The Rope in the Water: A Pilgrimage to India

by Sylvia Fraser

"At Kovalam beach on India's southwestern shore I plunge into the Arabian Sea, the same soft temperature as the air...Looking shoreward, I see lifeguards gesturing. Since I'm much further than I imagined, I begin a determined swim toward them...The lifeguards continue to blast and gesture, but I'm powerless against the riptide irresistibly sweeping me out to sea. Though my situation appears hopeless, I'm about to undergo the most remarkable and mysterious event of my life...." So begins The Rope in the Water, the story of Sylvia Fraser's three-month pilgrimage to India in search of "something larger than myself, something deeper, something more." Travelling 12,000 kilometers across deserts and through jungles, Fraser visits sacred sites such as the twilight city of Varanasi on the Ganges, dense with the smoke of hundreds of funeral pyres; north to the glittering Golden Temple of the Sikhs; up Mount Abu where she stays with a Hindu sect called the Brahma Kumaris; south to a Buddhist retreat where she meditates eleven hours a day for ten days while observing a vow of silence; and to the Kovalam beach where her life is saved by a miracle. Fraser brings alive the sense-luscious tapestry of India, from its fluorescent seas of turbans and flowing robes, to the cerulean alleyways and the hot crush of urban bazaars, while exploring Eastern concepts such as "You create your own future" and "Change yourself and you change everything." Humourous and intelligent, The Rope in the Water is an uplifting yet earthbound literary odyssey for all those interested in the physical and philosophical worlds beyond their own.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel

352 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2001

About the author

Sylvia Fraser (born 8 March 1935 in Hamilton, Ontario) was a Canadian novelist, journalist and travel writer. Fraser was educated at the University of Western Ontario. In her fifty year career as a journalist, she has written hundreds of articles, beginning as a Feature Writer for The Toronto Star Weekly (1957-68), and continuing with articles for many other magazines and newspapers including the Globe & Mail, Saturday Night, Chatelaine, the Walrus and Toronto Life. She taught creative writing for many years at Banff Centre and at various university workshops. She has participated in extensive media tours, given lectures and readings throughout Canada, the United States, Britain and Sweden. She served on the Arts Advisory Panel to Canada Council and was a member of Canada Council's 1985 Cultural Delegation to China. She was a founding member of The Writers’ Union of Canada and for many years was on the executive of The Writers' Trust, a charitable organization for the support of Canadian authors and literature. Fraser lived in Toronto, Ontario.

Reviews

[Amanda]

This book, while filled with lovely prose, rich description and interesting subject matter (traveling across India, experiencing many aspects of the local culture, etc.), was painful to read. The author constantly makes claims that undermine logical, rational thinking, spinning off into her own psychotic, absurd, "spiritual" view of the world. She and the others she portrays in the book vilify science as well as the Western world. I was rolling my eyes at least every ten pages and quite frequently got angry with the book. I nearly gave up on finishing it a number of times.

Also, the literary device of an imaginary "guru" that pops up throughout the book to add banal dialogue and comic relief is absolutely obnoxious. She uses to show the two sides of her mind in conflict, but it is just so distracting and poorly implemented that the intended effect is lost.

Two phrases in particular nearly made me put down the book for good:

1) "...I did some research into Darwinian evolution, and I found its scientific underpinnings are now considered very dodgy."

Where was she doing her research? A young earth creationist propaganda site?

2) "By then my computer's spell checker had already spewed up Morris as a questionable word, offering Meyers as a first alternative. Though the linguistic connection between these two names seems remote, perhaps my software was accessing a pool of deeper karmic meaning, since my Maiden name is Meyers."

Oh yes, that must be karma! Not something that the spell check program has programmed into it as a possible correction! Absolutely absurd.

[Marc]

A tale of unctuous pretentiousness even for a Western spiritual tourist

[Ellen]

I'm reading this book for the second time; the first was before I ever visited India (now I've been three times). A professional journalist, and author of "In My Father's House", Fraser's work is interesting and well researched.

She covers quite a range of places that she visits in India, in each offering us her personal emotional and psychological reaction that is triggered.

Fraser uses an interesting technique to 'teach' about her spiritual path; an imaginary guru (I'm pretty sure he was imaginary) appears now and then throughout the book.

An enjoyable and informative book. I didn't quite 'feel' the characters though. This is something I have found before when professional journalists chronicle their India trips (e.g. Holy Cow).

Ellen Besso
Author of "An Indian Sojourn" & "Surviving Eldercare"
facebook.com/AuthorEllenBesso

[Erin]

I was extremely disappointed with Sylvia Fraser’s “A Rope in the Water.” The disappointment was probably due to my completely unrealized expectations, however, than to any fault of the writing. If you are into fatuous spiritual journeys and imaginary and annoying pop-up gurus, then this book is for you! On the other hand, if you are looking for a great travel memoir on a woman’s experience of India, then you, like me, will be sorely disappointed.

[Luce Cronin]

Sylvia Fraser records her adventures whilst travelling through India. This one is a keeper - it engaged me on many levels - travel, mysticism, personal philosophy.

[Neil]

I truly enjoyed this book that I picked up in the cheapo bin at our central library. I'm not usually in to this fluffy spiritualism stuff, but this neat book featured a number of plusses
1) only 323 pages
2) an Indian travelogue with fine merrit
3) a super intro to the wild array of Indian spirituality
4) well written, nice vocabulary, great flashes of comparison
5) it reads like it can't be nonfiction, but it really is
6) I actually read it all, and with my frame of mind on this spirituality, meditation mantra meringue, that's saying something.
7) have fun... just enjoy it!