In Are We There Yet? (2003), David Smiedt went to South Africa, the country of his birth and upbringing, providing a travelogue informed by history and politics. From Russia with Lunch is a similar endeavour. Lithuania is the country of Smiedt’s grandfather’s birth, from which he escaped Jewish persecution to pursue a more lucrative future. In this sense, this is a tale of the author’s attempt to reconnect with an aspect of his family’s past that he has no memory of. It is therefore played out in a more internalised way. From the capital of Vilnius, Smiedt hires a car and embarks on a circuit of the country, clocking the main cities and their sights. These sights are churches, museums and town halls that largely make for interesting reading as Smiedt weaves the history and culture of the country into a personal and heartfelt journey. If I’d had a Lithuanian background and/or Jewish ancestry my interest may have been greater, but Smiedt illuminates the descriptions well with oddness and natural humour. Counterbalancing this humour and providing sharp contrast is the much darker story of the Lithuanian Jews before, during and after WWII. The horrific deportations to the cold(er) north and the murder of thousands by firing squad make for chilling reading.

Gabriel Fava is a bookseller at the Avenue Bookstore

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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