LONDON SOJOURN

Knuth’s memoir describes the author’s post-retirement search for a more reflective life.

As a child, Knuth was an avid reader with a special fascination for stories about London. When the author was 12, her grandmother fulfilled the young girl’s dream: Booking passage on the grand ocean liner Queen Mary, she took Knuth to London. It would be the first of her many extended visits to the British capital, often undertaken as part of her academic work. In 2014, after 18 years at the University of Hawaii, she reached her career pinnacle as a professor and chair in the department of Library and Information Science. But the rigid requirements of academia had burned her out, physically and mentally. She resigned her position, headed to London, and enrolled in a program to study creative nonfiction at the City University. (Knuth writes, “It would be voluntary exile in which a battered academic tries to come alive and reinvent herself.”) After so many years of writing for a scholarly audience, Knuth wanted to create popular nonfiction with broader appeal and reveal more of her internal life. The author also enrolled in a guide course, earning her certificate to lead tours through the streets and historical sights of London. Knuth’s erudite prose, peppered with British terminology (like using lift for elevator), reflects her years as an academic. Her passion for history and meticulous attention to detail frequently result in dizzyingly long passages describing every street, restaurant, park, library, cemetery, and historical site she encounters on her daily walks. As she finds herself increasingly fascinated by the biographies of female writers—who, like herself, struggled in a world dominated by men—it is enjoyable to witness her discovery that, somewhat to her surprise, she is a feminist. As evidenced by her writing about her family and friends, she has successfully learned how to communicate her private emotional journey.

Intriguing, introspective, and densely packed with historical and observational factoids.