HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

Through personal musings and photographs, Roberts (Figments and Fragments, 2012) explores poignant moments during a life of extensive world travel.

The octogenarian author opens his memoir by urging readers to recognize and appreciate the artistry that’s all around them—to “keep your eyes open for beauty that is deeper, wider, higher, further, more memorable, unlimited and moving than you ever imagined.” He recalls his youth in England in the shadow of World War II, during which he was raised by intellectual, authoritarian parents. His early experiences in the Royal Air Force and his independent journeys around Europe helped him develop a taste for travel. It was further enhanced by his career at Coverdale, a management-training organization where he found his “life’s work: task-focused, small-group development.” His job, he says, took him around the world “from Canada to New Zealand.” In a collection of photos, he highlights what he felt were particularly powerful or symbolic moments along the way. He accompanies each image with a brief description of why it was, and is, significant for him, followed by descriptions of the photos’ specific locations and why he happened to be there. Finally, Roberts describes his various romantic relationships, and his time spent with family members and traveling companions; he even chronicles his life as he was writing this book. Readers will likely find the photography section to be the book’s highlight, as it features striking scenes of nature as well as intimate portraits. Some readers may struggle, however, with what Roberts himself calls “idiosyncratic punctuation”; sentences such as, “I see now this was my opening into the ‘and-and’ vs ‘either-or’ dualism approach to life, the non-dualistic way may all choose but counter-cultural to centuries of ‘the/my way,’ ” may confound more than they communicate. However, after readers view his photos, most will agree that visual art, rather than prose, is Roberts’ true medium. 

A memoir by an author whose striking photos are more illuminating than his quirky sentences.