New on the Bookshelf

by Chris Springer, Contributing Editor

“The Cultural Guide to Jewish Europe” by the Jacques and Jacqueline Levy-Willard Foundation (2004, Chronicle Books. ISBN 2020612119 — $35 paperback, 610 pp.).

Continent-wide surveys often spread themselves far too thin. Here is one that does its subject justice. Country by country, city by city, this guidebook catalogs and celebrates Europe’s Jewish face. Descriptions of old synagogues, former ghettos and vanished shtetls appear side by side with illuminating anecdotes. (In Switzerland, for instance, ritual slaughter has long been banned, and kosher meat must be imported.) And for once, Central and Eastern Europe has been given its due. Of particular interest is the section on “Yiddishland,” the vast area where the Yiddish language and culture flourished, a culture of which few vestiges remain.

This book splits the difference nicely between armchair-traveler appeal and on-the-road practicality. It is richly illustrated with both historical and present-day images. Opening hours and phone numbers are provided but are unobtrusive. Maps are the only notable omission.

“Spanish Recognitions: The Roads to the Present” by Mary Lee Settle (2004, W.W. Norton. ISBN 0393020274 — $24.95 hardback, 358 pp.).

“To be alone by choice is one of the great luxuries of the world.” The first sentence of “Spanish Recognitions” sets the tone for this fascinating yet frustrating book. Historical novelist Mary Lee Settle emerges from her library research and sets off, solo, to experience Spain firsthand. Visiting churches and palaces, Settle demonstrates “this talent or this curse of picking up what people call the past and what is to me the present. . .” She vividly brings to life the Moorish conquest of Spain and the Christian reconquista.

But when she is not channeling the spirit of St. Teresa or conjuring up Ferdinand’s conquest of Grenada, Settle stands on weaker ground. She avoids engaging with living people, so her experiences in the here and now are limited to the banal.

Settle has a gift for crafting mellifluous prose from simple words and sentences. But her work feels like a marble statue — graceful, with flowing lines, yet devoid of warmth.

“No Touch Monkey! And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late” by Ayun Halliday (2004, Seal Press. ISBN 1580050972 — $14.95 paperback, 273 pp.).

Few of us have had our sandals stolen by monkeys in India while recovering from the effects of a marijuana-fortified yogurt shake. Nevertheless, in her new book, Ayun Halliday strikes a chord that touches the hapless traveler in all of us.

Self-deprecating and disarmingly frank, Halliday has no compunctions about unpacking her dirty laundry in print. Her travel misadventures unfold in a series of cringe-inducing episodes — from a “vomitrocious” camel safari to the deprivations of Romania to scrounging beers at Oktoberfest. One or two stories rely on weak material (e.g., a missed appointment in Singapore). Yet Halliday’s keen observations and wisecracking style make this a hilarious read.