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Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff
Rosemary Mahoney was determined to take a solo trip down the Egyptian Nile in a small boat, even though civil unrest and vexing local traditions conspired to create obstacles every step of the way.
Starting off in the south, she gained the unlikely sympathy and respect of a Muslim sailor, who provided her with both a seven-foot skiff and a window into the culturally and materially impoverished lives of rural Egyptians. Egyptian women don't row on the Nile, and tourists aren't allowed to for safety's sake. Mahoney endures extreme heat during the day, and a terror of crocodiles while alone in her boat at night.
Whether she's confronting deeply held beliefs about non-Muslim women, finding connections to past chroniclers of the Nile, or coming to the dramaticm realization that fear can engender unwarranted violence, Rosemary Mahoney's informed curiosity about the world, her glorious prose, and her wit never fail to captivate.
Starting off in the south, she gained the unlikely sympathy and respect of a Muslim sailor, who provided her with both a seven-foot skiff and a window into the culturally and materially impoverished lives of rural Egyptians. Egyptian women don't row on the Nile, and tourists aren't allowed to for safety's sake. Mahoney endures extreme heat during the day, and a terror of crocodiles while alone in her boat at night.
Whether she's confronting deeply held beliefs about non-Muslim women, finding connections to past chroniclers of the Nile, or coming to the dramaticm realization that fear can engender unwarranted violence, Rosemary Mahoney's informed curiosity about the world, her glorious prose, and her wit never fail to captivate.
273 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2007
71 people are currently reading
1331 people want to read
About the author
Rosemary Mahoney
19 books55 followersRosemary Mahoney (born January 28, 1961 Boston) is an American non-fiction writer.
She grew up in Milton, Massachusetts, andgraduated from St. Paul's School (Concord, New Hampshire). She worked briefly for Lillian Hellman.
She has attended Yaddo.
She has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post Book World, The New York Times Book Review, Elle, National Geographic Traveler, O Magazine, and the New York Times Magazine.
The Early Arrival of Dreams: A Year in China was a New York Times Notable Book in 1990, and Whoredom in Kimmage: The World of Irish Women, was a New York Times Notable book and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist in 1994, British writer Jan Morris listed her 2007 Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman’s Skiff, as one of the 86 best travel books of all time.
Source: Wikipedia.
She grew up in Milton, Massachusetts, andgraduated from St. Paul's School (Concord, New Hampshire). She worked briefly for Lillian Hellman.
She has attended Yaddo.
She has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post Book World, The New York Times Book Review, Elle, National Geographic Traveler, O Magazine, and the New York Times Magazine.
The Early Arrival of Dreams: A Year in China was a New York Times Notable Book in 1990, and Whoredom in Kimmage: The World of Irish Women, was a New York Times Notable book and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist in 1994, British writer Jan Morris listed her 2007 Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman’s Skiff, as one of the 86 best travel books of all time.
Source: Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 267 reviews
September 5, 2022
"Travel broadens the mind they say. It also clears it."
Thought of going in a different direction before beginning my year-ending fantasy streak and Mahoney's Down the Nile was where it took me. This was my very first Travel-documentary type and I'm happy to say this has been a very nice change in pace, scenery and everything.
The title actually explains quite well what the entire book is about, at least the adventure bits, but there were a lot of information that I was not expecting to have found here. Author focuses heavily on the socio-economic aspects of the Egyptian community covering some of the major aspects of the average individual. There is also a lot of citations from the experiences of previous adventurers to paint a thorough picture while emphasizing the differences occurred over time. To be honest, I think this could be the reason for this book's s-star average rating. There's is a bit too much Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert quotes. But for me personally, who is not at all familiar with any of the written work of above two, it made the book more informative.
A nice, light read (for the reader that is, definitely not to the author) to take your mind through a relaxing (relatively speaking) journey Down the Nile.
"Across the span of a hundred and fifty years, only one thing has truly remained the same: moonlight still makes the Egyptian sand look like snow."
Thought of going in a different direction before beginning my year-ending fantasy streak and Mahoney's Down the Nile was where it took me. This was my very first Travel-documentary type and I'm happy to say this has been a very nice change in pace, scenery and everything.
The title actually explains quite well what the entire book is about, at least the adventure bits, but there were a lot of information that I was not expecting to have found here. Author focuses heavily on the socio-economic aspects of the Egyptian community covering some of the major aspects of the average individual. There is also a lot of citations from the experiences of previous adventurers to paint a thorough picture while emphasizing the differences occurred over time. To be honest, I think this could be the reason for this book's s-star average rating. There's is a bit too much Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert quotes. But for me personally, who is not at all familiar with any of the written work of above two, it made the book more informative.
A nice, light read (for the reader that is, definitely not to the author) to take your mind through a relaxing (relatively speaking) journey Down the Nile.
"Across the span of a hundred and fifty years, only one thing has truly remained the same: moonlight still makes the Egyptian sand look like snow."
March 14, 2016
This book combined several of my favorite things: a travelogue, an outdoor adventure, a strong female narrator, and as a bonus, there is some astute social and cultural commentary. In short, I developed a major girl-crush on Rosemary Mahoney while reading about her experiences in Egypt.
The first part of the book covers Rosemary's preparation for the rowing trip, which took much longer than she anticipated, mostly because she was a single woman in a traditional patriarchal society, and no one would sell her a boat. She finally found a sympathetic friend in Amr, an Egyptian boat captain who agreed to help her. (Amr was such an interesting and thoughtful character that I wished he would write his own book.)
The rest of the book is Rosemary's adventure on the Nile, which was fascinating. The author did a nice job of weaving in stories of the region's history with her own experiences. I especially enjoyed the quotes she included from other Egyptian travelogues, as she explained how travel and tourism has changed in Egypt over the decades.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes travel tales, outdoor adventures, or those interested in Egyptian stories.
Favorite Quotes
"The more I learned about the Nile, the less forbidding it seemed. I had so often imagined rowing on the Nile that doing so had begun to feel less like a fantasy and more like a memory that only wanted its corresponding action rightfully exercised."
"In Egypt, a western woman would never truly be a woman, nor did she quite approach the status of a man; instead, her identity was more like that of a pleasant but irrelevant animal like, say, a peahen or a manatee. It was like moving through a strange kind of limbo, yet Amr seemed to take me more seriously than he did the local women. I felt no disrespect from him."
