Literary Journeys: Mapping Fictional Travels Across The World of Literature

Edited by John McMurtrie

(Princeton University Press, 256 pages, $29.95)

John McMurtrie introduces Literary Journeys: Mapping Fictional Travels Across The World of Literature with the famous Robert Frost quote: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the road less traveled by. And that has made all the difference.” While Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken has become synonymous with a psychological journey, McMurtrie’s beautifully curated and exquisitely illustrated compilation of essays from over 50 contributors showcases works of fiction where the major characters embark upon a physical journey which also serves as an emotional crossing.

Chronologically structured, Literary Journeys is divided into four different sections, The first section, “Quests and Exploration,” starts with Homer’s The Odyssey  (725 to 675 B.C.) and ends with Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897). The second, “The Age of Travel,” opens with Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness (1899) and closes with Alejo Carpentier’s The Lost Steps (1953). The third, “Postmodern Movements,” commences with Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (1955) and concludes with Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible (1998). The fourth, “Contemporary Crossings,” begins with César Aira’s An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter (2000) and finishes with Amor Towles’ The Lincoln Highway (2021).

At the Very Beginning

McMurtrie’s decision to open Literary Journeys with The Odyssey reinforces Homer’s epic poem as the touchstone of Western literature. “Comprised of twenty-four books, The Odyssey was originally meant to be heard, not read…. In more than 12,109 lines of hexameter verse, it unfolds as a mythological rather than a historical tale. Man-eating giants, witches, and hydra-headed goddess creatures thwart the hero’s drifting homeward journey. Homer’s picture of the underworld became the model for all later western geographies of hell, most notably in Dante’s Divine Comedy.” (WATCH: The Spectacle Ep. 140: The Lord of the Rings is Still Relevant)

A basic understanding of The Odyssey is essential to navigating Western history, literature, and popular culture. I was first exposed to the story of the Greek hero Odysseus and his 20-year journey to return to his wife Penelope as a high school student. I would later read The Odyssey in its entirety in a college freshman English class. I enjoyed its beautiful language and vivid imagery and felt empathy for Odysseus as he struggled to return home despite the efforts of various creatures to detain him. My experience was further enhanced by my professor arranging for the class to see the 1954 film Ulysses starring Kirk Douglas as Ulysses (Odysseus). The same actress Silvana Magana was cast as both Penelope and the sorceress Circe who endeavors to keep Ulysses from returning home. This casting choice was illustrative of the hero’s powerful commitment to his wife which prevented him from even seeing the face of another woman.

Given the long shadow that The Odyssey has cast on Western civilization, it is no surprise that every section of Literary Journeys includes a work that pays homage to it. “The Age of Travel” includes perhaps the most famous example, James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922). The almost 800-page novel takes place over the course of one day, June 16, 1904. On this day, the protagonist Leopold Bloom who is supposed to represent Ulysses (Odysseus) walks the streets of Dublin as he grapples with the knowledge that his wife Molly has been unfaithful to him.

Very little happens beyond Bloom’s physical wanderings and interior reveries. Yet, despite its dark elements, McMurtrie asserts that the novel is not devoid of hope as it “celebrates Dublin’s friendliness, musicality and expressiveness of language.” I was 22 when I first read Ulysses, and while I understood intellectually that Joyce was drawing structural and thematic parallels with The Odyssey, I did not have a full appreciation for the novel’s beauty and complexity. Consequently, I have revisited it. (READ MORE: Little House on the Prairie Changed My Life)

Literary Journeys additionally salutes Homer with Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (1957) and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road  (2006). I read both of these books for the first time relatively recently and see an interesting parallel between them. Kerouac’s novel is a rambling documentation of his cross-country travels with the writer Neal Cassady. Kerouac and Cassady, who are named Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty in the book, spend their time pursuing “kicks” in the form of women, drugs, easy money, and cool experiences.

While On the Road is an engaging and accurate reflection of the counterculture of its time, its principal characters are self-absorbed individuals who are slaves to their own intellectual and sexual vanities while they eschew all other responsibilities. Dean Moriarty flits back and forth between different women while also engaging in sexual relationships with men and routinely abandons his wife and children with little tangible consequence. On the other hand, in McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel, the unnamed father and son are on a pilgrimage of necessity as they spend each day trekking towards a coastal area while desperately trying to stay alive in a dystopian world where food and other resources are scarce and it is difficult to differentiate between the “good guys” and the “bad guys.” Furthermore, the father in The Road, unlike Dean Moriarty, will stop at nothing to protect his young son, including sacrificing his own well-being.

Travel in the Postmodern Literary Age

My favorite section of the book was “Postmodern Movements,” with Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago (1957), which depicts many journeys as its characters travel across Russia in search of political and personal freedom including a memorable three-day carriage ride in the snow which Dr. Yuri Zhivago takes with his wife Tonya and their son.

McMurtrie also profiles John Updike’s Rabbit Run (1960), the first of four novels featuring the protagonist Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a former high school basketball star who finds himself trapped in a loveless marriage to an alcoholic wife while holding down a boring job. One day Rabbit tries to escape his existence by driving all night from his hometown the fictional Brewer, Pennsylvania, located about 50 miles outside of Philadelphia, towards Florida, but his journey goes awry. Rabbit will eventually arrive in Florida in a later book but his experience does not meet his expectations. (READ MORE: Cormac McCarthy’s The Road Is a Conservative Classic)

McMurtrie comments that Updike once said that he wrote the Rabbit books in response to the “romanticized heroes of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road to illustrate to readers “what happens when a young American family man goes on the road — the people behind get hurt.”

I was especially delighted to see Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (1955) included in this compendium. I first read Lolita when I was 17 years old and I have spent my entire adult life defending it, especially in recent years in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

Nabokov’s novel is a linguistic masterpiece that mixes tragic elements with satire. Moreover, it is a journey novel as Humbert and Dolores (Lolita) spend a lot of time driving to escape the mysterious car that is following them. As Humbert comments,

We had been everywhere. We had really seen nothing, And I catch myself thinking today that our long journey had only defiled with a sinuous trail of slime the lovely, trustful, dreamy, enormous country that by then, in retrospect, was no more to us than a collection of dog-eared maps, ruined tour books, old tires and her sobs in the night — every night, every night — at the moment I feigned sleep.

If anyone has any doubt that Nabokov sees Humbert Humbert as a deeply disturbed individual and the story’s villain, the aforementioned quote should put that perception to rest.

I highly recommend John McMurtrie’s Literary Journeys: Mapping Fictional Travels Across the World of Literature. The author has created a marvelous tribute to Western literature that not only maps the journeys of celebrated literary characters but also encourages us to trace and retrace their footprints.