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Dec 17, 2009

Sean rated it:

In theory, it is easy to hate an Eton educated upper class Scotsman who decides it’d be a lark to walk across Afghanistan six months after the fall of the Taliban. The idea reminds me of the stupidity and adventurism I encountered when I went to Palestine with ISM. People vacationing in other people’s misery so they can go home and brag about it is not really my cup of tea.*

But after reading Stewarts book, I have to say it is extremely good. We learn next to nothing about Stewart her More...

0 comments like (25 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Lisa rated it:

I found out about this charater from a magazine article at the time of the book's release. A scotsman who, for a variety of personal reasons not really revealed (a nice change of privacy in this world). begins walking across Afgahnistan.

He intersperses historical entries of a previous walker & conquerer between tales of hospitality and snow and destruction of antiquities.

I don't imagine I will ever have the opportunity to go to the places he writes about. So much of it More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2008

Carmen rated it:

It is what it is: a guy walks across Afghanistan. What do you think happens?
A) he encounters very poor and poorly educated tribal/feudal lords
B) he encounters hostile, backward, cruel teens and militia and former soldiers
C) he walks 25 miles a day with not much to describe: rural Afghanistan is rural for a reason
D) all of the above

D, of course D. Well, at one point he does get a dog. Now Rory can describe how Babur likes to sniff and pee and roll in snow.
More...

9 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jan 02, 2009

Tracey rated it:

Rory Stewart walks across most of Afghanistan. I had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately, Stewart’s total disrespect for the customs of the people he meets along the way interfered with any enjoyment I might find in the story of his journey.

He feels a sense of entitlement towards their hospitality. He expects to show up and be provided with the best accommodations and the best food. That he does this in an area where people often have a difficult time feeding themselves is irresp More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

I'm not quite sure how to classify this book. It's not exactly a travel book, nor is it "current affairs." So perhaps I'm not judging fairly by seeing it air more on the side of travel than any other genre.

Anyway, a good travel book, in my opinion, should make you vaguely want to go to a place. Even if it's a wretched journey (as in In the Heart of Borneo by Redmond O'Hanlon). Even if the trip is perhaps beyond your financial or physical means. Even if you know what's bein More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Brandon rated it:

rory stewart, a scotsman, decided to walk across Afghanistan in January of 2002, on foot, by himself. if you'll recall, January 2002 was about 3 weeks after we installed the new government in Afghanistan. it was and still is a terribly unsafe place for westerners. as it turns out its even unsafe if you're an Afghani. Afghanistan is a country that is primarily still medieval: tribes based on ethnicity, religion, and location are constantly battling each other. this book is rory's travel diary of More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 01, 2011

Mike rated it:

This Stewart guy has a pair of big brass ones-walking across Aghanistan in the shadow of the Taliban's defeat. He doesn't write as well as Robert Kaplan, another trekker of the world, but his stories are interesting nonetheless. There aren't many people in this story you want to meet but you get the clear description of one of the remotest parts of the world. Intriguing country. If I had the chance, I would like to visit the Hazara people and Bamiyan area. He paints an intriguing picture here. D More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 17, 2010

Will rated it:

Stewart is an upper class Brit who sustains the English tradition of adventurism. He has worked in Iraq (and done other things I cannot recall here) and in this book he tells of his walk across Afghanistan. It was an interesting tale, one in which he offers a picture of what life is like for many of the locals. It is not a happy existence, having to survive on land that is not very productive, at the edge of poverty for a lifetime, subject to the whims of the local warlords and bandits. One thin More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 23, 2008

Dorothy rated it:

I started out thinking I was going to really, really like this book. It is about a fascinating part of the world and one that is extremely important to us - and important that we understand - Afghanistan. It's a travelogue of Stewart's walk across that country, from Herat to Kabul after September 11, 2001.

In the last couple of years, I have read Khaled Hosseini's fictional books about his native land and I found them very revealing and sympathetic. I had hoped for a broadening of More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 24, 2008

Brett rated it:

The Places in Between by Rory Stewart. It's a quick and easy read, and although it is not all that illuminating in many ways, it does give a snapshot of one person's fascinating journey through that country, and at least an idea about what it is like in the rural hamlets that comprise much of the population.

