Traveling While Married

Rating:
Summary: A great vacation pick-me-up
Review: "I, Mary-Lou, take thee, Larry, to be my constant traveling companion, to Hong and to Kong, in Cyclades and in Delft, for deck class or deluxe, so long as we both can move."

And so veteran travel writer Weisman gets her first laugh before the first page. This is a great book to read in an airport, waiting for a delayed flight, say, with an impatient spouse. The pieces are short, clever, affectionate, and funny. From packing to coming-home fantasies, Weisman puts things in perspective. She understands her own shortcomings - and her husband's - and mines them to full effect.

Larry likes camping, authenticity, moving where the spirit takes him. Mary-Lou does not. "I travel the way I cook. I follow directions like a fascist....I don't improvise and I don't make substitutions." As for authenticity, Weisman tells a funny story of Paris in their youth, a night in a cheap hotel that turned out to be a whorehouse, followed by a morning in the public baths and concludes, "If you're the sort of person who insists upon having a wonderful time while you're on vacation, authenticity may not be your thing."

On packing, she's wistfully reminded of a friend who traveled to India taking only clothes she was tired of wearing and leaving an outfit behind in each place she stayed. Neither of the Weismans is so disciplined. "I'm always the one to give in to temptation first, a precedent established by Eve in Genesis 3....I am seized by a perverse and irresistible urge to pack more."

Weisman, needless to say, likes her comfort. So it's a real act of love when she agrees to a white water rafting trip for Larry's 50th birthday. She already knows she's going to have a horrible time. "But as well as I know myself, I have failed to take into account a serious character flaw that is serving me well on this trip. I tend to behave myself when people are watching."

The flip side is their spa trip the following year. Larry is determined to hate it. When she says that yoga will make him feel "stretchy and catlike," he responds, "If I want to feel catlike, I'll get a litter box." But even that one works out well - for Larry. Then there's fantasy real-estate purchases in Paris, boredom on a Caribbean beach, and a few adventures which are better in anticipation than reality, like sand-boarding in Chile, and trekking in Tibet.

Weisman's writing is engaging enough to take the irritation out of misplaced reservations. Every reader will find their traveling selves somewhere in these pages - and find them pretty likable too. This is a great book to take on vacation (it's small!). Or give to a grouchy spouse.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious!
Review: A gem of a book that should accompany every couple on vacation. He takes her on a white water rafting trip. ("Larry likes camping. One of the ways I got him to marry me was to pretend I liked it too.") She takes him to a spa, where he tries yoga, which she suggests will make him feel stretchy and catlike. ("If I want to feel catlike, I'll get a litter box," he answered.) And so it goes. From traveling poor as a young couple to a house in Tuscany to Elderhostel. There is practical advice, too, on packing, for example. ("Packing is the original sin of travel. In the beginning there was no packing. There weren't even any clothes.") But really, the dedication says it all: "I, Mary-Lou, take thee, Larry, to be my constant traveling companion, to Hong and to Kong, in Cyclades and in Delft, for deck class and deluxe, so long as we both shall move."

Rating:
Summary: HUMOR AT THE TOP OF ITSs FORM
Review: I can not keep this book in my house. I keep buying a copy and giving it away because it is so wonderful. Mary Lou Weisman is one of the top humor writers in this country. She has wit, charm, a joyful use of the English language, imagination, heart, intelligence, savy, and class. And that's for starters!

It's been a long time since I have laughed out loud. One of my favorite chapters is about the time they rented a house in Italy.
Ms. Weisman says about the disappointment of the house ..

"Sometimes you have a view and sometimes you are the view".

Anyone who has travelled, is about to travel, or who dreams of travel in partnership has to read this book. It's perfect for anyone 20-80. She is a first rate American humorist.

I simply love this book!

Rating:
Summary: Not quite funny
Review: I kept waiting for this book to get funny - and it never quite made it. It was a little too whiney for my taste; the author airs every pet gripe she's collected over a lifetime, but without the sort of humor that makes Bill Bryson so funny. And her "tips" aren't the helpful sort - they just seem like disguised complaints to me.

Rating:
Summary: a great book to share
Review: I started reading the essays in this book and found myself interrupting my wife every couple of minutes to read a line out loud. Like this one: "Paris is our all-time favorite place in which to pretend to live....We don't care if the French aren't friendly. When we are French, we won't be friendly either."

