Lee Lorenz, cartoonist and art editor of the New Yorker, knows you don`t have to travel very far to be in another world. So we find Pig and Duck wondering where to go when their air conditioning fails on the hottest day of the year. They decide on A Weekend in the Country (Prentice-Hall, $11.95), only a phone call away to their good friend Moose, who owns a farm.
”Come on up,” Moose says, adding that the bus is the easiest way to get there. Just bring along sleeping bags in case the bus breaks down at night and ”you wouldn`t want to walk out, because mighty strange things happen around there at night.” Imagining all sorts of things that go boo in the night, Pig and Duck scratch the bus–and then the train and boat and plane. So, how do they get there? Why tip a surprise ending?
”Weekend” actually is a children`s book, but today`s youngsters would probably see Pig and Duck`s worst fears as grand adventure. However, parents are another story. Whoever winds up with the book gets hilariously illustrated watercolors (a favorite finds Duck and Pig treed by hungry, snarling bears)
and a chance to rethink that summer camping trip.
Like Lorenz, Burton Roueche`s work appears in the New Yorker and Sea to Shining Sea (Truman Talley/Dutton, $18.95) is mostly a collection of that writing. Reading Rouche`s stories in a single volume, one after another rather than every so often in the magazine, is like listening to a basically solid musician breaking rhythm. ”First Boat to King Island: The Bearing Sea” is a vivid description of the Eskimos living a hundred miles northwest of Nome.
”Roots: Nancy France,” is a flat essay in which Roueche searches for his ancestry. Perhaps Roueche`s original pieces are handled by different editors. Or perhaps it is too much of a good thing at one time. Happily, the strong stories outweigh the weak, and I will continue to look for Roueche in the New Yorker.
The couple wondered if ”French dogs are taught in puppyhood how to cross their paws . . . not something English dogs do”; a woman noted that ”Hong Kong eats 24 hours a day” and a man confessed that he wasn`t ”prepared to find Texas–er, so Texan.” Those are a few of the observations made in The Sunday Times Travel Book (David and Charles, $17.95). The 50 essays were culled from almost 3,000 entries in the Times 1984 travel writing contest and will no doubt inspire the reader to take pen in hand. The quality is uneven, but the judges (including Paul Theroux) made sure that every part of the globe was covered and have nicely mixed the tones of humor, awe and oppressive reality. Since this is all very subjective, I do not agree with the judges`
choice for winner, preferring the writer, who when asked the purpose for visiting the United States, answered, ”I`d like to see the country that produced Thurber.”
If you follow the Lewis and Clark Trail from Missouri to Oregon, you will eat in small-town coffee shops where ”some still serve the milk for your coffee in those tiny little glass bottles, which, inevitably, the waitress perches on the side of the saucer.” That is one of the small pleasures for the author Gerald Olmsted in this new Fielding Reliving History Guide
(Fielding/Morrow, $12.95).
From a company that usually publishes guidebooks for an entire country or even a continent, this is a nice change. Olmsted immediately tells you that he hopes this book will be read aloud, that he assumes you are going ”from east to west” and admits that ”although Lewis and Clark wandered all over creation, they missed all the fun places to see like South Dakota`s Black Hills and, in Wyoming, Yellowstone Park.” However, he promises the traveler will find ”a nontouristy world; one which played a large role in America`s Manifold Destiny, and the winning of the West.”
The text is punctuated by quotes from the journals of Lewis and Clark as well as Thomas Jefferson, who sponsored the expedition. Along the way Olmsted points out places of interest, including museums, nature reserves and Indian reservations. The 2,000 miles of the trail are mostly over U.S. highways, now almost deserted since big trucks and people in a hurry use the interstates . . . Spanish Trails in the Southwest is another new offering from Fielding`s Reliving History Guide series.
Extra Dry Creek, Ark., got its name from simply being drier than nearby Dry Creek, while Moclips, Wash., is Indian (most likely Quinault) indicating
”a place to which girls were sent at the time of the puberty rite.” These are just two of 12,000 linguistic explanations from the new paperback edition of American Place-Names (Oxford University Press, $9.95). The author, the late George Stewart, has provided a manageable volume that takes us on a journey across the country and gives us an opportunity to study our heritage. A fascinating work.
Sobek`s Adventure Vacations (Running Press, $12.95) and The Adventurous Traveler`s Guide from Leo Lebon`s Mountain Travel (Fireside, $14.95) find the two leading names–and arch rivals–in the growing field of adventure travel going head to head to sell their product. Both have produced lavish catalogues that are more like books, most likely because it defrays the cost of printing brochures for every exploration.
Both offer mountaineering and river runs, overland trips by camel or four-wheel drive vehicles, gorilla safaris and Himalayan treks. Not only are they similar in what they offer, but both sprinkle their adventure books with tantalizing photos. For text, ”The Adventurous Traveler” uses essays by writers who participated in mountain travel expeditions. ”Sobek” opts for elegant prose, using excerpts from works by such writers as Jan Morris and John McPhee.
”Sobek” breaks its trips into five categories from easy to strenuous while ”The Adventurous Traveler” goes with three. It gives more precise information as to itinerary and moreover, an exact price. ”Sobek” prefers to give you a less detailed itinerary and a general idea of the cost by coding the trips moderate, medium and premium.
So which one to buy? If you are into mountaineering and are just a shade conservative, go with ”The Adventurous Traveler.” For the more flamboyant, particularly for those interested in river running and perhaps joining up for an exploratory expedition, you`ll probably prefer ”Sobek.”
Finally, if you want less formatted trips and want to stay in the U.S.A., The Great American Adventure Book (Dolphin, $12.95) offers everything from birdwatching to dogsledding. The book is basically a listing of 100 possibilities broken down into activities, duration of the trip, the name, address and phone number of the outfitter, price, required gear and suggested clothing. After that, you`re on your own to contact the outfitter.
A friend who had moved from New York to Los Angeles asked if I minded the three-block walk back to a restaurant from our parking place. She has since moved back to New York where she does not own a car. Even natives of the area do not think of L.A. as a walking town, but rather as a giant, sprawling suburb in which you search for a city by car. But the rule has proven to be the exception with Robert John Pierson`s A Walker`s Guide to Los Angeles Beach Communities (Chronicle, $7.95). From Santa Monica to San Pedro, Pierson gives directions on public transportation to the beach communities and, once you get there, points out buildings of architectural significance, oceanfront promenades, quiet parkways, lively pubs and meaty book stores. Detailed maps accompany this unusual and welcome guidebook.