"Down the middle of the river I rowed, feeling that I was not floating but flying. No one shouted at me because there was no one to see me. The river was delightfully empty. This was not like any other body of water I had rowed on. I knew how far this water had traveled through time and space, and what in the world it had inspired. Because the Nile, idly, mindlessly slid down the incline of the African continent, human beings had been able to develop civilization; sitting on top of this water was like being reunited with my origins."
"I rowed with a little bit of fear and a great deal of joy. I was alone, finally, with no one to protect me. I wanted to sing for happiness — a rare, raw, immediate sort of happiness that was directly related to my physical situation, to my surroundings, to independence, and to solitude. The happiness I felt that morning had nothing to do with the future or the past, with abstractions or with my relationships to other people. It was the happiness of entering into something new, of taking the moments simply for what they were, of motion, of freedom, and of free will. I loved not knowing what would happen next, loved that no one here knew me. I felt coordinated and strong, and the world seemed huge and vibrant."
I had come to Egypt to take a row down the Nile. My plan, inspired by a love of rowing, was to buy a small Egyptian rowboat and row myself along the 120-mile stretch of river between the cities of Aswan and Qena. This was a trip I'd been considering for more than two years, since my first visit to Egypt when I caught a glimpse of the Nile in Cairo.
The first part of the book covers Rosemary's preparation for the rowing trip, which took much longer than she anticipated, mostly because she was a single woman in a traditional patriarchal society, and no one would sell her a boat. She finally found a sympathetic friend in Amr, an Egyptian boat captain who agreed to help her. (Amr was such an interesting and thoughtful character that I wished he would write his own book.)
The rest of the book is Rosemary's adventure on the Nile, which was fascinating. The author did a nice job of weaving in stories of the region's history with her own experiences. I especially enjoyed the quotes she included from other Egyptian travelogues, as she explained how travel and tourism has changed in Egypt over the decades.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes travel tales, outdoor adventures, or those interested in Egyptian stories.
Favorite Quotes
"The more I learned about the Nile, the less forbidding it seemed. I had so often imagined rowing on the Nile that doing so had begun to feel less like a fantasy and more like a memory that only wanted its corresponding action rightfully exercised."
"In Egypt, a western woman would never truly be a woman, nor did she quite approach the status of a man; instead, her identity was more like that of a pleasant but irrelevant animal like, say, a peahen or a manatee. It was like moving through a strange kind of limbo, yet Amr seemed to take me more seriously than he did the local women. I felt no disrespect from him."
"Down the middle of the river I rowed, feeling that I was not floating but flying. No one shouted at me because there was no one to see me. The river was delightfully empty. This was not like any other body of water I had rowed on. I knew how far this water had traveled through time and space, and what in the world it had inspired. Because the Nile, idly, mindlessly slid down the incline of the African continent, human beings had been able to develop civilization; sitting on top of this water was like being reunited with my origins."
"I rowed with a little bit of fear and a great deal of joy. I was alone, finally, with no one to protect me. I wanted to sing for happiness — a rare, raw, immediate sort of happiness that was directly related to my physical situation, to my surroundings, to independence, and to solitude. The happiness I felt that morning had nothing to do with the future or the past, with abstractions or with my relationships to other people. It was the happiness of entering into something new, of taking the moments simply for what they were, of motion, of freedom, and of free will. I loved not knowing what would happen next, loved that no one here knew me. I felt coordinated and strong, and the world seemed huge and vibrant."
October 21, 2009
The review I wanted to write was going to describe the rape of Egypt's artifacts (circa early 1800s) when it became popular for European travelers to visit the African nation after 1000 years of rule that virtually barred foreign visitors from the area. Visitors looted mummies, bones, art, and artifacts. They thought nothing of it. They didn't see themselves for what they were - grave robbers, thieves.
I was also going to reference the fact that both Gustav Flaubert and Florence Nightingale visited Egypt at the same time, though they never met. {Isn’t that cool? I want to read their journals/letters.} Both wrote about their travels and their impressions of the locals. {Flaubert visited a bunch of whores.} Both commented on the amount of graffiti that was carved into the ancient monuments. {Hermes wuz here 1820. Ramses II rulz! Okay, those aren’t real, but there was some old graffiti.} I thought that was a shame, and it reminded me of my own visit to the Colosseo in Rome. In photographs it is a marvel of ancient architecture and it is amazing that it is still standing after all these years. Up close there is graffiti both carved into and painted on it. It sits in the middle of a busy modern thoroughfare and almost looks like an eyesore.
I wanted to write about the way women are viewed in Egypt and how it hindered Mahoney’s search for a rowboat with which she could make a solo trip down a 120-mile stretch of the Nile. As you can imagine, people thought she was crazy and no one wanted to sell her a boat. She made up a story about it being a surprise birthday present for a non-existent husband. I admired her persistence. I admired the way she was able to navigate through cultural differences to ultimately make the voyage. For the most part she was able to do this without offending people and without coming off as an “Ugly American.” I wanted to relate it to my own experiences in 1996 when I traveled Europe alone for a month.
But...I don’t feel like putting much more effort into this review. I'm kind of sick of book reviews. Anyway, good book, 3 ½ stars.
I was also going to reference the fact that both Gustav Flaubert and Florence Nightingale visited Egypt at the same time, though they never met. {Isn’t that cool? I want to read their journals/letters.} Both wrote about their travels and their impressions of the locals. {Flaubert visited a bunch of whores.} Both commented on the amount of graffiti that was carved into the ancient monuments. {Hermes wuz here 1820. Ramses II rulz! Okay, those aren’t real, but there was some old graffiti.} I thought that was a shame, and it reminded me of my own visit to the Colosseo in Rome. In photographs it is a marvel of ancient architecture and it is amazing that it is still standing after all these years. Up close there is graffiti both carved into and painted on it. It sits in the middle of a busy modern thoroughfare and almost looks like an eyesore.
I wanted to write about the way women are viewed in Egypt and how it hindered Mahoney’s search for a rowboat with which she could make a solo trip down a 120-mile stretch of the Nile. As you can imagine, people thought she was crazy and no one wanted to sell her a boat. She made up a story about it being a surprise birthday present for a non-existent husband. I admired her persistence. I admired the way she was able to navigate through cultural differences to ultimately make the voyage. For the most part she was able to do this without offending people and without coming off as an “Ugly American.” I wanted to relate it to my own experiences in 1996 when I traveled Europe alone for a month.
