Customer Reviews

A Trance After Breakfast: And Other Passages

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Don't look to this travel book for the usual litany of hotel reviews, must-do/must-sees and amusing anecdotes. It is, as the title implies, a complex and commanding view of our diverse world and its peoples.

Alan Cheuse weaves in wonderful and woesome moments that occur when crossing borders and becoming fully immersed one's surroundings. My favorite part of the journey: The Watery Part of the World.

Read A Trance After Breakfast with an open mind and open heart. It is an intensly personal narrative that lingers in the heart and soul long after the journey ends.

Writers reading Alan Cheuse's work always learn something about being a better writer. We learn about structure, beauty, the unique turn of phrase no one else would use. We learn to write directly to the reader.

In reading "A Trance After Breakfast," you'll learn how to take your travel experience and make something it more. We observe Cheuse's simple narrative style, which succeeds because of his ability to remain aware. In doing so, he makes something more of himself because of his travels.

Most pieces in this book have appeared elsewhere, such as "Gourmet," "The San Diego Reader," and literary magazines. We tag along as Cheuse travels in Mexico, Bali, New Zealand, and less exotic locales, full of shared insights.

Two of the longer pieces, "Port of Entry" and "Mexican Rabbi," which explores Jewish cultural life in Mexico, first appeared in "The San Diego Reader." We see Cheuse as an extraordinary combination of the wandering traveler and self-described pilgrim. He tags along with the border guards in his poignant essay, "Port of Entry," observing San Ysidro Port of Entry, often called the world's busiest land border crossing. Cheuse lets us observe U.S. Customs officials as they manage the border crossing traffic. We peer into the lives of the border agents, who work two shifts each day, and witness the sad and scared eyes of people caught in desperate attempts to escape from Mexico to America, which he calls the "United States of Helpless Dreamers."

"A Trance After Breakfast" is a rich blend of travel and personal essays, and a model of narrative non-fiction only a good story-teller could weave. Release Your Writing: Book Publishing, Your Way

The author,a tenured professor in a third rate University, has elevated himself to a notable by using radio
essays on NPR and sticking to the NPR line. His writing is pathetic and would never be published, but for his
radio job. Don't trust me. Check it out for yourself. Remember a tree died for his pathetic effort.