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TRAVEL / MEMOIR
“Alden Jones is something of a ‘Prodigal Daughter,’ and she has come
home from her long travels to tell us the stories from her own life and
education. We both delight and learn from her wisdom and her tales of
nine places in the world.”
—Brian Bouldrey, author of
Honorable Bandit: A Walk
across Corsica
Through personal journeys both interior and across the globe, Alden Jones inves-
tigates what motivates us to travel abroad in search of the unfamiliar.
By way of explorations to Costa Rica, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba, Burma, Cam-
bodia, Egypt, and around the world on a ship, Jones chronicles her experience as
a young American traveler while pondering her role as an outsider in the cultures
she temporarily inhabits. Her wanderlust fuels a strong, high-adventure story
and, much in the vein of classic travel literature, Jones’s picaresque tale of per-
sonal evolution informs her own transitions, rites of passage, and understandings
of her place as a citizen of the world. With sharp insight and stylish prose, Jones
asks: Is there a
right
or
wrong
way to travel?
The Blind Masseuse
concludes that
there is, but that it’s not always black and white.
I discovered that I liked the blur in the photographs. I liked the haze. They made
the images of Burma dreamy, surreal, which is how it was to me. I liked that the
filter was the tourist’s shield. I could even say I’d done it on purpose: the work
reflects the tourist’s view of Burma. The countryside looked easy and peaceful to
us. Herders and workers lived their daily lives outside our fast-moving machine.
What we saw and remembered did not reflect the true Burmese experience,
lives lived suffering memories of torture, a sister raped, a son stolen. No. I saw
willows.
—excerpt from
The Blind Masseuse
© The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. All rights reserved.
Alden Jones
has lived, worked, and traveled in over forty
countries, including as a WorldTeach volunteer in Costa
Rica, a program director in Cuba, and a professor on
Semester at Sea. Her work has appeared in
AGNI, Time
Out New York
,
Post Road
,
The Barcelona Review
,
The
Iowa
Review
,
Prairie Schooner
,
Gulf Coast
, and
The Best American
Travel Writing
. She lives in Boston.
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2006
LC: 2006007291 G 182 PP. 6 × 9
E-BOOK $9.99 T ISBN 978-0-299-21843-0
Terrace Books
Of re l at ed int e re s t
Lucy Jane Bledsoe
“A vivid story-teller, Lucy Jane Bledsoe
delivers a compelling and thought-provok-
ing read. Her search for wild places leads
her on an inner journey as well, taking her
at last to the wildest continent of all.”
—Brenda Peterson, author of
Build Me an
Ark: A Life with Animals
OCTOBER
LC: 2013014543 G
160 PP. 5 ½ × 8 ¼
E-BOOK $12.95 T ISBN 978-0-299-29573-8
A trade imprint of the University
of Wisconsin Press
“
Wise, witty, and well traveled, Alden
Jones has given us a beautifully
written book that honors the
wandering spirit in all of us. Take this
journey with her and return newly
alive to the pleasure of moving
through the world.
”
—Ana Menéndez,
author of
Adios, Happy Homeland!
Kate Bonsignore
