As travel editor for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Swick travels all over the world, writes about it and sees the proof of his journeys in the Sunday papers. Although his job could easily spark considerable envy among readers, the author possesses a healthy sense of proportion when talking about his profession: "[Travel editors] lack seriousness of purpose and, in a chronically superficial profession, depth. In a dilettante's game, we are the ultimate gadabouts." Swick proceeds to take them around the world to countries and cities that he has no good reason to visit and no overarching thesis to prove or disprove—he just wants to go. He traipses from Columbus, Ohio, to Normandy, France, and on to Szeged, Hungary. His chapter on Vietnam doesn't begin with any assumptions, except a desire to hang out and do what travel writers do: meet people, see the sights and spend time in cafes chatting with locals. Similarly fascinating are his trips to Turkey, which seems at once friendlier and more terrifying than it should, and Minnesota, where Swick conducts a few sharp interviews with the state's battling giants: Gov. Jesse Ventura and Garrison Keillor. Swick is an enjoyable companion: knowledgeable but not too wordy, a fellow who knows when to describe the passing countryside and when to let the people who actually live there just talk. (Sept.)