But...I don’t feel like putting much more effort into this review. I'm kind of sick of book reviews. Anyway, good book, 3 ½ stars.
August 8, 2008
A Spanish proverb comes to mind as I begin any travel:
As You Go Through Life ...
... travel lightly. You are not traveling for people to see you.
... travel expectantly. Every place you visit is like a surprise package to be opened. Untie the strings with an expectation of high adventure.
... travel humbly. Visit people and places with reverence and respect for their traditions and way of life.
... travel with an open mind. Leave your prejudices at home.
... travel with curiosity. It is not how far you go, but how deeply you go that mines the gold of experience.
Rosemary Mahoney writes of her experience traveling solo down the Nile. Exceptionally difficult? – not at all except that it is simply not expected nor really accepted of a woman in a Muslim society. Mahoney’s descriptive writing of the countryside, observations of daily lives along the riverbank and of her encounters allows the reader to travel along beside her. As well as the author’s own experience the reader sees Egypt through earlier travelers’ eyes, notably Gustave Flaubert and Florence Nightingale. Mahoney ends her journey Down the Nile – Alone in a Fisherman’s Skiff with words of wisdom from Flaubert’s journal, “Travel does not make one cheerful. Travel never makes one cheerful. But it makes one thoughtful. It washes one’s eyes and clears away the dust.
One of my favorite passages was the author’s first night alone on the Nile; for all her physical and mental toughness and preparedness, she spent the night in her boat, separated from the Nile by an eighth of an inch of hammered steel, recalling every detail of crocodile habits and encounters even though she reminded herself that crocodiles had practically vanished/virtually disappeared/are almost completely gone from the Nile. The scene takes me back to my own childhood and reminds me of long-forgotten shivers and the fear of things that go bump in the night.
The most heartening encounter is the bond established with Amr, a Muslim sailor, whose quiet friendship enables her to begin her journey. A very enjoyable book. I would definitely like to seek out more of Mahoney’s writings.
As You Go Through Life ...
... travel lightly. You are not traveling for people to see you.
... travel expectantly. Every place you visit is like a surprise package to be opened. Untie the strings with an expectation of high adventure.
... travel humbly. Visit people and places with reverence and respect for their traditions and way of life.
... travel with an open mind. Leave your prejudices at home.
... travel with curiosity. It is not how far you go, but how deeply you go that mines the gold of experience.
Rosemary Mahoney writes of her experience traveling solo down the Nile. Exceptionally difficult? – not at all except that it is simply not expected nor really accepted of a woman in a Muslim society. Mahoney’s descriptive writing of the countryside, observations of daily lives along the riverbank and of her encounters allows the reader to travel along beside her. As well as the author’s own experience the reader sees Egypt through earlier travelers’ eyes, notably Gustave Flaubert and Florence Nightingale. Mahoney ends her journey Down the Nile – Alone in a Fisherman’s Skiff with words of wisdom from Flaubert’s journal, “Travel does not make one cheerful. Travel never makes one cheerful. But it makes one thoughtful. It washes one’s eyes and clears away the dust.
One of my favorite passages was the author’s first night alone on the Nile; for all her physical and mental toughness and preparedness, she spent the night in her boat, separated from the Nile by an eighth of an inch of hammered steel, recalling every detail of crocodile habits and encounters even though she reminded herself that crocodiles had practically vanished/virtually disappeared/are almost completely gone from the Nile. The scene takes me back to my own childhood and reminds me of long-forgotten shivers and the fear of things that go bump in the night.
The most heartening encounter is the bond established with Amr, a Muslim sailor, whose quiet friendship enables her to begin her journey. A very enjoyable book. I would definitely like to seek out more of Mahoney’s writings.
April 2, 2020
This is a fantastic book which recounts the story of a woman’s quest to row herself up the Nile, from Aswan to Cairo. The author compares her story with those of two other famous Nile travelers, Gustave Flaubert and Florence Nightingale. Surprisingly, things were quite the same although their trips were a hundred years apart. What I really enjoyed about this book was that it so perfectly jibed with my experiences in Egypt and that the author was able to enjoy the Egyptian culture without being patronizing.
September 19, 2014
An American woman decides to row down the Nile from upper Egypt and writes about her impressions of the country during the trip. I did enjoy the descriptions and her brief interviews with the people she met but her attitude is bordering intolerable to me. She speaks with mostly rural, uneducated, impoverished people then generalises her findings to the whole of Egypt, not even mentioning once how the Egyptian society is structired along the lines of class, education, region, wealth, occupation and how much these cast-like social classes differ from one another. She is often condescening, annoyingly snobbish, superficial, ignorant and self-centred; and her un-critical quotes from Nightingale's outrageously rascist thoughts just gave me a slight shock. I did appreciate the ending however and do not regret reading it, but would only recommend to people already familiar with Egypt and its people.
July 10, 2009
It might seem like a stretch to say that Ms. Mahoney's travel experience on the Nile resonated with my own family vacation to Costa Rica, but that's what happened time and again. Unquestioningly, the best part of her trip was luxuriating in the moment, while rowing in a skiff, on a remote part of the Nile, without the interference of a guide or any other mettlesome native--no small matter in Egypt, particularly for a tourist of female persuasion. Some of the loveliest parts of Costa Rica can be impossible to explore for long on your own, even in the slow "green" season; however, on one of our last mornings there, Donna and I, in the early hours of the morning, blundered on to an isolated trail of a private reserve and felt like Lewis and Clark at every turn.
Mahoney is a precise writer, a trait that usually tests my patience, but she kept me engaged throughout. She frequently shares travel notes from renown Nile explorers of an earlier generation -Flaubert and Nightingale in particular- that makes for a thoughtful pace, to wit: "Travel does not make one cheerful," says Flaubert, "but it makes one thoughtful. It washes one's eyes and clears away the dust."
Mahoney is a precise writer, a trait that usually tests my patience, but she kept me engaged throughout. She frequently shares travel notes from renown Nile explorers of an earlier generation -Flaubert and Nightingale in particular- that makes for a thoughtful pace, to wit: "Travel does not make one cheerful," says Flaubert, "but it makes one thoughtful. It washes one's eyes and clears away the dust."
