Cover Image: The Travelers

The Travelers

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Member Reviews

This was such a good book that I enjoyed very much. I will also say I was immediately put off when I first opened the book to the enormous list of characters that is the first thing you see. But, I just jumped into the reading and acted like I never saw that list. Each 'chapter' in the book is a short story of several characters lives between a certain time period. Each subsequent chapter draws into a deeper or parallel life of those characters through some type of relationship. It was intriguing, emotional, and I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would.

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This book was not for me! Thank you for sending it to me, I really appreciate it!

This book was not for me! Thank you for sending it to me, I really appreciate it!

This book was not for me! Thank you for sending it to me, I really appreciate it!

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The Travelers is...expansive. It is a unique novel and I admire what Regina Porter set out to do in this sprawling narrative. As a fan of inter generational story telling, there were some aspects of this book I enjoyed quite a bit, but overall felt the author perhaps took on too much to the point of detriment. The themes got a bit lost within the story telling, which was admittedly beautiful. Thank you to Hogarth and Netgalley for the opportunity to read it in exchange for my honest opinion.

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In some ways, this book was incredible. Beautiful prose and insight into race and racism at different points throughout modern American history. But the scope of this book, while impressive, was too broad for me. Why do we need SO many different characters and plotlines? I think the author's talent would have shone more if she chose one nuclear family, perhaps, and wrote a more in-depth novel about them. This felt like four or five novels crammed into one. While it was interesting and attention grabbing every time a new connection was discovered between seemingly unconnected characters, the most interesting and surprising plot points often fell flat because they were casually tossed in with no build up. Ultimately, I am glad I read this book, but it was a little too experimental for me.

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Thank you for allowing me to review this wonderful story. I loved the character development across the decades. The intermingling of the characters throughout the book was very interesting. The Seven Degrees of Separation was very evident in the book. Characters crossing paths with one another seems unlikely in life, but it is more real than most people realize. I enjoyed seeing how they all came together and their interactions with one another.

I appreciated the list of characters at the beginning of the book, as I was constantly going back to reference this information.

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Regina Porter’s The Traveller’s was a bit of a mystery - so much so I could not rate it on goodreads. I’m unsure whether to term it a character driven novel, a series of slightly interconnected intergenerational and multifamilial vignettes crossing the race and class line, or what @bookworm_man tells us is our literary future - an experimental novel through and through. Whatever it is I have a lot to say about this book that tells the lives of various folks from various families who cross paths in ways sometimes big but often small, with absolutely no single unifying plot point. If I had to narrow down what I wanted to say to three words I would say that The Traveller’s was vibrant, frantic, and challenging. And I mean this as a compliment and as a critique. What I loved about this book was its character studies, particularly of folks that could be my folks, and folks that could have preceded me, and lives that felt within my reach, and feelings that I feel. What I didn’t love what how rambling this novel was. The cast of characters were enormous, some were take it or leave it for me, some were forgettable, and sometimes, because there was no plot I was married to, I would forget what had happened to whom or who they were later in life because I’d wandered from the book for extended periods of time. That being said, I was transported enough by the people of the book that I was 80% done before I realized that there was actually no story to speak of. I think that this book should be a physical book held in your hands, there are photos and small tricks that were lost in an ebook format. I would read Porter again with excitement, but think this book could use some refinement to pack the punch that it potentially held. Thank you @netgalley for the arc, opinions are my own.

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Wanted to like this book but the countless characters made keeping up a problem. The story begins begins around 1948 and spans 60 years, chronicling the stories of 3 families- the White Camphor and Vincent families and the African American Johnson family. There is a lot of racial tension, family power dynamics, numerous histories, violence, and a lot of messiness. I liked the complexity but there were sadness and violence too.

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I found this book very hard to follow. There was a lot that was good about it, but I felt like I needed to write down what was going on just to keep track of it

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I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did -- in fact, I very nearly gave up on it early on because I had a hard time following. But it's a beautiful history of America and Americans, and the variety of what it can mean to be an American. It's one I'll likely pick up again and reread after I've let it sink in a bit.

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There are so many reviews for this, I can't add anything new. Historical fiction fans may like this. Other than being a little uneven, pretty good overall. 3.5 rounded up.

I really appreciate the advanced copy for review!!

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I enjoyed that this was a multi-generational story. I thought it was a little hard to follow due to so many characters and having to keep up with who's who, but the message of this book is very important: History impacts each of us very differently and we have to be able to tell our stories and respect each other's lived experiences. Only then can we truly be an accepting society.

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A gripping new novel with a distinctly American edge, THE TRAVELERS highlights the lives of two families—meet James Samuel Vincent—an affluent New York attorney who shirks his modest Irish American upbringing but hews to his father’s wily nilly ways; and Agnes Miller Christie—a beautiful African American woman who encounters tragedy on a Georgia road that propels her to a new life in the Bronx; Eddie Christie, a recently married sailor on an air craft carrier in Vietnam and the Tom Stoppard play that becomes his life anchor; an interracial couple, both academic scholars, who travel to far of Brittany to save their aching marriage; Eloise Delaney, the unapologetic lesbian starting life over again in 1970s’ Berlin; a black moving man stranded during a Thanksgiving storm in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; and two half-brothers who meet for the first time as adult men in a crayon factory.


The Travelers is a book about the story of so many lives. It's almost written like short stories, where every character gets a chapter to show their lives. There are not frills or flowery language. The writing is raw and candid - things that had my heart ache, were described without many details.

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“Eloise," Hebert said, after a pause. "You come from hell-raising people. Don't you burn down these people's house in a fit of temper, you hear?”
"But I didn't," Eloise said, "I didn't burn down our house."
"No," Hebert squinted. "But a spell can't be cast without intent. There's power in the tongue and in the head. In New Orleans, we know this."

