Letters of Transit: Essays on Travel, History, Politics, and Family Life Abroad [Hardcover]

Matthew Stevenson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2001

Here is the new collection of essays from Matthew Stevenson, a contributing editor of Harper'™s Magazine who lives in Switzerland and who is the author of the critically acclaimed Letters of Transit: Essays on Travel, History, Politics, and Family Life Abroad, which the poet Robert Watson called "a stunning book, the best travel writing I have seen in years."

In 1991, Stevenson moved from Brooklyn to a house in the vineyards outside Geneva, Switzerland. In this book he writes about his travels around Europe ("On a hot July evening, in the company of other backpackers, we boarded the midnight Geneva-Trieste express and scrambled to our compartment, so that long into the night children could bicker about who was most deserving of the upper bunks.") and his impressions of visiting the United States ("the size of the suburban houses made me think America has become a nation of great Gatsbys.")

In these essays, Stevenson, with wit and insight, describes crossing Poland by bicycle, the countries of former Yugoslavia, visiting the battlefields of Okinawa, and Albania'™s brave new world ("The province of pyramid schemes and stolen cars"). He explores the myths of Omaha Beach and Steven Spielberg'™s Saving Private Ryan ("a war movie by a guy who has seen a lot of war movies"). Whenin New York after September 11, he recalls his earlier visits to Asian battlefields ("the skeletal frame of the Trade Center evokes the dome at Hiroshima").

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this collection of 27 essays Stevenson, a journalist and former Harper's magazine editor, writes in a myriad of guises: that of a son, a father, a businessman, a pleasure seeker and an interested observer. He likes to investigate the reality behind news headlines, whether economic, political or social, and is as comfortable explaining the post-Glasnost Russian banking system as he is the history of Argentina's "dirty war," or the Tour de France. A typical essay begins with Stevenson waking early while on a business trip in an exotic locale say in Thailand or New Guinea and queezing in a trip to an even more remote destination to satisfy his curiosity. Despite the impression of spontaneity, Stevenson is often well prepared for these journeys and has done a significant amount of background reading, which he also describes along with his experience. The essays offer concise, insightful portraits of many political hot spots from the past 15 years, including Pakistan, Jordan, Northern Ireland and South Africa. Unfortunately, a number of these essays editorialize, dating them severely; others repeat story lines unnecessarily and some, written for the Bucknell University alumni magazine, make unfamiliar references to the university. The strongest pieces are those describing Stevenson's decision to move to a small village outside Geneva, Switzerland, and the challenges his family faced assimilating: the children's bilingual education, their dependence on catalogue orders from the U.S. and their struggle with (and respect for) the solidity of Swiss culture.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Stevenson has gathered together his previously published essays on a wide variety of topics, from raising a family in a small village in Switzerland (where he works in international banking), to searching for understanding of his father's past at Guadalcanal, to a discussion of post-breakup economics in Russia and a Kafkaesque train journey with his wife through Poland to the former Czechoslovakia. The essays, which were written over the past 20 years and published in Vanity Fair, Harper's magazine, the American Scholar, and other well-known journals, are thoughtful, literate, and occasionally humorous. His knowledge of world events, often viewed from an economic perspective, is impressive and convincing, but the family stories never rise above the ordinary pleasant but a little too familiar. Although these essays are well worth reading, libraries without active essay collections, especially on politics, may want to pass. Linda M. Kaufmann, Massachusetts Coll. of Liberal Arts Lib., North Adams
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 396 pages
• Publisher: Odysseus Books (July 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970913303
• ISBN-13: 978-0970913302
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,218,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Matthew Stevenson was born in New York City and grew up on Long Island, attending Buckley Country Day School and Friends Academy. His university degrees are from Bucknell and Columbia universities, and he spent a year abroad with the Institute of European Studies in London and Vienna. He moved to Geneva, Switzerland in 1991 and worked in banking until 2004. He is a contributing editor to Harper's Magazine, and the host of The Travel Hour, a radio program. He is a panelist on World Radio Switzerland's Not So Foreign Affairs, a weekly broadcast. His articles and essays have appeared in numerous publications in the U.S. and Europe. His books include: Letters of Transit, Mentioned in Dispatches, An April Across America, and, most recently, Remembering the Twentieth Century Limited. His forthcoming book is: Whistle Stopping America.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Time well spent, April 9, 2003

By 

Dede Selma Silverston (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Letters of Transit: Essays on Travel, History, Politics, and Family Life Abroad (Hardcover)

I feel like I have been at a feast of experience and ideas. Traveling with Matt Stevenson through his book "Letters of Transit," has been an enjoyable treat. Glimpses of Russia, Fiji, Africa, Ireland and islands in the Pacific were described with poetic language, clear pictures of the economy and political aspects and the excitement of venturing into different lands. A description of Mexico City as seen from a mountain top castle is vivid and imaginative:"Cars raced around the narrow streets and the imperial boulevards like so many rats searching the maze. And in the distance I saw rows of houses, like the surf appropriating a dune, washing up the sides of the hills.

As an economist he discusses the Russian system with insight and understanding. One feels like he is talking to a friend. He is good company.

My favorite parts of the book are those in which he visits the battlegrounds where his father fought. He familiarizes us with the problems of war and steeps us in nostalgia. I know his father and so the quotes from him are particularly interesting, admirable and poignant in these times. He quotes other military comrades of his father, "There is the way I dreamed I fought, and the way I wish I had fought...the way I think I fought and that is the story I told here."

Reading this book has been a stimulant to my intellect, a treat to my senses and a good time with a newly found companion.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughts by a traveler who has been around the world, April 9, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Letters of Transit: Essays on Travel, History, Politics, and Family Life Abroad (Hardcover)

Letters Of Transit: Essays On Travel, History, Politics, And Family Life Abroad by banker and essayist Matthew Stevenson is a sizeable and impressive compendium of original thoughts by a traveler who has been around the world, including Switzerland, Serbia, Northern Ireland, South Africa, and the Middle East. Stevenson writes with a clear and articulate view of the tangled morass of human politics, cultures, and events he has observed and considered. From a human look at the battle of Guadalcanal and its fallout to the current, not-so-happy state of the Russian economy to the crossroads of destiny at South Korea, Letters Of Transit is a compelling, informed and informative view of people and events around the globe, and a breathtaking, thoughtful look at what the future might have in store.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An insightful book  especially for Afghanistan, September 21, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Letters of Transit: Essays on Travel, History, Politics, and Family Life Abroad (Hardcover)

Matthew Stevenson writes about many things in this hefty volume - and it is especially interesting to read about his visits to Afghansitan, Pakistan, and other places.