By Kohinoor Dasgupta
Luke Russert tells a difficult story through his travel diary, Look For Me There/ Grieving My Father, Finding Myself, one that makes me want to believe in signs from heaven.
I lost a beloved parent when I was a college sophomore. My father had a cardiac arrest while driving home from work one Friday evening in August, long ago. He was not a national treasure, but Ma and I treasured him. He was not yet fifty. I was back attending classes (mine was a day college) the Monday after the weekend. I remember a college mate expressed surprise at my stoniness (no tears, back in class). What did she know?
I congratulate the author for having the courage and honesty to write this book.
The father he grieves was the great Tim Russert, whose sudden demise shook the nation and whose unifying voice USA has missed since 2008.
After eight years of working as a television journalist based in Washington DC, Luke Russert embarked on a series of travels, visiting sixty countries. In Look For Me There, his adventures are abridged to fit into 256 pages. He could include only about a third of the places he visited.
There is a rawness in this book, a repugnance for pretty filters. No one blinks, no one settles, no one offers platitudes. The author's mother, journalist and philanthropist Maureen Orth, accompanies him on a couple of trips. At the final stop of his wanderings, Russert also arrives at a few unbiased conclusions regarding character traits inherited or denied, and his own gifts.
Travel is not the same as tourism. Russert is a traveler, and a unique one at that. He is a believing Catholic who (at Wat Preah Prom Rath in Cambodia) remembers "an old saying”: "We’re all getting to the same faithful ending. We just take different roads.” He is a son who, after eight years, feels compelled to revise the abrupt ending of his joyful journey with his dad. He is a millennial who wants to connect with history and humans in the actual worldwide web of ways. Although he often joins tour groups and participates in touristy activities (for the Instagram photos), Russert is sociable and impulsive, which leads to interactions with locals and expats and even Takechiyo the star otter.
Part of the charm of the book is that Russert did not plan to write a book. He was more intent on developing practical and psychological coping skills, and there were places he wanted to see. For the longest time, he did not have a public-facing agenda beyond taking the regulation Instagram photos. He met folks by chance. He talked with them. He did not ask questions with a future book in mind. However, being a former journalist, he did not forget to keep notes.
The second attractive aspect of this book for me is that he chose to go to places like Easter Island and La Paz and Ōkārito. The internet has information on every nook of the globe, but Russert gives a sense of place, and we see the places at untouristy times, as if they were caught unawares.
The chapter on Japan, to my surprise, has several surprises. Japan is too well-traveled and written about, I thought, to reveal new facets within a few pages. However, Russert trusts his instincts and finds human stories. He retains a sense of wonder and is generally unflappable.
Young people who have seen Oppenheimer (2023) will be interested in the pages about Hiroshima.
The author's sense of humor is quirky and unforced and shows up most unexpectedly. There were several times when I was in splits. I will not spoil those discoveries for other readers.
I rejoiced at this modern pilgrim's progress when he hit pause to meticulously sort out his dad’s boxes of stuff. That was a herculean effort. He writes:
“When I finish the boxes, there’s no sense of satisfaction. Every single one was such an emotional journey. I’m relieved to be finished.”
All in all, Russert tells a no-frills human story of measuring up to grief and expectations. There are awe-inspiring signs from heaven that indicate that he is on the right path. This book is a very good sign too.
***
Look for Me There/ Grieving My Father, Finding Myself
By Luke Russert
Published By Harper Horizon, 2023
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