Publication Date: November 30, 2005 (re-released December 10, 2013)
In Places in Time by Maxine Rose Schur, Maxine and her husband embarked on a worldwide trip as a young married couple. Places in Time: Reflections on a Journey is a look back to a trip understood in reflection and at the people met and lessons learned through travel.
Capra Press is re-releasing this title and sent me a copy in exchange for my review.
I’m not a person who can fathom setting out on a trip without knowing where I’ll end up next and if I’ll have enough cash when I get there. I once rented a car in England and just drove with hotel reservations for each night but not plans of what to do between check-out and check-in and thought that was daring. The adventure into which Schur jumped in with both feet is both very foreign and admirable to me. The optimism and joy with which she and her new husband faced the world is fun to read. The memoir is based on reflection and Schur’s letters to her father and the enjoyment he must have derived from those letters is easy to imagine reading this wonderfully written tale.
Places in Time: Reflections on a Journey is a beautiful love letter from Schur to her youth and the newness of the world before her. Berkley of the 1960s is becoming too suffocating in its activism and ardency for Schur and her new boyfriend. Schur decides that they must get married and get away and that’s exactly what they do. Traveling with little money and a lot of trust in the universe the couple set out on a grand adventure. Illustrated with Schur’s travel pictures, we get a beautiful and sunny view of the world that is refreshing in its trust of the good in everyone. In France Schur and her husband meet a man who balances a hammer on his nose and we get a picture of the trick that brings a smile to the face. The world in the 60s was much larger but in Places in Time: Reflections on a Journey we get a sense of a community and brotherhood with mind-like souls. The reader hitchhikes in time with Shur and her husband and it is a wonderful feeling.
Schur waited years to write this novel and did so based on her letters to her father. She has a beautiful writing style with a smooth and engaging flow. Readers will be charmed by her description of the time spent in Switzerland and will understand the wonder Schur felt as she inventories the kitchen of her rented home. The author invests each location and personality with an affection and care painting a beautiful picture for the audience. Readers will be transfixed by the tale of drinks with a Canadian and his Turkish guide as the guide gives Schur and her husband a good look at the wonderfully forgiving people of Turkey. Readers’ hearts will weep for the father who lost his son and is responsible for a near-death experience viewed through an alcohol and Dramamine fueled haze.
Schur gives us a look at the beauty and good of the world. Places in Time: Reflections on a Journey is a travel memoir written in retrospect and done right. This is travel memoir to be read on a sunny day in a nook with a favorite beverage nearby. If you like travel stories or memoirs, “Places in Time” is one not to be missed.
Maxine Rose Shur is an award-winning children’s author. Places in Time: Reflections on a Journey won North American Travel Journalists Association and the 2006 Gold Award for Best Book by the Society of American Travel Writers. It was re-released by Capra Press in December 2013.
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