Antoni Jach

With millions of Australians in Lockdown due to the escape of the Delta variant of Covid-19, the release of a novel featuring European travel might not seem to be very good timing. But that might depend on what kind of traveller you are or would like to be. I enjoyed Travelling Companions because it traverses destinations I've visited and features artworks and books that I love.

This month I was supposed to be taking one of the great train journeys of the world, the Ghan, from Adelaide to Darwin, but this week Lockdown was extended again. So our trip was suspended, and now we're booked to go next year instead. C'est la vie. Other people have had much greater disappointments and heartbreak. And I don't mind too much because, truth be told, the Ghan is a poor substitute for the kind of travel I like to do in the UK and Europe.

Which is the kind of travel enjoyed by the narrator of Antoni Jach's new novel, Travelling Companions. Just like me, he likes art galleries and museums, historic sites and remarkable buildings; and he likes to loiter in cafés and restaurants and soak up the ambience while enjoying the cuisines of Spain, France and Italy. He doesn't get liverish if his travel plans go slightly awry; he just goes with the flow. He also likes to make the acquaintance of other people with whom to share his experiences, and in all good faith he promises to stay in touch (but of course he never will.)

As a solo traveller, however, he seeks out company — especially in the evenings — and that's not something I do. By dinner time, introverts like me are exhausted by human company, and besides, I've got a travel blog to write, books to read and — as readers of this blog know — the reviews don't stop when I'm travelling, not unless patchy internet lets me down. But our narrator is delighted to strike up a friendship with an American couple called Gary and Nancy, and since they're doing the same kind of tourist trail he meets them again and again, mostly by prior arrangement.

Gary, alas, is a loquacious bore while Nancy is a sulky one. In slabs of text representing his monologues, he explains the relationship difficulties they're having to the narrator:

I'm not sure why I'm telling you all this, seeing as you are pretty much a stranger, but then, on the other hand, I know why I'm telling you all this — it's because you are a stranger and you're a good listener and I trust you. I can tell you don't feel the need to be the one who does all the talking.' (p.41)

Just as well!

To read the rest of my review, please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2021/08/18/travelling-companions-by-antoni-jach/… (altro)