Literary Ireland: Bloomsday

by Neil Woodburn on

Today is June 16.  It is a rather innocuous day for most people.  But not for Leopold Bloom.
 
Mr. Bloom is a literary character and as such, you’d imagine any day written about him would be a rather momentous one to warrant pen to paper.  And June 16 certainly was.  This was the day James Joyce carefully chronicled in what many consider the greatest novel of the 20th century: Ulysses. 

The novel takes place over the course of a single day and was the original 24 long before Keifer Southerland was ever born.  It follows the course of Mr. Bloom as he wanders and weaves his way through Dublin, paralleling Ulysses’ journey home as chronicled by Homer in The Odyssey.  

And you can do the same.

Every year, Dublin celebrates Bloomsday in honor of this lost soul.  There are readings of the book, a road race, and other festivities celebrating Joyce’s masterpiece. 

Fans of the novel, often adorned in period dress, start the day as Bloom did, with a kidney breakfast and then journey out to the Dublin streets and pubs featured in the book, stopping for Burgundy and a Gorgonzola cheese sandwich at Davy Byrne’s Pub.  Few, if any, properly replicate the entire journey which ends in the book at 2 a.m., but the fun is the attempt to do so. 

A wonderful bonus for participants is that the more they drink, the easier it is to begin grasping this otherwise impenetrable novel.  Somewhere between 12 beers and passing out, clear-sited epiphanies usually occur on the streets of Dublin and for one, brief moment, Joyce is finally understood. 

Miracle in the Andes: Rugby Players Eating Rugby Players

by Neil Woodburn on

Whenever I go backpacking with friends, the conversation occasionally comes around to who we’d have to eat if a storm blew in and we became stranded.  It’s been generally accepted that my buddy Kevin would be too gamey, so he’s out.  And I’m a little too lean to provide any type of worthwhile sustenance, so I’m at the bottom of the list as well.  So I got that going for me.

Such horror became reality for a Uruguayan rugby squad and their family and friends when the plane they were traveling on crashed into the Andes in 1972.  Of course, the tragedy was made into the bestselling book Alive and later, a popular movie.  The book was written by a journalist, however.  It’s a fascinating read and rather gory at times, but nonetheless put together by an outsider who was not there.

Now, for the first time, one of the survivors has penned an account of his own experience on the mountaintop. Nando Parrado, who lost his mother and sister in the crash, has waited 34 years to tell his story of what happened during those 72 days of freezing, starving, and… eating.  This harsh reality of what really happens when a plane crashes makes Lost look like some absurdist fairy tale. 

Outside Magazine has printed an introductory excerpt of Miracle in the Andes which you can find here.  The book itself was released May 9th so check your local bookstore. 

Time to (gasp!) Read a Book

by Erik Olsen on

I know, reading a book is so 19th century. That’s OK, some of us still do it every once in a while. Of course, that requires gong to Amazon.com or to the local bookstore. But wait! There’s a better way. Over at readprint.com you can download digital copies of many of the classics and read them on your computer. Books by folks like Rudyard Kipling and Joseph Conrad.

Sure, you can also print them out, but come on, save some trees.

Avoiding Outdated Guidebooks

by Neil Woodburn on

We’ve done a few posts here on Galding about guidebooks because they tend to be the primary source of information which can very easily make or break your trip.

There are many things to take into consideration when looking for a guidebook, but one of the most important to me is to check the date when it was published.  Old guidebooks with out-of-date hotel prices and restaurants long closed are no help to anyone.  The problem, however, is that even current guidebooks are outdated the moment they hit your local bookseller.  It takes a lot of time to research and write a travel book–at least a year minimum–and the information gathered can become quickly outdated during that time period.

So, which guidebooks tend to be the most up-to-date, and therefore most accurate?  The LA Times has published a handy article detailing how often publishers revise and update their various guidebooks.  Lonely Planet, for example, “generally updates about 80% of its books every two years.”  Not too bad. 

The article also discusses some of the guidelines which various publishers ask their writers to follow, such as requiring them to visit every accommodation recommended, but not necessarily having to stay at each one. 

Red Corner: Tracking Vietnam Lovers

by Neil Woodburn on

It’s always a great thing when travel and literature intersect. I’ve often sought out locations from books I enjoy while traveling through the cities in which they take place. After reading the amazing Master and Margarita, for example, it was a great joy to visit Patriarch’s Pond in Moscow where the beginning of the book occurs.

It was therefore with great interest that I came across an article in The New York Times in which journalist Matt Gross “retraces the narrative” of one of his favorite books; The Lover, by Marguerite Duras.

Duras was a French woman who grew up in the first half of the 20th century in Vietnam while it was under French control. As a teenager she fell in love with a wealthy Chinese businessman who was nearly twice her age. The Lover is a story of their illicit romance.

I’ve never read the book, in fact I’ve never even heard of it before, but Gross’s adventure tracking the storyline with the help of an old 1953 map book featuring original French street names is rather compelling. Surprisingly, he finds that not much has changed since the lovers first met in 1929; the romance of Indochina apparently lives on.