One for the Road: How to Travel with a Salmon

I realized after writing about foreign translations yesterday that I’ve actually read a few translated titles recently that are somewhat travel-inspired. First up is Umberto Eco’s How to Travel with a Salmon. This collection of witty parodies, published in 1995, gathers together a variety of satirical essays written by the Italian novelist between 1975 and 1991.

Eco’s short “diario minimos” have been translated into English by William Weaver, allowing a larger audience to enjoy his cleverly disguised complaints about the idiosyncrasies of travel, and life in general. These whimsical essays entertain readers with humorous advice on how one should eat in flight, travel on American trains, go through customs and take intelligent vacations.The chapter on how to buy gadgets might have some merit for travelers too, or at least keep ’em laughing.