Reader Donna Agins Reviews “All Over the Map” by Laura Fraser

All Over the Map, Laura Fraser’s sequel to her bestselling book, An Italian Affair, takes the reader to many exotic locales including Paris, Samoa, Peru, the Amazon, Naples, Mexico and San Francisco. In each, she writes beautifully about the settings and the delicious foods and wines she enjoys. She soaks up local color, makes friends easily and always finds joy in her surroundings. The author has an outgoing, friendly and intelligent personality that the reader will immediately connect to. 

The book opens with Fraser flying off to meet “the Professor,” an old lover she had written about in An Italian Affair, in Oaxaca, Mexico. She is overjoyed to see him, as they have been meeting for trysts for the last ten years. When she first sees him, she notices that he looks happier and more at peace than he has in a while.  He is thrilled to see her, as well, but more than that, he is excited to tell her he has finally found the woman of his dreams. Sadly, that is not Fraser. She spends the week with him platonically, sampling food, wine and sightseeing, but with the ending of this important affair in her life she realizes that she now has nothing but her own independence for company. At the age of forty, she sees a lot more wrinkles on her face and fewer years of fertility — an added pressure because she thinks she really wants to have a child.  

When she goes home to San Francisco, Fraser finds it difficult to be alone. She is hurt, confused and angry, but instead of looking inward, she avoids introspection and goes globe-hopping instead. She accepts magazine article assignments that send her to interview Samoans and women who are helping young prostitutes leave the streets of Italy. She even ends up on an Outward Bound adventure. During this time, she has a long string of affairs with completely unsuitable men, and is hurt when things never work out for her. Though Fraser thinks of herself as spontaneous, she is recklessly impulsive, living life like a bumper car in an amusement park, never stopping to think about her actions. With each disastrous affair, she seems determined to avoid looking at herself or to learn anything and takes off to another foreign place to write another magazine article. She complains about her single status, but continues to make bad choices. At one point she sets a goal to have a boyfriend by the age of forty-five. She achieves her goal, but the man is so unsuited to her, that the reader is not surprised when he breaks up with her- on her birthday, no less! 

One day, on assignment, Fraser meets Sharon Salzberg,  a well-known meditation instructor who teaches her loving kindness meditation techniques, which change her life. She learns to put the brakes on her impulsiveness, think before she sends scathing e-mails and hold back the first thing that comes into her mind. She also stops leaping into relationships with unsuitable men. Best of all, she learns to consider what the consequences of her actions will be before she makes decisions. The meditation calms her, and she is able to look at her mistakes as learning experiences, gleaning wisdom from them. This is a pleasant change for both Fraser and the reader, who’s been rooting for her from the beginning.  

I would recommend All Over the Map to anyone going through a transition in their life and for people who enjoy reading about travel and food. Fraser’s vivid descriptions are mouth-watering and her intimate sense of place gives the reader a rare opportunity to travel around the globe with her, living vicariously through her adventures and learning that sometimes the most intriguing place to visit is right inside yourself.   

Donna Brown Agins is the author of two biographies: “Jacqueline Kennedy, Legendary First Lady” and “Maya Angelou: Diversity Makes for a Rich Tapestry,” which was nominated for an NAACP Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Youth and Teens. She has been the recipient of the Judy Blume Work in Progress Grant and the Sidney Taylor Grant for Outstanding Literature.