September 20, 2014
After my reading some harrowing sea fiction and some magical realism, this story about a woman's solo boating journey between the Nile towns of Aswan and Qena was stunningly journalistic. The author Rosemary Mahoney is nonetheless a good storyteller, relating social situations, historical accounts by previous Egyptian travelers, and especially her own experiences before and during her waterborne journey in a rowboat. She frequently quotes from earlier Nile tourists especially Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert, comparing their impressions to her present-day ones. Sometimes her emotions seemed a bit histrionic, and while they accurately describe her feelings they could be better done literary-wise. The highlight was a story from her own perspective about what she noticed in Egyptian society and in nature. With her strong-willed personality and her abandonment of constraints on her freedom , her hopes/fears emerge along the way grow large on the reader. What Mahoney singularly accomplished on the Nile and convincingly described is worthy of a book.
September 1, 2017
3.5 stars
November 24, 2021
This book came as a welcome surprise. Rosemary Mahoney's Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff is the unlikely story of a lone American woman paddling a rowboat down the Nile between Aswan and Qena -- this despite all her Egyptian acquaintances averring that it couldn't be done. Along the way, Mahoney describes other famous travels on the Nile, particularly by Gustave Flaubert and Florence Nightingale.
In the process, she gives a fascinating view of Egyptian and Nubian men, as well as several Nubian women she meets. Her trip on the Nile by herself is a violation of Egyptian law, but she manages to circumvent officialdom and arrive safe and sound at her destination. At the tail end of her row, she meets another boater by whom she feels threatened, but manages to escape.
I plan to read at least one or two more of her books based on my enjoyment of Down the Nile.
In the process, she gives a fascinating view of Egyptian and Nubian men, as well as several Nubian women she meets. Her trip on the Nile by herself is a violation of Egyptian law, but she manages to circumvent officialdom and arrive safe and sound at her destination. At the tail end of her row, she meets another boater by whom she feels threatened, but manages to escape.
I plan to read at least one or two more of her books based on my enjoyment of Down the Nile.
October 18, 2009
This book was intriguing, partly because it was not so much what I was expecting--a sort of travelogue--as a picture of the plight of women and the hypersexualizing of men in a sexually repressed society. The reader is as frustrated as the writer by the obstacles to going "Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff, " which turns out to be a nearly impossible project for a woman.
Mahoney is very intellectual and a lot of the enjoyment, for me, was the interspersed quotes from Flaubert's and Nightingale's trips down the Nile. I found myself identifying with each of the three writers in their need for solitude, for escape, space and time to struggle with an unquiet mind.
Some of my favorite passages:
"I was alone finally...I wanted to sing for happiness--a rare, raw, immediate kind of happiness that was directly related to my physical situation, to my surroundings, to independence and to solitude. The happiness I felt that morning had nothing to do with the future or the past, with abstractions or with my relationships with other people. It was the happiness of entering into something new, of taking the moments simply for what they were, of motion, of freedom, and of free will...I felt coordinated and strong, and the world seemed huge and vibrant. It was a relief to be alone...I felt optimistic. And I relaxed enough that my mind could wander. That was always the best part of rowing--the repetition, the simplicity of the physical task, the slowly and constantly shifting surroundings that inspired free thought. My happiness was a physical lightness, of weightlessness, like drifting on air." (p. 218) I have so experienced that when engaged in physical tasks--every morning while driving, in fact.
"Both {Flaubert and Nightingale} were brilliant, iconoclastic, sensitive and impatient with hypocrisy and convention. Neither had any desire to fit the tediously cliched expectations that society had slated for them. Both were charming conversationalists, but prized solitude and generally considered most other people a tiresome distraction. Both were traveling in Egypt during a period of considerable self-doubt; both agonized over how they would use their talents and answer their natural impulses--Flaubert's literary, Nightingale's spiritual and medical." (p. 243) Next, there is a fascinating account of Nightingale's "daydreaming," which tortured her and seems to have been a symptom of a kind of mental illness--or artistic sensibility (what is the difference?). The fascinating thing is that both Flaubert and NIghtingale experienced a kind of cure, a refocused, channeled creativity,a s the result of their trips, as though the long trip down the NIle actually served to clear their minds at last.
Mahoney is very intellectual and a lot of the enjoyment, for me, was the interspersed quotes from Flaubert's and Nightingale's trips down the Nile. I found myself identifying with each of the three writers in their need for solitude, for escape, space and time to struggle with an unquiet mind.
Some of my favorite passages:
"I was alone finally...I wanted to sing for happiness--a rare, raw, immediate kind of happiness that was directly related to my physical situation, to my surroundings, to independence and to solitude. The happiness I felt that morning had nothing to do with the future or the past, with abstractions or with my relationships with other people. It was the happiness of entering into something new, of taking the moments simply for what they were, of motion, of freedom, and of free will...I felt coordinated and strong, and the world seemed huge and vibrant. It was a relief to be alone...I felt optimistic. And I relaxed enough that my mind could wander. That was always the best part of rowing--the repetition, the simplicity of the physical task, the slowly and constantly shifting surroundings that inspired free thought. My happiness was a physical lightness, of weightlessness, like drifting on air." (p. 218) I have so experienced that when engaged in physical tasks--every morning while driving, in fact.
"Both {Flaubert and Nightingale} were brilliant, iconoclastic, sensitive and impatient with hypocrisy and convention. Neither had any desire to fit the tediously cliched expectations that society had slated for them. Both were charming conversationalists, but prized solitude and generally considered most other people a tiresome distraction. Both were traveling in Egypt during a period of considerable self-doubt; both agonized over how they would use their talents and answer their natural impulses--Flaubert's literary, Nightingale's spiritual and medical." (p. 243) Next, there is a fascinating account of Nightingale's "daydreaming," which tortured her and seems to have been a symptom of a kind of mental illness--or artistic sensibility (what is the difference?). The fascinating thing is that both Flaubert and NIghtingale experienced a kind of cure, a refocused, channeled creativity,a s the result of their trips, as though the long trip down the NIle actually served to clear their minds at last.
May 21, 2012
One of my favorite genres is the travel narrative: Paul Theroux, William Least Heat Moon. I like living vicariously plus the insight a good travel writer provides into a (to me) exotic locale. Mahoney did both in this narrative. One could say there’s too much here on her struggle to obtain a boat in the face of the Egyptian (male) cultural prejudice against women acting independently. Time after time she faces these obstacles (Where is your husband? But I can take you!, etc.). As Mahoney felt at the time, these can become tiresome reading, but I got her point. But I don’t think she was condescending; she made connections with several of these men and seemed to explain their attitudes. A lot of these explanations were done in the context of her dealing with Egyptian women. Here I did feel some condescension, but also sympathy. These women give a more well rounded portrait of her trip. These obstacles and frustrations with men culminate in her ultimate confrontation, which is very well told--I felt her anxiety and fear (no spoiler!). Along the way she shares just the right balance of social and natural observation and history. I think the “set up” was a bit artificial, in the sense of her grand desire to row in the Nile. But a pretty good narrative.