This collection of essays is insightful about its subject, but mostly just funny, self-effacing, and full of honest observations about the ways people (especially married couples) tend to act when traveling. It's not a book of tips on travel; it's a book to read out loud on the plane over, or on the plane home, or just at home.

If you like to travel and have the ability to laugh at yourself a little--as Weisman can and does--you will love "Traveling While Married" and will probably end up sharing it with people you love and love to travel with.

Rating:
Summary: An absolute hoot of a book
Review: Mary-Lou Weisman's "Traveling While Married" is an absolute hoot of a book, and a terrific gift for any married couple who loves to travel together. Weisman's writing is wise without being snooty, and hilarious because of the truths about which she writes. She has nailed the experience of traveling while married dead-on, and the result is a book filled with laughs. You'll find yourself exclaiming, "That's so true!" The funniest essay in the book, "Doing Nothing," explores the whole fallacy of the relaxing beach vacation:

"Day two was always a sobering experience. We would learn for the first, second or third season in a row that we could not read on a beach. Too hot even for Jackie Collins. And so, like two amphibious creatures in a PBS nature documentary, we would lie on the sand until some eternal signal as old as life itself would tell us that we had preheated to 350 and it was time to make our way to the sea. There, we would submerge and swim about for several minutes before retracing our steps up the beach to resume our patient vigil on the sand. After a preordained period of time, the amazing cycle of nature would begin again, and back we'd go to the sea. And we'd do all this without ever laying eggs."

Weisman covers rental properties, spa vacations, whitewater rafting, cooking in other people's kitchens, inviting people to vacation with you, packing and just about every other travel topic under the sun. The result is wonderful--highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: An absolute hoot of a book
Review: Mary-Lou Weisman's "Traveling While Married" is an absolute hoot of a book, and a terrific gift for any married couple who loves to travel together. Weisman's writing is wise without being snooty, and hilarious because of the truths about which she writes. She has nailed the experience of traveling while married dead-on, and the result is a book filled with laughs. You'll find yourself exclaiming, "That's so true!" The funniest essay in the book, "Doing Nothing," explores the whole fallacy of the relaxing beach vacation:

"Day two was always a sobering experience. We would learn for the first, second or third season in a row that we could not read on a beach. Too hot even for Jackie Collins. And so, like two amphibious creatures in a PBS nature documentary, we would lie on the sand until some eternal signal as old as life itself would tell us that we had preheated to 350 and it was time to make our way to the sea. There, we would submerge and swim about for several minutes before retracing our steps up the beach to resume our patient vigil on the sand. After a preordained period of time, the amazing cycle of nature would begin again, and back we'd go to the sea. And we'd do all this without ever laying eggs."

Weisman covers rental properties, spa vacations, whitewater rafting, cooking in other people's kitchens, inviting people to vacation with you, packing and just about every other travel topic under the sun. The result is wonderful--highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Don't go away without this
Review: Mary-Lous Weisman, a seasoned veteran of both marriage and travel has written a hilariously funny handbook for those travelling in tandem. She explores the trauma of packing for two, the necessary compromises about what to see, eat, and buy (or not) and describes the triumphs and failures she has had on the road, the high seas and in the air in the company of her husband, Larry. This vital information is contained in one of the funniest books I've ever read. Serious stuff, like the hotel without a view or central heating in a place that was advertised as warm and picturesque sounds like a little glitch to be overcome. And there's practical information too.For instance, if you're bored out of your skull on a slow (and expensive) French barge trip get bicycles and meet the other passengers at the next four- star auberge. We've all experienced the unplanned for event that threatens to ruin a trip. But , with only a few exceptions, such catastrophes seem to melt under the uniqe, slightly off center, but always fresh viewpoint that is Mary-Lou's sense of humor. You will find yourself reading the book aloud to strangers on the bus who will try to wrench it out of your hands as you move to get off. And, if your friends are like mine, a gift of this book will send them off to buy copies for every innocent they know is about to go abroad without the protection of Mary-Lou's wisdom.
Even if you're staying at home this book is a trip. As for those who are travelling with their mates Traveling While Married is as vital to a successful voyage as getting those shots if you're going to a places where you're warned not to drnk the water. Watch the divorce rate go down as sales of this book go up. Strike a blow for family values buy this charming,riotously funny, must-read book.

Rating:
Summary: A "must" Gift
Review: This is one of the truest, funniest books I've read on the subject of travelling with one's spouse or significant other.
Weisman writes with insight and humour about the quirks of travelling with someone else. The illustrations are also superb.

I highly recommend this book as a gift for any couple about to embark on a vacation.