I will take all of the multi-generational, cross country sagas, please and thank you. This ambitious debut tells the stories of over 30 characters who hail from the North and the South, and spans from the ‘60s to the Obama administration. It was a bit challenging to keep all of the characters straight and with so many plot lines occurring at once, it become too much for me at times. But oh my goodness, THE WOMEN OF THIS BOOK. Agnes and Eloise snuck in to my heart and I would have been happy if the whole story had centered around the two of them. This is a bold debut that examines the ways our families shape us and how we struggle to break free of that and blaze our own trail.

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I really enjoyed Regina Porter's debut novel The Travelers. It is an ambitious undertaking, in which, she depicts the triumphs and tragedies that befall two families of her own creation: a white family with its roots in the Bronx, The Vincents, and a black family from Buckner County Georgia, The Millers. There are many heartbreaking parts, a couple that I will likely never forget:

Eddie Christie (Agnes Miller's husband) and Jeb Applewood and their tour of duty in The Navy in Vietnam. #rosencrantzandguildenstern #pettyofficer Nelson "Nelly" Mammoth.

Adele Vincent (James Vincent's second wife): Adele is Jewish, and circumstances trap her into an abusive relationship and then marriage, that comes to a shocking and tragic conclusion.

Eloise Delaney (Agnes' foster sister): Her story is one of courage and triumph. Left on the doorstep of the Miller family by her parents who did not have the means or desire required to raise their child. Eloise is inspired throughout her life by the aviator Bessie Coleman to live a bold and fearless life.

These stories, and so many others will stay with me for a very long time. I highly recommend this book, with one caveat, take the "time" to read it. Familiarize yourself with the cast of characters and you will be moved. Thank you #netgalley for the e-Arc of #thetravelers. I loved it. 5 stars.

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SO I liked the authors writing style and the story and the characters were very like able. The only thing I
did not really enjoy was there were so many characters to keep track of and how they connected without writing down the long list of characters in the beginning and coming back to the list.

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This novel has a very unique and interesting structure, but do yourself a favor and buy a paper copy or take it out of the library. The book begins with a long list of characters, which, if reading on an e-reader is hard to refer back to. The list is very helpful, because there are so many characters .. The book is extremely well-written and the characters are well developed. Each character links to one or more in the book. Every story is fascinating. The novel brings us through time from the 40's until the '00's and covers a lot of geography though the US and Europe. The characters are black and white, gay and straight. old and young. The prose is elegant and affecting. It's a very ambitious book that works. Regina Porter is a gifted writer. I can't wait to read her next book. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the copy

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A sprawling saga of two families intertwined across race, class, borders and time. With more than a few surprises along the way.

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A layered multigenerational debut novel covering an expansive time period. I enjoyed the writing and how the characters were intertwined. The use of photos throughout the novel enhanced the reading experience. The photos provided a nuanced glance into moments in time which also included several historical events.

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This was an engaging read with likable characters. My only issue was the large amount of characters and having to keep track of everyone. Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.

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Regina Porter’s debut novel casts a big, wide, engrossing net of an intergenerational family saga. It starts in the 1950s and ends in the Obama era. It follows not one but two parallel clans and sidetracks into unexpected, sometimes obscure branches of their family trees. It travels from the South to Michigan to New York to Normandy to Berlin. It tackles Jim Crow and gentrification and class divides and war and trauma. And it all requires a road map beyond the two-page cast of characters at the novel’s open.

*Full review: http://www.runspotrun.com/book-reviews/the-travelers-regina-porter/

The Travelers opens with sparse, direct writing in the backstory of James Samuel Vincent, who rises out of a challenging childhood to become a well-to-do lawyer, then moves on to the warm embrace of an introduction to the promising student Agnes Miller, and her relationship with Eloise Delaney (which I won’t get into here. No spoilers). This is our first and perhaps strongest example of how Porter flexes a shape-shifting voice to tell different characters’ stories.

Agnes’ story, from her upbringing in a middle-class household in Detroit to a fateful night in the South to raising her family in New York—is one of the pillars holding this novel together. The Man James’ story (as he’s called occasionally) feels more disparate. Perhaps it’s because he has a few marriages thrown in, or because he has a strained relationship with his son…well, one son. One plot point that feels like it could be a diversion to a side character turns out to be much more.

These two families are intertwined, but you’ll have to wait, dear reader, to understand the intricacies of the link, and yes, there are late-coming surprises. Oh, are there. And you’ll have to hold on for some time-traveling as well: The Travelers skips from person to person and era to era with the start of each new chapter. There’s no chronological storytelling here, nor is there any logic, beyond the whims of Porter’s narrative, to how each chapter contributes to the whole.

Some of these chapters—excellent as short stories unto themselves—set up major plot points, while others detour into a thoughtfully drawn character who, in the big picture, is an accessory to an accessory character. The complexity of the connections is true to how things are in real life, to be sure, but it’s a lot to put on the reader. It’s like going to a wedding and finding that you love all of the fascinating new people you’re meeting but have to keep asking your spouse how everyone’s related.

I don’t want to pick too many nits over the sheer sprawl in a novel I’d put in the category of “stunning debut.” The writing is rich, the characters are unforgettable, and the themes—especially the myriad ways Porter tackles racism, subtle and outright, and post-traumatic stress disorder—are capital-I Important right now. But I found myself distracted with searching my memory for how the next new character’s story fit into the tapestry. And that was an unwelcome distraction with a voice with so much creative finesse, and such fine storytelling, when it was compartmentalized.

The Travelers is a tale readers will rightly call ambitious and larger than life, and personally, I’ll be looking for Porter’s next book. And I’ll hope the next one has similarly compelling characters who have powerful stories to tell—but is a more taut read with bolder editing.

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