Read
February 5, 2009Boston native and avid rower Rosemary Mahoney, once an assistant to playwright Lillian Hellman, has led a peripatetic life, and her writing reflects the breadth of her travels and the depth of her thinking on cultural matters. Previous efforts include The Early Arrival of Dreams, the author's experiences in China just before Tiananmen Square; The Singular Pilgrim, a spiritual travelogue; and Whoredom in Kimmage, a treatise on Irish gender roles. In On the Nile, the author writes beautifully of the connections between culture and history-though critics note how reluctantly she shares details of her own life outside her travels. Still, Mahoney's voice is direct and honest, her Nile as evocative as Paul Bowles's desert, her wit a counterbalance to the unease engendered by such a profound cultural divide.
This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.
May 13, 2010
This wasn't quite what I was expecting - I really thought more of it would be about the journey itself, but the story leading up to it is interesting too.
"In Egypt, a Western woman would never truly be a woman, nor did she quite approach the status of a man; instead, her identity was more like that of a pleasant but irrelevant animal like, say, a peahen or a manatee."
"In Egypt, a Western woman would never truly be a woman, nor did she quite approach the status of a man; instead, her identity was more like that of a pleasant but irrelevant animal like, say, a peahen or a manatee."
February 11, 2025
Trash. Utter racist, xenophobic trash. I'm in Egypt right now and thought this might be a good read to get a sense of the country before arriving; I was wrong. I did learn that Florence Nightingale was a raging racist (not surprising but good to know-even though the author immediately praised her intelligence after citing a particularly heinous racist passage from Florence's journal) but otherwise, this is a classic tale from a stereotypical white woman denigrating and ridiculing local Egyptian people, culture, global majority ethnicities, and the Islamic religion. Women writers like this, faux-feminist white savior types, are the reason I'm extra self-conscious about traveling as a white woman abroad. Also - her mockery of the English used by locals reflects poorly on her, not them. Her writing reads as judgmental, small-minded, and self-grandiose.
I actually ripped up the book in Luxor and recycled it bc I was worried that leaving it out would risk a local finding and reading it and being deeply insulted.
I actually ripped up the book in Luxor and recycled it bc I was worried that leaving it out would risk a local finding and reading it and being deeply insulted.
March 17, 2020
I love books that i can travel with this does that so well. I never have been to Egypt wish i could see it so this was a good tour of her journey in a small boat. I don`t think i could do this alone and she was quite brave in the face of very startling encounters and weather and men assuming she might be for sale. Despite the harrowing parts the beauty of the Nile was haunting and ever changing,a lovely trip for me in the end as well.
September 1, 2019
After being part of a group trip down the Nile, the author thought it would be interesting to make a solo trip on the Nile in a rowboat. In 1999, she had the opportunity to do that, although she wasn’t able to make it as she had envisioned in her mind. This is the account of that trip.
The sections of this that pertained to her actual trip - and the efforts to find a rowboat - were interesting to read. It was all the other sections of documenting the trips others had made in the previous century (Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert most notably) that were tedious and are the reason I'm only giving this 2 stars.
The sections of this that pertained to her actual trip - and the efforts to find a rowboat - were interesting to read. It was all the other sections of documenting the trips others had made in the previous century (Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert most notably) that were tedious and are the reason I'm only giving this 2 stars.
December 23, 2020
If I've learned anything from this book, it's how difficult it is to be a woman in Egypt.
July 23, 2017
An amazingly inspiring and vividly visual book. Reading it, you are with her in every moment, seeing and experiencing her surroundings, feeling her fears and enjoying the peace and serenity of the scenic river and the tranquilty of her quiet rowing. Loved it.
September 9, 2024
Interesting read and lovely landscape descriptions. A little bit too much recounting of Flaubert and Nightingale for me, but overall an impressive journey.
"I heard the sound of a tractor coming from some indeterminate spot across the river, then realized it wasn't a tractor at all but the purring of frogs tuning up for the evening in the grasses all around me. Egypt was full of audio and visual tricks like this. In Egyptian towns and cities, what you think is a beautifully colored bird in a tree is really a plas tic trash bag caught on a twig. (...) At an ancient temple, what you think is the whistling of some rare bird is really a soldier trying to get your attention. And then when you arrive in the country, what you think is a lumpy heap of trash floating down the river is really four knobby- headed water buffalo crossing from one side to the other. What you think is litter snagged on a tree branch is really a beautiful bird. What you think is a man hissing and clacking at you is really the rattle of the ubiquitous maculate kingfisher. It seemed to me there were a limited number of sounds on the planet, and nature and humans borrowed them from each other. "
"I heard the sound of a tractor coming from some indeterminate spot across the river, then realized it wasn't a tractor at all but the purring of frogs tuning up for the evening in the grasses all around me. Egypt was full of audio and visual tricks like this. In Egyptian towns and cities, what you think is a beautifully colored bird in a tree is really a plas tic trash bag caught on a twig. (...) At an ancient temple, what you think is the whistling of some rare bird is really a soldier trying to get your attention. And then when you arrive in the country, what you think is a lumpy heap of trash floating down the river is really four knobby- headed water buffalo crossing from one side to the other. What you think is litter snagged on a tree branch is really a beautiful bird. What you think is a man hissing and clacking at you is really the rattle of the ubiquitous maculate kingfisher. It seemed to me there were a limited number of sounds on the planet, and nature and humans borrowed them from each other. "
March 17, 2008
This is a good book for anyone who has a secret (or not-so-secret) wish to get out of town a little bit more. This is the true tale of the author's quest to row up the Nile in spite of the fact that even procuring a boat in Egypt is a difficult task for a woman.
The trip itself isn't really the focus of the book; it's more about the people she meets along the way and her trials as she tries to navigate a very different culture. She's an excellent writer, and this book can be a quick read. I loved Amr, one of the most interesting people in the book, and I wish she could have told us more about him.
