Customer Reviews

Short Walk Hindu Kush Tape

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but wish you could (if you could find good hotels, fresh food, etc). This trip is impossible in today's climate so read it as the armchair explorer -- and be thankful that Newby can describe what must have been unnerving encounters with a humor and flair that make one want to try the voyage anyway! (BTW: been there -- don't try it)

The idea is preposterous: two non-alpinists, one working in fashion design, the other a diplomat, decide to scale some of the hardest peaks in the world, in one of the nastiest, most remote corners of the globe. The resulting book is hysterical. It's been a couple of years since I last read it, yet I'm giggling again as I recall some specific passages. Fun, fast read.

The idea is preposterous: two non-alpinists, one working in fashion design, the other a diplomat, decide to scale some of the hardest peaks in the world, in one of the nastiest, most remote corners of the globe. The resulting book is hysterical. It's been a couple of years since I last read it, yet I'm giggling again as I recall some specific passages. Fun, fast read.

Quintessentially English bit of travel, with the ambitious idea of climbing Mir Samir in Afghanistan, but ostensibly to visit Nuristan next door. The English bit comes into play when you discover that Newby isn't a mountain climber, nor is his traveling friend. They "practice" for four days in Wales before embarking.

This is the type of travel literature I favor. A trip, yes, with its attendant hazards and foibles, but also a story about the travelers, why they travel and the people they meet. So far, I can sense a "difference" in travel writing, easily two categories now, but possibly many others. This book would join with Seth & O'Hanlon as a "Hardship Trip"--a journey filled in pain and danger. Salzman and Mayle are "Sedentary Travelers." They both got to the place, then stuck around and observed the things that happened around them. This book also has one of the best last lines I've read in quite a while. I can't quote it, because not only would it ruin the line for you in case you choose to read this book yourself, but also because it is necessary to sit through the 180 or so pages that go before to fully appreciate the irony of it.

Good travel narrative should begin with self awareness and, one would hope, a sharp wit on behalf of the writer. That's the entertainment half. It should end in a new appreciation of place and culture for the reader, the edifying part. A Short Walk In the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby delivers on all accounts. Though the "short" walk of the title took place circa 1956 and the book was published in 1958, it has special pertinence for the contemporary reader. The name of the mountain range translates as the "Killer of the Hindus," straddling Afghanistan and Nuristan, the wild vortex where cultures and powers have collided in attempts to bridge east and west for thousands of years. Most recently, of course, the region has figured in the war on terrorism. In fact, I have a much better grasp of the multicultural nature of the land and its political history from Newby's careful notes than from contemporary media.

Even if the Hindu Kush was irrelevant to latterday headlines, Newby's narrative is worthwhile reading. To explain why an urbane executive in the fashion industry would quit and suggest a trek in partly uncharted mountain range in a alien land, with no experience in mountain climbing, he begins with a hilarious account of his London job. He also speaks to that national urge to get off the island and go look about. His is a genuine yearning for exploration, for experiencing "the other." The trek, taken with a pal and some local guides, is often perilous. At the very end, the Newby party meets up with the embodiment of the stuffy military Brit who belittles their achievement. The author does not have to answer for the reader or himself-we know, as he does, that it was quite extraordinary.

Newby is great company, a fine writer who doesn't make the story about himself even when starring in it. Lonely Planet is to be thanked for keeping this in print.

Approaching mid life and feeling restless in the world of London's fashion industry in the 1950s, Eric Newby asked a friend to go mountain climbing in the Hindu Kish. Newby quits his job, puts his affairs in order and, together with his friend, sets off for an adventure in Northeastern Afghanistan. Their walk was not short and they almost reached the summit of 19,880 foot Mir Samir, but not before stopping for four days of instruction about mountain climbing in Wales. Newby's description of the geography and peoples he encountered along the way opens the door a little further and provides another peek on one of the most mysterious regions of the world. Unlike many books in this genre that are often told in a breathless, self promoting style, Newby's approach is modest, self effacing and understated, right down to the title. This book is a delight!

I'm sure that this book had a different impact upon me than on readers who picked it up before the attacks of September 11 and the ensuing war in Afghanistan. After having my head filled with heavily-slanted news profiles of places like Kabul and Jalalabad and the people of this part of central Asia, it was extremely refreshing to lose myself in Eric Newby's impressions of the land, the people and the history. Newby was not an expert or scholar - and this layman's perspective may be precisely why I found the book so interesting. Of course, I also agree with the previous reviewers who enjoyed the story of Newby and Carless' somewhat foolhardy travels. But I also recommend this book to anyone who wants to add to his or her understanding of this region.

Eric Newby's account of his trip to the Hindu Kush is a book both daunting and delightful. He makes light of the incompetence and ignorance of both himself and his companion in the realm of climbing and exploring. Yet what they achieve is nothing short of remarkable, given their level of ignorance. Perhaps a more experienced team would have sensibly given up in the face of hunger, illness and cold. Messrs. Newby and Carless soldier on and the account, understandably slightly incoherent, is both funny, self-deprecating and very, very readable. Their account of a chance meeting with the famous explorer Wilfred Thesiger is recounted, far less humorously, by the great man in one of his recent books.

This book was really hard to keep my attention. I did not find it exciting at all and did not get emotionally attached. I must admit that I did not read the whole book because I tried several times and never got into it. I bought it because Lonely Planet had branded it and I love all of their travel books. This is not in the same vain or writing style as a LP book.

They don't come sweeter than this. Facing middle age, Eric Newby abandons his chosen career as a fashion wholesaler to embark on a whimsical journey to remotest Afghanistan to attempt a mighty peak that has never been climbed. His companion, an old friend, knows as much about high-altitude (or ANY) climbing as he does: not a skerrick. They are almost parodies of a vanished England - absurdly brave, amateurish and uncomplaining; Newby's account of their scratchings up airy ice-walls will have the sweat springing from your palms. Along the way we get a rich insight into the rare mountain societies of one of the most mysterious nations on earth, but it is Newby's character itself that makes this book such a joy. Self-mocking, his courage entirely inferred, Newby's modesty holds until the final hilarious, appalling line. We may not want to go climbing with him, but we'd welcome his company on any journey. In fact, Newby's courage was always a key to his personality. His teenage years were spent as a high-rigging sailor on grain ships in the Southern Ocean. In World War Two he was a commando with the Special Boat Squadron. His capture, escape, and life on the run is memorably recounted in another of his classics "Love and War in the Appennines." But for me, "A Short Walk.." remains his most charming, exciting and extraordinary book.