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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
adventurous
slow-paced
adventurous
funny
inspiring
fast-paced
A fascinatingly intrepid woman. I remain shocked and surprised that she carried a gun and used it! Some language and treatment of foreign nationals is now cringeworthy. Appreciate that she clearly reminds us, bad things happen to women in europe all the time (which is the perfect rebuttal to those reviewers thinking « she shouldn’t be doing this »). I’ve now read two stories of women bicycling in Central Asia and appreciate the recurring themes of hospitality, bureaucracy, and continuing through discomfort.
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, amazing independent woman rides a BICYCLE, a bicycle people, across Europe through Persia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India in the early 1960s when people just didn't do stuff like that, especially women. I also imagine that the cultural divide between Western and Islamic culture was even greater then than it is today. At times, Murphy would make sweeping generalizations about the places she visited and at other times would make very thought-provoking comments about certain aspects of Islamic culture that Westerners are quick to dismiss. I'd be interested in reading what she has to say now. I think the world was just a different place and that her intentions were good.
A fascinating travelogue by an amazingly resilient woman. Taken directly from her diary entries, there is little fluff to the narrative and yet it is engaging, harrowing, inspirational and enlightening. for sure it takes place in a far different time, but that makes it even more remarkable.
Would have given it four stars but by the time she had arrived in India, the adventures and people she met all started to blur together. Still an interesting read, particularily the parts about Afghanistan during the 1960s. So different from what we get in today's news.
I really wanted to enjoy this book more, and it really has a lot to do with my own hang ups and preconceptions about travel. I just couldn't get past "she shouldn't be doing this" to enjoy it. I enjoyed her descriptions of the people and the places. She writing was very good and humorous, so I just switched my star rating from 2 to 3 stars.
Dervla Murphy is both crazy and inspiring. She has done quite a bit of long bike trips, usually alone. In the 1960s Murphy bikes from Europe to Delhi, and kept a diary chronicling mostly her time in Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Her joy at travel, new locales, and meeting people are apparent and make this enjoyable. This isn't the narrative armchair travel book that we would encounter today. The diary format is filled with day-to-day mundane details of eating, weather, and road conditions.
The style isn't the only thing that is a bit dated about this book. Murphy is open to many experiences, but the time period makes for certain preconceptions and terminology that are, I believe, hard to avoid. There are a few times that her descriptions of the primitives are a little cringe-worthy. I don't think that Murphy would have written the same book today. Apparently she is still kicking and did some travel even recently!
The style isn't the only thing that is a bit dated about this book. Murphy is open to many experiences, but the time period makes for certain preconceptions and terminology that are, I believe, hard to avoid. There are a few times that her descriptions of the primitives are a little cringe-worthy. I don't think that Murphy would have written the same book today. Apparently she is still kicking and did some travel even recently!
adventurous
informative
inspiring
relaxing
medium-paced
Love this woman's laid back approach to life. Want to be more like her.