However, there are little snippets from historical figures such as Florence Nightingale and Gustav Flaubert, who also visited Egypt. While these vignettes provide a different perspective on tourists in Egypt, I thought they took away from Mahoney's experience, voice and writing style.
Before I read this book, I only thought of Egypt as an ancient land with pyramids and things. The author paints a very insightful picture of modern-day Egypt.
The trip itself isn't really the focus of the book; it's more about the people she meets along the way and her trials as she tries to navigate a very different culture. She's an excellent writer, and this book can be a quick read. I loved Amr, one of the most interesting people in the book, and I wish she could have told us more about him.
However, there are little snippets from historical figures such as Florence Nightingale and Gustav Flaubert, who also visited Egypt. While these vignettes provide a different perspective on tourists in Egypt, I thought they took away from Mahoney's experience, voice and writing style.
Before I read this book, I only thought of Egypt as an ancient land with pyramids and things. The author paints a very insightful picture of modern-day Egypt.
March 31, 2012
I wish I could have given this book 10 stars. Rosemary Mahoney's true life account of an American woman attempting to buy a boat then row it down the Nile was as visceral as it was beautifully written. I have never been to Egypt but Mahoney brought me into that world and I was there with her in the heat, swatting at bugs, overhearing the awkward and frustrating conversations with boatmen and other Egyptian characters that were scarily real. I don't want to say too much and qualify this review as a spoiler, but this was one of those rare books I had to ration so I wouldn't finish it too quickly. And there's a scene that positively made my hair stand on end. I don't think I breathed for 10 minutes. This is a book I will read again and again, just to enjoy the writing.
October 16, 2015
This is a non-fiction account of the author's journey down the Nile in a rowboat. A great deal of the book is about the difficulties of a woman in Egypt even buying a boat. The book is peppered with historical and geographical tidbits of the area. Personally I felt too much of the book dwelled on Florence Nightingale and Gaustave Flaubert's account of their experience down the Nile. The first hand accounts were very riveting though. the author's joy, frustration, anger, fear , and satisfaction all come through clearly to the reader. Although I have no similar ambitions I could really admire what she accomplished.
January 15, 2010
Fantastic book, neatly and tightly written. It's funny and upsetting in turns, which I guess is pretty much how things are when a woman endeavors to row a boat up the Nile alone... if only the Egyptians would leave her alone for five minutes. The episode at the end of the book took me by surprise in its intensity, but boy, did she impress me with her analysis after the fact. Worth reading for anyone interested in traveling to places where the culture is just plain "other", or for those who like to read about women adventuring.
July 26, 2011
A great book for those interested in a western woman's solo travels in current day Egypt; there's actually very little rowing in the story, as opposed to her desire to do so. I've seen reviews where she's been seen as culturally chauvinistic, but I could imagine the frustration of being classified as an "honorary man" there. I've given it four stars for the high quality of the writing.
December 25, 2009
The author is uptight, humorless and not very likeable. It's difficult to understand why she travels, since she apparently does not enjoy it very much. She expects the worst in people, and imagines danger around every corner. A most unsatisfying read.
May 17, 2019
Did the author do something interesting enough to warrant having a book published about it? After having finished this book, I'm still not sure that it was essential. To be sure, this book is not actively offensive, even if the author is not the most sympathetic of figures, especially given her fear of violence when a poor father on the Nile asks her for money at night while she is canoeing downstream, which prompts the abrupt end of her trip and some soul searching and reflection about her own fears. I suppose if I would have known more about the author (or found her more likable), then I suppose I could have considered anything she wrote about anything to be reason enough to appreciate the book, like I do with the travel books of someone like John McPhee, for example. Yet although the author is certainly witty and she is certainly well-read about the travelogues of people going along the Nile--Flaubert and Florence Nightingale are mentioned particularly often, I just couldn't see what the big deal was about rowing and floating downstream along the Nile within Egypt, or why someone got paid to write a book about such a mundane sort of trip, especially given that she isn't the most appealing of protagonists in such a travelogue to begin with.
This book is thirteen chapters long, and that is probably far longer than it needs to be. The author begins with a historical look at the Nile and what made it compelling throughout history (1). After that the author takes a look at Aswan, right at the dam that prevents one from traveling without hindrance into Sudan and tries unsuccessfully to get a boat there (2). The author looks at the first small boat in Egypt and sees it as a chance to travel as she wishes downstream (3), and then takes a look at the cataract islands that are close to the high dam (4). After making a deal with the owner of the small boat, she spends some time at Elephantine getting to know the dour Nubian who rented the boat to her (5) as well as getting to see the complex relationship that her crippled sister has with some other young women who appear to be spoiled elites (6). The author then flies down the Nile with a protector and another traveler (7) before dealing with the complexities of etiquette on the river (8) and spending a night in Silwa (9). At Luxor she manages to buy a boat of her own (10), which requires as bit of negotiating (11), and soon she finds herself alone in the Nile thinking about the place, its people, and her own fears of running into Nile crocodiles (12), before ending the trip after having a frightening experience with a poor beggar on the river (13) who is taking his sons on some sort of night journey.
The not particularly compelling narrative of a not very interesting journey by the author takes about 275 pages, which only makes one want to read about Flaubert's and Nightingale's journeys to Egypt, because they were at least interesting, and they make for the most interesting parts of this particular story as well. Good writing springs from good reading and the author gets at least half of it right. The real problem with this book isn't so much that the author took a somewhat dull trip down the Nile and wrote a book about it, but rather that she is both too credulous of the people around her and too wrapped up in her own identity. The author seems to think herself a feminist and finds herself upset that as a Western woman she is denied the sort of restraint that Egyptians (especially Muslims) give to their women or the sort of respect that she seeks. Instead she has a series of arguments with people where she tries to push her view of life onto them and finds herself in increasingly hostile interactions with Egyptian men, not all of whom are very threatening, until at last she decides to leave.
This book is thirteen chapters long, and that is probably far longer than it needs to be. The author begins with a historical look at the Nile and what made it compelling throughout history (1). After that the author takes a look at Aswan, right at the dam that prevents one from traveling without hindrance into Sudan and tries unsuccessfully to get a boat there (2). The author looks at the first small boat in Egypt and sees it as a chance to travel as she wishes downstream (3), and then takes a look at the cataract islands that are close to the high dam (4). After making a deal with the owner of the small boat, she spends some time at Elephantine getting to know the dour Nubian who rented the boat to her (5) as well as getting to see the complex relationship that her crippled sister has with some other young women who appear to be spoiled elites (6). The author then flies down the Nile with a protector and another traveler (7) before dealing with the complexities of etiquette on the river (8) and spending a night in Silwa (9). At Luxor she manages to buy a boat of her own (10), which requires as bit of negotiating (11), and soon she finds herself alone in the Nile thinking about the place, its people, and her own fears of running into Nile crocodiles (12), before ending the trip after having a frightening experience with a poor beggar on the river (13) who is taking his sons on some sort of night journey.
