A Meditation on Literary Travel

I’ve been remiss in writing reviews for the last few weeks because I’ve been traveling. Despite my belief that I could play tourist all day and still write a whole book while I traveled, it turns out there are only 24 hours in my un-magical world, and I have to spend a few of them sleeping. So, I’m back, brushing off the dust, and happy to be chatting with you again.

I love books that take me somewhere. It could be a beachside town in Maine or a Scottish castle in the 1500s; immersing myself in a place I have never been is part of the power of books to transport me out of my life for a few hours.

When I’m able to walk through a setting I’ve only visited in fiction or on a movie screen, it’s a somewhat mystical experience. Over the years, I’ve added more fictional places to my real-life list, and this summer I had the opportunity to visit some more settings I knew only from fiction.

Waverly Place, San Francisco

I read Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club before I moved to San Francisco, and it was one of those life-changing books I didn’t want to end. If you’ve never read it, please do yourself a favor and pick up a copy immediately. I mourned when I finished because I wanted more time with the characters.

So when I found myself walking by Waverly Place in San Francisco’s Chinatown as a new resident of the city and realized it was the Waverly Place that Waverly Jong was named for in the book, it made me feel like the book I loved had sprung to life around me. If you grew up in a city like LA or New York, this might seem like old hat, but I spent most of my childhood in a small town that was the real setting for zero fictional events, so this was a big deal to me. As I lived in the Bay Area longer, I found more settings I recognized in Tan’s books and it made me feel closer to the story and, somehow, like I could be a character with important things to say, too.

Hollywood and Vine

I felt a bit of the same giddiness on my first visit to Los Angeles, driving by Hollywood and Vine and so many other places from the movies I loved. Yes, I do realize I sound like a hick, but standing on the same pavement as those larger-than-life characters made my own movie soundtrack start running through my head. It may have been just Chinatown to Jake (Jack Nicholson in Chinatown), but it will never stop being remarkable to me.

In Bruges

One of my destinations this summer was Bruges, Belgium. So, of course, I had to watch In Bruges before I went. I didn’t watch it when it came out because it didn’t sound like something I’d like — and I disliked the movie exactly as much as I expected. It was too violent for my taste, and the main characters were all men doing and saying stupid things. I know it’s supposed to be a great film, and some of you will disagree, but I think it hasn’t aged well.

However, the movie was a good tour guide for the city. I visited the famous bell tower (though I didn’t climb up it — I hate heights), took a boat cruise, and even saw the window from which Colin Farrell jumped onto a canal boat. So I can report that visiting a place depicted in fiction has more magical power if you actually like the fiction it stars in. I did like Bruges, and it is a fairytale city, but perhaps I will have to find a different story to make it truly magical.

Places you haven’t read about yet

The final stop on my summer trip had a more powerful connection for me. Three years ago, I spent two weeks in Lisbon. Then I spent the last two years writing (and rewriting and rewriting) my first book, where (spoiler alert) a critical part of the action takes place in Lisbon. I had revisited the city in my mind over and over, poring over Google maps and looking at photos to refresh my memory. Being back there now, as that book is out on submission, made me feel like I’d walked into the lives of characters I created. It brought them to life for me and made me feel like I was walking alongside old friends. It reassured me that the fictional world I spun for Mia and Justin is grounded in the real life of Lisbon: colorful, vibrant, quirky, a feast for the senses. I think this might have been my favorite literary visit yet.

“This area of Lisbon—the Alfama, according to Tour Guide Justin—is a different world from where we’re staying. The streets are so narrow and curvy it seems impossible for cars to pass and even less likely they can share the roadway with trams, motorbikes, delivery carts, and pedestrians, but it works. Three- and four-story buildings stand shoulder to shoulder, some painted pink or yellow, many covered in ceramic tiles that shimmer with blue glaze or ornate patterns or polka dots.

I stare out the window with greedy eyes, the visual stimulation setting my senses on fire. I want to sketch everything. I sit on my hands to still my restless fingers.

Our taxi follows a maze of twists and turns, going sideways as much as up. “The Castelo de Sao Jorge sits at the top of this hill,” Justin says. “The streets were laid out like this to deter invaders.” I try not to find Tour Guide Justin adorable, but I fail because he just is.”

— Mia Lieberman describes Lisbon in Mia’s List of Don’ts

Bonus: Best books and movies about San Francisco

When a book or movie about my hometown gets it right, I feel seen. Here are a few of my favorites.

Ali Wong and Randall Park’s Always Be My Maybe stands out not only because it’s a fabulous movie with great acting from Wong and Park, but because it feels like the real San Francisco. The house Park’s character lives in is a typical San Francisco flat. The dive bar his band plays at, the quirky local characters, and the Civic Center Farmer’s Market are all slices of SF life as I know it. Also, it includes a hilarious send-up of pretentious California culture with Keanu Reeves playing himself that is not to be missed.

Some of my favorite romance authors do a great job with local settings, too. Jasmine Guillory’s books are often set in real Bay Area spots with people who feel like they could be my neighbors; I love everything she writes. I’ve just read my first book by Alyssa Jarrett, and Love Apptually is so delightfully Bay Area, the jokes had me laughing from beginning to end. I heard Christina Dudley speak this summer, and she is every bit as funny in person as she is on the pages of Pride and Preston Lin, which also has an authentic Bay Area vibe.

Outside the romance genre, Corey Doctorow’s The Bezzle is not only a beautifully written and compelling book, but the Bay Area settings were delightfully familiar.

Those are at the top of my mind; I’m sure I’m leaving out lots of fantastic books and movies set in the Bay Area.

What’s your favorite depiction of your hometown? What’s your dream literary travel destination?