"Can one be homesick for a place one has never visited? I would have said no, but after reading Lucy Burdette’s Key West mysteries, I feel a bit homesick for sunsets on the beach, Conch Tours, John Martini sculptures (I looked them up — playful! and looked up gumbo limbo trees, too). Now I want some key lime pie . . . as well as flan, mojito cake, and Cuban Mix sandwiches (recipes included)."
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| Shetland, Scotland (Wikipedia) |
Thinking it over, I think she's right about homesickness for unfamiliar places. I feel that way about Shetland because of Ann Cleeves' series with its moody characters and even moodier setting, and Iceland, because of the books of Arnaldur Indridiason and Ragnar Jonasson.
Reds, can you think of a place you've only visited fictionally that you yearn to visit again?
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| Baynes Map of Narnia, Wikipedia |
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Narnia. Though it does have its pros and cons, that's for sure. Oh! Definitely Lyra's London-esque city in The Golden Compass. Again, pros and cons. Downton Abbey? Huh, again, under the right circumstances. And maybe the little town in Practical Magic. :-) And I'd love to be in Oxford with Morse, even though way too many people get killed there. I guess it's all about knowing the rules.
INGRID THOFT: Definitely Shetland. And Santa Teresa. Hopefully, Kinsey would be there and we could get some quarter pounders with cheese and hang out. I would love to visit the top floor of the department store the night that Corduroy slipped from his display case and explored the mattress department. I’ll see you in Oxford, Hank, but I’ll be there for Hathaway!
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| from Wikipedia |
JENN McKINLAY: Yes. Definitely. Yes. Our own Deborah Crombie made me so homesick for the Notting Hill area of London that I set my own series there and, of course, then had to go visit. Thanks, Debs! Other fictional locations I long for are Chanel Cleeton's Havana, Alexander McCall Smith's Botswana, and I would really get a kick out of spending an afternoon in Mick Herron's Slough House.
RHYS BOWEN: St Mary Mead, where life was simple (although occasionally dangerous). I'm not sure about Narnia, Hank, although I would like to meet Aslan. Definitely Oxford if I could meet Morse there. I have to confess that I've always had a hankering to go to Falco's Rome, just not stay in his apartment but with Helena's family instead.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Middle Earth, of course. Although I think I'd pass on Mirkwood and Mordor. And Hogwarts!!!! I really, really miss Hogwarts...
Lucy, your books made me homesick for Key West even before I came to visit. And now I really miss it. And Jenn, I love that my books made you want to be in Notting Hill. Now I reread YOUR Hat Shop books when I need a good dose of West London.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: The Germans have a word for this! (Of course they do.) Fernweh's literal translation is "far-sickness," but it connotes a longing to go to someplace you've never been. I'd like to go to the glamorous between-war world of Lady Georgie - Great Britain, the mysterious Balkans, and the south of France (with, obviously, a bankroll that enabled me to travel in style and comfort.) Speaking of style and comfort, I would embark on a trip on Agatha Christie's Orient Express, and then take the steamer Karnak up the Nile to Amelia Peabody's Egyptian digs. From the descriptions I've read and the photos I've seen, the British were "glamping" a hundred years before it caught on here. I could go for that.
HALLIE EPHRON: Istanbul. I took an art history course in college and learned about the former Greek Orthodox basilica with its many windows that make the domes look as if they're floating. And the city sounds so fascinating. And the history--Turkey being at the center of so many centuries of European history. And of course the food. And though I've been to Paris several times, I feel homesick for Amiee LeDuc's Paris, as I've experienced them in Cara Black's novels.
And you, red readers? Homesick for a place you've only visited in fiction?
