This tale of an epic European journey will take you back to the days of travel before Google Maps and social media posts. It was a time when one could hop off a train in a European town in August without reservations and still score a room for the night. Its protagonists are out to escape a corporate world that also hearkens back to another time –when endless meetings were all held in person, with no off—camera escapes and no iPhone to peek at under the table.
In those early days of the millennium, titles like A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun let readers dream of a carefree life spent permanently abroad –before crashing back to an earthly reality of deadlines, family obligations and bills to pay. Author Thomas Lincoln set out to appeal to those readers, but with a twist, creating “a travel memoir for those who can’t afford to quit their day job” –one that not only provides a vicarious escape from the day—to—day grind, but helps you like the life you come home to a bit better than before you “left.”
We first encounter the author at work, daydreaming in a meeting about travels past and planned. But is there more behind his disengaged appearance? To find out, we flash back to a younger self having rashly quit his job and persuaded his considerably less impulsive romantic interest to do the same. Over the course of three months on the move across Europe, while she proceeds with caution and guards her own feelings, he –somewhat insensitively—revels in his freedom. Then, beginning with an epiphany in a field of poppies in the English countryside, as he learns to be at peace with the uncertainties of Italian infrastructure and absorbs the simple wisdom of a retired Croatian cargo ship captain on the candlelit terrace of his home above the sea, he is changed in ways that only authentic travel can bring forth. As we return to the corporate arena in the final chapter, we too have had our perception readjusted.
Crossing Saturday Furlong reminds us that, underneath the tech—enabled trappings of our rapidly—changing times, human constants remain –like confronting mid—life crises, reconciling one’s inner passions with daily practicalities, and learning to clearly see the partner standing beside you.