Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

Fortunately, life in Switzerland is dull, thus permitting the author's family to rest between holidays. Their vacations sound like the tourist equivalent of cold showers--character building, but uncomfortable. I've read some of these essays over the years in the American Spectator--where they remind us that it is more than the house organ of the vast right-wing conspiracy. What makes this collection remarkable is that Stevenson takes us to some of the world's most prominent hot spots--Serbia, Palestinian refugee camps, Argentina, Northern Ireland--during periods of relative repose, when we can meet the people and appreciate the human dimensions behind the catastrophic headlines. Stevenson does his homework--like all good travel writing, these essays mix history with sights, smells and conversation as effortlessly as gin with vermouth. "The Playing Fields of Terrorism" should be required reading, and "Dealing in Russia" shows uncommon insight into the difficulties of doing business in a transitional economy.