairie Schooner, Texas Review, and Painted Bride Quarterly. He is the author of THE ART OF COUNTRY GRAIN ELEVATORS, a poetry collection with photographs by Bruce Selyem (Bottom Dog Press.) He holds an MA in Creative Writing from Denver University, and a PhD in English from the University of Nebraska.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delicious, de-lovely.,
By D. Parker "mykarma" (Lederach, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eating Europe: A Meta-Nonfiction Love Story (Writing Travel) (Paperback)
"Eating Europe" is a delightfully different entry in the category of Provence travel memoirs. What begins as a light-hearted adventure, with the narrator and his wife wining, dining, and bantering their way across southern France, turns into something heavier, darker, and more thought-provoking. In the wake of 9/11 the couple return to France, sadder and older, weighed down by the gravity of world events and struggling to understand each other's responses to the world around them. Volkmer's skillful prose pulls the reader into Jon and Janet's world, occasionally playing with frame-breaking techniques that challenge and entertain. A terrific read.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Writing with Conscience,
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This review is from: Eating Europe: A Meta-Nonfiction Love Story (Writing Travel) (Hardcover)
I purchased this book on the recommendation of a friend and got much more than I expected. The first half is a romantic romp through the French country side, with witty gastronomical observations riding the rumble seat while the relation between the lovers, Jon and Janet, occupies the driver's seat or sometimes rides shotgun. Then things get complicated as the writer's consciousness about truth duels with his need to live with the terms of his professorial position and meet the requirements of a grant, while, at the same time, he drives and loves. This exploration of romance, literary genre, and writing with conscience is, in my opinion, close to genius. While I would not call it a Provence Travel Memoir, as others have, I'd call it a great trip, worth taking.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Provence Travel Memoir,
This review is from: Eating Europe: A Meta-Nonfiction Love Story (Writing Travel) (Paperback)
The prose roped me in from the beginning, even before I was able to discern what the book was about. I continued to read, for the sheer enjoyment of the pictures the writing produced. Eventually, I realized I was reading anecdotes that could just as easily been about me and one of my partners as about the author and his wife. Universal themes of relationships emerged from every chapter as I read on. Some brought back happy memories, some brought back painful memories. I substituted myself for the author and read faster and faster, in spite of the fact I wanted to make the book last. Joy of reading came from exploration of the human soul. It was the same kind of joy, from the same source, I have gotten from Dostoyevsky, and Kesey, and Helprin, and many other authors.
I derived an immense amount of pleasure from Eating Europe, yet I gave it only 4 stars. I felt no resolution. Instead I felt that literary trickery had been substituted for an ending to the story. That is why I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5.
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