The not particularly compelling narrative of a not very interesting journey by the author takes about 275 pages, which only makes one want to read about Flaubert's and Nightingale's journeys to Egypt, because they were at least interesting, and they make for the most interesting parts of this particular story as well. Good writing springs from good reading and the author gets at least half of it right. The real problem with this book isn't so much that the author took a somewhat dull trip down the Nile and wrote a book about it, but rather that she is both too credulous of the people around her and too wrapped up in her own identity. The author seems to think herself a feminist and finds herself upset that as a Western woman she is denied the sort of restraint that Egyptians (especially Muslims) give to their women or the sort of respect that she seeks. Instead she has a series of arguments with people where she tries to push her view of life onto them and finds herself in increasingly hostile interactions with Egyptian men, not all of whom are very threatening, until at last she decides to leave.
February 19, 2022
While on a Nile cruise, writer and rower Rosemary Mahoney felt like there was a pane of glass separating her from the country she was visiting. For the next two years she envisioned rowing down the Nile in a boat of her own, and in 1999 finally made the trip. If her goal was to break down the "fourth wall" of travel to be on the "set", her adventure also took her backstage and out the back door into the homes and lives of Egyptians. The result-- "Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff"-- is eye-opening and sobering. It also ranks as one of the best works of travel writing I have ever read. It is well-written and researched, thoughtful, and wry.
The title is a bit of a misnomer; the majority of the book is her trying to buy a boat, a challenge being a single woman traveling alone in Egypt where women, white or not, don't do such things. She is not truly alone until the 40 pages of the book. But don't get hung up on such things. Her experience takes her to Aswan, where she spends several days trying to find someone who would sell her a boat, creating an elaborate ruse of how it was a present for "her husband" who is perpetually asleep at the hotel. As you can imagine, it is difficult for her to find anyone who takes her seriously. That is, until she meets Amr, a quiet and reserved felucca captain who is more than willing to share his rowboat. Through Amr and other people she meets in Aswan, Rosemary learns what life is like for Egyptians and Nubians-- the poverty, the strict gender expectations, the double-edged sword of tourism. She finds that as a white woman, she is almost codified as a third gender: she is not bound to the rules for Muslim women, but lacks the freedom granted to men. Since tourism is the country's largest source of revenue, tourists are protected at all costs; if a tourist complains about an Egyptian, the said perpetrator is often arrested and beaten without recourse. She also sees the commonalities that branch all cultures: the desire to live with dignity, humanity, and autonomy and to provide for one's family.
The crux of this book is the desire for agency, to do the things you want to do and testing for all of the things can. For Rosemary, it is rowing down the Nile alone. She reflects on how the women she meets in Egypt cannot take such a trip despite living along the river all their lives; conversely, as an American, she can row in Narragansett Bay but notes that she is often the only woman on the water and realizes that not many American woman realize that they "can". Her journey is a way to push back against stereotypes and norms that keep people ensconced their "place". It is also about the great desire to be alone, invisible to the world, off the map. This resonated with me, because like Rosemary, I enjoy solo traveling and experiencing the feeling of disappearing and having to rely solely on myself. I appreciated her honesty, compassion, and humor in the telling of her journey.
Highly recommend!
The title is a bit of a misnomer; the majority of the book is her trying to buy a boat, a challenge being a single woman traveling alone in Egypt where women, white or not, don't do such things. She is not truly alone until the 40 pages of the book. But don't get hung up on such things. Her experience takes her to Aswan, where she spends several days trying to find someone who would sell her a boat, creating an elaborate ruse of how it was a present for "her husband" who is perpetually asleep at the hotel. As you can imagine, it is difficult for her to find anyone who takes her seriously. That is, until she meets Amr, a quiet and reserved felucca captain who is more than willing to share his rowboat. Through Amr and other people she meets in Aswan, Rosemary learns what life is like for Egyptians and Nubians-- the poverty, the strict gender expectations, the double-edged sword of tourism. She finds that as a white woman, she is almost codified as a third gender: she is not bound to the rules for Muslim women, but lacks the freedom granted to men. Since tourism is the country's largest source of revenue, tourists are protected at all costs; if a tourist complains about an Egyptian, the said perpetrator is often arrested and beaten without recourse. She also sees the commonalities that branch all cultures: the desire to live with dignity, humanity, and autonomy and to provide for one's family.
The crux of this book is the desire for agency, to do the things you want to do and testing for all of the things can. For Rosemary, it is rowing down the Nile alone. She reflects on how the women she meets in Egypt cannot take such a trip despite living along the river all their lives; conversely, as an American, she can row in Narragansett Bay but notes that she is often the only woman on the water and realizes that not many American woman realize that they "can". Her journey is a way to push back against stereotypes and norms that keep people ensconced their "place". It is also about the great desire to be alone, invisible to the world, off the map. This resonated with me, because like Rosemary, I enjoy solo traveling and experiencing the feeling of disappearing and having to rely solely on myself. I appreciated her honesty, compassion, and humor in the telling of her journey.
Highly recommend!
April 11, 2018
Armchair travel! Rosemary Mahoney likes three things : 1. rowing 2. the Nile 3. being alone. So she wanted to do some rowing, by herself, on the Nile. This proved easier said than done; just finding a rowboat locally that she could borrow or buy, was quite a time-consuming undertaking. When she did find one that would suit, the boat's owner, Amr, insisted on following her in his boat, sincerely concerned about her well-being. She tolerated his well-intentioned hovering, but was very eager to get on with the business of rowing by herself. She avoided scrutiny and unwelcome attention by dressing as much as possible like an Egyptian fisherman and keeping to herself. That part of the trip took only a few days. And then she went home.
I give the book 4 stars because the author writes beautifully about the Nile, about Egypt, and especially the deep sense of happiness she feels when she's alone with her boat. I don't row, but I could totally identify with her feeling of elation, of freedom, in that moment. The other reason is that I enjoyed reading about the experiences of other travelers, especially Gustave Flaubert and Florence Nightingale, who apparently visited Egypt in the same time period. I cannot imagine two people more different from each other than the master wordsmith of French realism and the Lady with the Lamp, and it turns out that they did perceive the wonders of Egypt in very different ways.
