Read it before you go to: Ionian islands, Greece The second person narration – ‘You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time in the morning’ – drags you in from the first page before you know it you are overcome with an urgent desire to stalk the Lower East Side at 6am, the consequences be damned.ĬAPTAIN CORELLI’S MANDOLIN BY LOUIS DE BERNIERES Because really this is a paean to Manhattan and its glorious degraded glamour. McInerney’s novel is supposed to be a takedown of the city’s crass materialism, but he is too in love with the target of his satire to make any of the charges stick. It also boasted the best nightlife in all human history. New York in the 1980s was a place of rampant corruption, extraordinary violence and moral degradation. You are awed by his strict refusal to acknowledge any goal higher than the pursuit of pleasure.’ ‘Tad’s mission in life is to have more fun than anyone else in New York City, and this involves a lot of moving around, since there is always the likelihood that where you aren’t is more fun than where you are. This riveting travelogue describes the many people he met along the way, the social and cultural patterns he noticed, the changing landscapes and seasons – and his heart-warming relationship with his sidekick, Charley the poodle. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip a trip takes us.' At age 58, Steinbeck couldn’t fight his restlessness and, feeling he no longer knew or understood his country outside of New York, he hit the road for a year in a camper van, which he christened Rocinante after Don Quixote's horse. 'And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. 'A journey is a person in itself no two are alike,' he says. The book that is probably Steinbeck’s most endearing is not only a love letter to the USA, it’s also an ode to our innate desire and need to travel, and the joy and lifeblood it can breathe into us. Read it before you go to: the USA, on a road trip
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