bout de papier, Vol. 24, No. 2 (2009) — Spring 2009 // Printemps 2009, p. 17
MISSING THE BUS: MAKING THE
CONNECTION, by Terry A. Keenleyside,
Penumbra Press, Ottawa, 2009, 200 pp,
$24.95.
As student, journalist, Canadian diplomat, and academic sabbaticant, our former colleague and now professor emeritus, Terry Keenleyside, tells us about connections with characters, humour, smells and tastes that compose memorable moments for him and his family as they discovered the world. The reader travels back and forth across the years and the continents catching up with the King of Thailand in his throne room; Princess Imaterinsky in the Alpes Maritimes; Klaus Matthes on a photography shoot on the subject of love in Bangkok; Father O’Leary in the Victorian parlour of his country parish in County Clare, Ireland; Sepp, the Austrian trade commissioner, on the Wadi Rum-to- Agaba caravan route, etc. What makes this book different and special is the inclusion of 31 recipes that he enjoyed as he and his wife, Dot, travelled the world with their three children. As he says, local foods were, and still are, condiments that flavour the memories of his connections with exotic people and places.
Terry Keenleyside obtained his first degree in political science and economics at the University of Toronto. He then worked briefly at the Toronto Daily Star before going off to complete a Ph.D. in international relations at the University of London in the UK. It was here that he encountered over a game of Diplomacy with Indian students his first “foreign” food; 1.e. curries that, as he recalls, “tore his throat to shreds.” His next step was the Canadian Foreign Service with postings in Ottawa, at the UN in New York, in Thailand, and then Indonesia, before taking a teaching post in international relations and Canadian politics at the University of Windsor, where he is now an emeritus, having completed 40 journal articles and chapters in books. The professorship gave him additional great opportunities for sabbaticals and travel, which he enjoyed with Dot and their children Deb, Karen and Tim. Terry and Dot now live in Toronto.
The 39 short stories go back and forth in time and are arranged according to five movements that open a rich experience for travellers and readers: linking with the culture; linking with the people; dealing with unexpected yet creative threats such as pickpockets; recovering from missed connections of the transport and/or people kind; and finally, what Terry calls “natural highs,” when everything seems right with the world.
Every chapter brings alive quirky encounters that have a quiet way of reminding readers to look out for the same in their own lives. The characters are often associated with awkward moments when a good meal or even humble but unique snack will set the world aright once again. The author advises readers that, based on dining experiences in 20 of the 50 countries that he and his family have visited, one should precede the meal with a significant outing to scout out the heart of the community — back alleys and all. Such a walk, he counselled his son, should prepare the nose and taste buds with wafts of both savoury and unsavoury smells, and should include conversations with the locals.
The book has just been published by Penumbra Press of Ottawa and is available from www penumbrapress com for $24.95.
View the original scanned pages →
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 24, No. 2 (2009) — Spring 2009 // Printemps 2009, p. 17. Read the rest of this issue →
