Many Lands Many Hearts: More Than a Memoir

Charles L. Fields
Outskirts Press (2010)
ISBN 9781432753665
Reviewed by William Phenn for Reader Views (12/10)


“Many Lands Many Hearts” is a combination autobiography and travel log. As a young man, the author’s interests leaned toward being a Merchant Seaman and traveling the world. So he left Duke University and enrolled in the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. After graduation he served his time on a military ship and eventually worked his way on to a merchant vessel, a banana boat. His voyages took him many interesting places and the pages come alive with his exotic adventures and mishaps. Tales abound of the shipboard encounters and foreign ports.

When he finally decided to settle on land, he opened up a lobster business. Things went quite well for him for a few years, so well in fact that he even opened up a fish market. With his prosperous business and his life on track, he had time to spend in his condo in Arizona. While there one day, he received a call from his company manager who told him the whole place was devastated by a terrible storm. Charles rebuilt the company only to have it severely damaged again by another storm. Rebuilding this time, took all the money he could borrow and scrape up. But with the poor economy and all the other problems he had, he was forced into bankruptcy. That misfortune brought him into the chicken business. Starting off as a part time driver, he worked his way up to Hatchery Manager. This allowed him more time off to pursue his artistic endeavors; he wrote poetry and enjoyed sculpting.

The 142-page book is filled with accounts of Charles and his wife traveling across the country and their many encounters with interesting people and places. “Many Lands Many Hearts” is a captivating book but not much different from other travel adventures that I have read. I did however; enjoy it more because of the biographical mix which gave it substance and made it more interesting. I christened it with a deserving B because I found it to be a good, quick read for general audience.

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