So I found the writing beautiful and the digressions about literature, history and natural sciences interesting and engaging. What did become boring was the author's interactions with the locals. It seems that every single conversation she had with an Egyptian male focused on the topic of sex or money or both, Amr being the one exception. It may be that this was indeed Ms. Mahoney's actual experience in Egypt, but she could have gotten her point across with fewer iterations of the same type of stilted conversation. Similarly, her conversations with or about Egyptian women were not particularly illuminating and tended to play to the stereotypes of Arab women. It seems that some travelers have a knack for getting to know interesting local characters; this author does not. She is quite open about her desire to be left alone, Garbo-like. And although I could and did sympathize, and even identify, with that wish, it did detract from what could have been a more insightful memoir.
I give the book 4 stars because the author writes beautifully about the Nile, about Egypt, and especially the deep sense of happiness she feels when she's alone with her boat. I don't row, but I could totally identify with her feeling of elation, of freedom, in that moment. The other reason is that I enjoyed reading about the experiences of other travelers, especially Gustave Flaubert and Florence Nightingale, who apparently visited Egypt in the same time period. I cannot imagine two people more different from each other than the master wordsmith of French realism and the Lady with the Lamp, and it turns out that they did perceive the wonders of Egypt in very different ways.
So I found the writing beautiful and the digressions about literature, history and natural sciences interesting and engaging. What did become boring was the author's interactions with the locals. It seems that every single conversation she had with an Egyptian male focused on the topic of sex or money or both, Amr being the one exception. It may be that this was indeed Ms. Mahoney's actual experience in Egypt, but she could have gotten her point across with fewer iterations of the same type of stilted conversation. Similarly, her conversations with or about Egyptian women were not particularly illuminating and tended to play to the stereotypes of Arab women. It seems that some travelers have a knack for getting to know interesting local characters; this author does not. She is quite open about her desire to be left alone, Garbo-like. And although I could and did sympathize, and even identify, with that wish, it did detract from what could have been a more insightful memoir.
December 15, 2024
I would have understood the cultural context of our trip to Egypt much better had I read this book before our recent trip. Even though much has changed since 1998, much remains the same.
Learning about the historical context of Egyptian tourism helped me understand why I felt restricted in Egypt. The Egyptian government wants to protect tourists at all costs, which means carefully controlling the itineraries of tour groups and ensuring that tourists have positive experiences.
In 1998, Rosemary Mahoney rowed two boats down the Nile over a week, from Aswan to Luxor and then from Luxor to Qena. Obtaining a boat and getting permission to head off alone was nearly impossible, and she succeeded only by subterfuge, which added to the complexity of her undertaking and created a terrifying atmosphere.
I kept waiting for her to start rowing. Her actual time on the river is much shorter than the rest of the book, which alternates between her own story, pertinent bits of history, and accounts of previous travelers to Egypt, including Gustave Flaubert and Florence Nightingale, all interesting, and adding to the context of the author’s experience.
The most interesting parts of the book are her well-written accounts of her encounters and conversations with the people she meets, often Egyptian men, who share stories and information about their lives that they would not share with anyone else. Frequently, their lives are sad, and their relationships with women are severely prescribed. The lives of women are also highly restricted. Even today, I was shocked that in the smaller towns, many women were clothed from head to toe in heavy black robes, sometimes with only slits for their eyes.
There are many moving moments, including her goodbye to Amr, who takes her seriously and helps her get started on her quest to row down the Nile. Even though their lives are very different, they form a true friendship. Her conversations with those she meets reveal the uneasy relationship between tourists with money, who stay in luxury hotels, as I did, and the impoverished local people who work desperately hard to earn a living by catering to tourists and selling them trinkets.
When she finally manages to get her own rowboat on the edge of Luxor, her experience of rowing alone is sublime and terrifying. I’m amazed at the author’s pluck and ability to recall conversations and hold the conversations she did. She’s a fine writer and a true traveler, sometimes making me laugh and sometimes filling me with sadness.
Her final paragraph, referencing Flaubert, reads, “Travel never makes one cheerful. But it makes one thoughtful. It washes one’s eyes and clears away the dust.”
Mahoney’s writing does this for me.
Learning about the historical context of Egyptian tourism helped me understand why I felt restricted in Egypt. The Egyptian government wants to protect tourists at all costs, which means carefully controlling the itineraries of tour groups and ensuring that tourists have positive experiences.
In 1998, Rosemary Mahoney rowed two boats down the Nile over a week, from Aswan to Luxor and then from Luxor to Qena. Obtaining a boat and getting permission to head off alone was nearly impossible, and she succeeded only by subterfuge, which added to the complexity of her undertaking and created a terrifying atmosphere.
I kept waiting for her to start rowing. Her actual time on the river is much shorter than the rest of the book, which alternates between her own story, pertinent bits of history, and accounts of previous travelers to Egypt, including Gustave Flaubert and Florence Nightingale, all interesting, and adding to the context of the author’s experience.
The most interesting parts of the book are her well-written accounts of her encounters and conversations with the people she meets, often Egyptian men, who share stories and information about their lives that they would not share with anyone else. Frequently, their lives are sad, and their relationships with women are severely prescribed. The lives of women are also highly restricted. Even today, I was shocked that in the smaller towns, many women were clothed from head to toe in heavy black robes, sometimes with only slits for their eyes.
There are many moving moments, including her goodbye to Amr, who takes her seriously and helps her get started on her quest to row down the Nile. Even though their lives are very different, they form a true friendship. Her conversations with those she meets reveal the uneasy relationship between tourists with money, who stay in luxury hotels, as I did, and the impoverished local people who work desperately hard to earn a living by catering to tourists and selling them trinkets.
When she finally manages to get her own rowboat on the edge of Luxor, her experience of rowing alone is sublime and terrifying. I’m amazed at the author’s pluck and ability to recall conversations and hold the conversations she did. She’s a fine writer and a true traveler, sometimes making me laugh and sometimes filling me with sadness.
Her final paragraph, referencing Flaubert, reads, “Travel never makes one cheerful. But it makes one thoughtful. It washes one’s eyes and clears away the dust.”
Mahoney’s writing does this for me.
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