A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush in Around the World in 80 Books

Dec 15, 2008 Kay rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: travelogues, nonfiction, humor-whimsy, mountains-and-men, exploration-adventure

Newby writes in a now-well-established genre of travel writing: the improbable, disastrous trip taken to an unlikely place by the totally unprepared. He wasn't the first to do this sort of thing -- among others, Peter Fleming's Brazilian Adventure stands out as an earlier blackly comic "bad trip," not to mention Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene. Today, the torch of the comic "bad trip" is carried by writers such as Redmond O'Hanlon, Bill Bryson, and Eric Hansen.

Like several of the writers mention Newby writes in a now-well-established genre of travel writing: the improbable, disastrous trip taken to an unlikely place by the totally unprepared. He wasn't the first to do this sort of thing -- among others, Peter Fleming's Brazilian Adventure stands out as an earlier blackly comic "bad trip," not to mention Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene. Today, the torch of the comic "bad trip" is carried by writers such as Redmond O'Hanlon, Bill Bryson, and Eric Hansen.

Like several of the writers mentioned above, a great deal of the charm of Newby's book lies in several key factors. First of all, he's grossly unprepared for the trip, which involves climbing a hitherto-unscaled (and very daunting) mountain. Newby had no climbing experience whatsoever, and his account of taking a crash course in climbing is one of the more engaging sections of the book. Secondly, there's the abrupt change in life situation. His initial position -- as a buyer in the fashion industry -- could not be further removed from the remoter sections of Afghanistan which he visits. (Even there, however, the reader will note that he has a good eye for garments of all sorts.) And finally, there's the "other person" in the story -- Newby's slightly monomaniac friend Hugh Carless. Much of the comedy is at Hugh's expense, for it seems that Hugh's strange fascination with going back to Nuristan to scale a peak that had once defeated him sets the stage for later disasters.

I found the earlier sections of the book (before the actual journey) to be predictably lighter and funnier. The considerable hardships endured on the road are documented in a wry stiff-upper-lip in the best British tradition, but they do rather wear on. I also had great difficulty figuring out where the hell they were half the time, even after consulting the various maps in the book. Perhaps this is my shortcoming, but the second half of the book did seem to run together for me into one long, protracted, miserable march. The bits of interjected historical background and local color, mostly in the form of mangled interactions with various remote tribal people, redeemed it, however.

The four stars here rests on two things: Newby's wonderfully crisp way of describing even the most dreadful situation, often to uproarious effect, and his keen eye for evoking the natural splendor (and brutal conditions) in one of the remotest corners of the world. It's wonderful armchair travel... and, frankly, I'd MUCH sooner be a voyeur by proxy in this part of the world than actually undertake such a venture. ...more

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Jan 01, 2020 Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it really liked it

Shelves: adventure, travel, nonfiction, mood-boosting-books, memoir, the-classics-club

Eric Newby left a decade-long career in the fashion industry and embarked on a new life as a travel writer in 1956 when he took off with a friend on an ill-considered, almost-unprepared-for trip to Afghanistan. It’s a delight of a story, full of danger and humor and success and failure. Bill Bryson ain't got nothing on Eric Newby. A classic travel book. ...more

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