Rory Stewart never explains why it is he decided to walk across Asia. For whatever reason, he walked across India, Nepal, Iran, and other Asian countries. After the U.S. invasion More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 01, 2008

Morgan rated it:

The Places in Between by Rory Stewart has to be one of my favorite books. Rory has this gift to tell stories in such a brutally honest way that you find humor in even the most mundane life experiences. Although, I wouldn't generally categorize walking across Afghanistan 2 months after the Taliban fell, mundane. Yet, nothing about this book was breathtaking. Nothing was romantized, nothing placed on a pedestal. He spoke openly and honestly of all the people he met, those friendly, and those that More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jul 24, 2007

Michelle rated it:

I thought I already did a review on this book, but then realized it wasn't on my shelf at all. Anyway, read this book for my book club. We try to throw in some non-fiction once in a while. I think I was the only person who liked it/found it halfway decent. The meeting for this book actually opened with dead silence for a full fifteen seconds and then finally, "I didn't like it. It was awful," or something like that. Okay, so sometimes it was a bit boring, and Rory Stewart is not More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jul 19, 2007

Dave-O rated it:

For Rory Stewart anthropology and the politics therein are all in the walk, quite literally. Having walked across huge stretches of land in Asia, Stewart set out in a somewhat of a mad trek across Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban to follow the path of 15th-century emperor Babur. Stewart walks alone at times, at times with an armed escort and is greeted with a mix of ritualistic hospitality and outright hostility. His writing style is clinical; completely void of sentimentality, he n More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 12, 2007

Jonathan rated it:

Starts off a little sluggish but once the narrator gets away from the more developed regions of the country the commentary becomes considerably more interesting. Although some of his writing style I found to be a bit fragmented at times he did a decent job of tying in a few different perspectives on his topic. As he travels he gives a brief history of the territory which I found insightful and very relevant to a better understanding of the inhabitants. I also appreciate that he made the effort t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 16, 2007

Colin rated it:

Really an amazing story... the author (a Scotsman) walks across Afghanistan in the midst of the fall of the Taliban and an American invasion, finding welcoming and not-so-welcoming Afghans in villages along the way, adopting a dog who becomes his travelling companion, and (somewhat amazingly) surviving his journey in tact.

The book is an unbiased account of reality on the ground, both in terms of Afghan sentiment towards the new central government, the reality of humanitarian relief More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Joel rated it:

The story of a walk across afghanistan. It is not page-turner material nor a build-up to a dramatic finish, but it is extremely well written, and his clear and unsentimental evaluation of the people he meets will change the way you think about an unknown society (they are not just a people, but persons, some stupid, some wise, some mean, some kind). Particularly inspiring is the humility (almost indifference) with which Stewart describes his near death experience and his seemingly bottomless su More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Sohrab rated it:

Rory accomplishes something that no other travel diaries have done before him; he observes little of value or anything worth remembering from his experience. He loves walking and decides to walk through Afghanistan following footsteps of a Mongul king. As his journey progresses, he becomes more tired and increasing complains about people, food, climate, everything. Makes me wonder who forced him to do this? He complains about backwardness and violence in the Afghan places he visits. Is it a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 15, 2008

Brooke rated it:

This is a really amazing book. Rory Stewart approaches his post 9/11 walk (with no money!) through Afghanistan with a certain academic detachment. He keeps his journey grounded in the history of the country by tracing an ancient route and describes his interactions with the people that he meets with the distance of an anthropologist. Unlike in other travel books, Stewart does not glorify himself or anyone he meets. He also resists the temptation to villainize or judge even those who threaten him More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 14, 2007

kendra rated it:

another bookclub hit/miss. hard to identify with since the author gives no rationale for walking across afghanistan. it seems to be not-journalistic, not-anthropological, not-political, not----anything. be prepared to cringe at every little drawing (yes, the author inserts drawings. of donkeys, of pottery shards, of structures. i'd be eternally grateful for this illustrated version of the journey if only the illustrations didn't seem to be done by a child of mediocre talent). but, like a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 13, 2009

Tim added it

There are some people you hear about and all you can think is, "Are you nuts?" Take Rory Stewart for example.[return][return]Stewart spent 16 months walking 6,000 miles across Iran, Pakistan, India, and Nepal. He decided that to make his journey complete, he must go back and walk 600 miles across Afghanistan. But he's going to do it alone. In January. Along the most hazardous winter route â a straight line through the central mountains. Roughly a month after the fall of the Tal More...

