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kaeli 's review for:
Lands of Lost Borders: Out of Bounds on the Silk Road
by Kate Harris
Good things about this book:
-Beautiful prose
-Quoted from a ton of well-chosen and also beautifully written other books, many of which I now also want to read (especially Rumi, Darwin and Annie Dillard)
-Had a lot to say about the emotional experiences of long-term travel, which I found resonant. Lots to underline in this book.
-A thrilling travel narrative to live through vicariously while living under lockdown, but also harrowing enough to make you grateful to still be in your armchair-- exactly how good travel writing should make you feel.
-Made me want to go to and learn more about all of these places!
-Described travel off the beaten track (despite, as she mentions, following what is essentially the worlds oldest trade route); told about a lot of places you seldom ever hear about. How much travel writing have you read about Rome? Lots, right? But not a hell of a lot about Tajikistan, I'll bet!
Things I took issue with:
-Obviously author can't help this, but she does come across as incredibly privileged. I don't think she was necessarily unaware of it, either, but it did sometimes bum me out... this was not one of the travel memoirs where you're like, "I could do that!" because no way could most people afford to do that. I mean, she was a Rhodes scholar! It sounds like she spent every single university vacation in a different country! Not to be bitter, but dude...
-The language of exploration and discovery is obviously entrenched in the history of colonialism and imperialism, and though Harris acknowledges this, I don't think she did so enough. For example, the name "Columbus" should not just stand alone on a page as a synonym for exploring new horizons. This book is not alone in this kind of thing. I have read very few travel memoirs that don't participate in neocolonial discourses (should I even say "neocolonial," since round one of colonialism never actually ended, so what we have now is not really a comeback but a continuation?), but I do think that she could have done more to avoid playing into those, and to acknowledge that like... historically exploration has been bad. And not like "Marco Polo cared more about material wealth than about how amazing the mountains were" bad. Like, BAD bad. Anyways. Do better, travel writers!
-Beautiful prose
-Quoted from a ton of well-chosen and also beautifully written other books, many of which I now also want to read (especially Rumi, Darwin and Annie Dillard)
-Had a lot to say about the emotional experiences of long-term travel, which I found resonant. Lots to underline in this book.
-A thrilling travel narrative to live through vicariously while living under lockdown, but also harrowing enough to make you grateful to still be in your armchair-- exactly how good travel writing should make you feel.
-Made me want to go to and learn more about all of these places!
-Described travel off the beaten track (despite, as she mentions, following what is essentially the worlds oldest trade route); told about a lot of places you seldom ever hear about. How much travel writing have you read about Rome? Lots, right? But not a hell of a lot about Tajikistan, I'll bet!
Things I took issue with:
-Obviously author can't help this, but she does come across as incredibly privileged. I don't think she was necessarily unaware of it, either, but it did sometimes bum me out... this was not one of the travel memoirs where you're like, "I could do that!" because no way could most people afford to do that. I mean, she was a Rhodes scholar! It sounds like she spent every single university vacation in a different country! Not to be bitter, but dude...
-The language of exploration and discovery is obviously entrenched in the history of colonialism and imperialism, and though Harris acknowledges this, I don't think she did so enough. For example, the name "Columbus" should not just stand alone on a page as a synonym for exploring new horizons. This book is not alone in this kind of thing. I have read very few travel memoirs that don't participate in neocolonial discourses (should I even say "neocolonial," since round one of colonialism never actually ended, so what we have now is not really a comeback but a continuation?), but I do think that she could have done more to avoid playing into those, and to acknowledge that like... historically exploration has been bad. And not like "Marco Polo cared more about material wealth than about how amazing the mountains were" bad. Like, BAD bad. Anyways. Do better, travel writers!