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Nov 29, 2008

Wendell rated it:

It's an odd sensation in a travel book to be guided by a traveler who remains, for 300 pages, a cipher. Stewart reveals virtually nothing about himself or about his motive for undertaking his dangerous, difficult, and (evidently) unrewarding journey--on foot, no less. In fact, there's something distinctly bratty about Stewart's approach to the whole endeavor: he made the trip because he "wanted to," he repeats, and one can almost hear him stamping his foot; his evident lack of any need More...

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Dec 27, 2011

Roberta rated it:

“Nel gennaio 2002, poco dopo l'invasione delle truppe statunitensi, Rory Stewart imbocca il sentiero che da Herat porta a Kabul, in Afghanistan, attraverso le montagne di Ghor. Lo scopo del viaggio - tutto a piedi - è percorrere le "terre di mezzo", luoghi non irraggiungibili, ma sicuramente non raggiunti dalla modernità. Il suo itinerario afghano, percorso cinquecento anni fa dall'imperatore indiano Babur il Grande, oggi è un sentiero impervio tra pietraie e valli innevate, reso ancor More...

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Aug 14, 2011

Patrick rated it:

Who walks across Afghanistan right after the Taliban is defeated by America’s Northern Alliance? Who walks across Afghanistan in the middle of winter? Who walks across Afghanistan with nothing expecting to survive on the generosity of the locals and their supposedly historic hospitality to traveling strangers? I guess the answer to all three of these questions would be Rory Stewart: writer, journalist, former British diplomat and slightly crazed Scotsman. The later being a somewhat oxymoron of a More...

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Jun 20, 2011

Jessie rated it:

Rory Stewart is quite the Scottish explorer! Walking by foot through Afghanistan on 4 months after September 11th, he encounters a variety of people, gains admission into their world by seeking out the warlords in each area and gaining a recommendation from them to take on with him to the next village, he manages to survive with his adopted mastiff, Barbur, whom he rescues from a village and names after the famous ancestor of Ghengis Kahn whose path he travels by following Barbur's diary written More...

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May 08, 2011

Molly rated it:

How could this book not be interesting? The fearless author really does walk across Afghanistan. The pluses: The author is honest and the narrative is neither sensational nor dry. He is compassionate toward the people he meets and is smart, determined and reasonable. He is fearless, and as described in the book "nutters." Another plus is the subject matter, the Afghan people and their history. I appreciated the authors anthropologist type of objectivity, even if I could not completely More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 16, 2011

Rena rated it:

I really wanted to like this book. My husband recommended it, but we have very different styles when it comes to what we like. For the most part, I found the book dull. There were a few interesting stories here and there, but the writing style just did not grab my attention. I could say the same for "Three Cups of Tea", but that book had a fascinating story to make up for the lack of writing style. And maybe it is unfair, but it really bothered me that here was a story about a man who More...

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Sep 19, 2010

Chris rated it:

I read this because a close friend said it was a good book (no, this close friend is not on Goodreads. He doesn't do social networking sites).

It is a good book.

At times the comments are so British, the type that you can't see coming from anyone else but someone who is British.

One of the reviews here accuses Stewart of being insenative to the culture he visits. I'm not convinced that is the case. The book is more about the culture than about Stewart, and whi More...

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Apr 13, 2010

Windy2go rated it:

A few days ago I finished reading “The Places in Between” by Rory Stewart, the non-fiction story of Mr. Stewart’s determined walk across Afghanistan in 2002 from Herat to Kabul. It was maybe not as artistically written as Ha Jin’s book (Waiting, reviewed separately), but a more compelling read. In fact, I started it weeks ago (but rarely have the time or energy to read), so brought it on vacation with me. And it was disorienting to be reading this book about Mr. Stewart’s walk across Afghanis More...

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Mar 13, 2010

Leah rated it:

I closed this book sobbing and I would just like to point out, I KNEW THE DOG WOULD DIE! I just knew it. As I hugged and kissed my own dog I reflected on my obsession with the dog contextually in a book that covers so many weighted subjects. The book explores a culture which America both hates and knows nothing about. Throughout the author's extreme journey through this land, capturing moments, ideologies and fears of the people hidden in Afghanistan's mountains, plains and plateaus...I could th More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 22, 2009

Sarah rated it:

Rory Stewart walked from one end of afghanistan to the other in the winter. He felt that walking was the only way to understand this complex country, so he walked through snow and wind and horrible weather and found looted historical sites, isolated people, and a dog. He compared his journey to a 15th century prince named Barbur who made the same trip and the same time of year and saw many of the same sites that Stewart saw.

I can't say that I understand Afghanistan better after rea More...

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