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The Way of the World (New York Review Books Classics)
In 1953, twenty-four-year old Nicolas Bouvier and his artist friend Thierry Vernet set out to make their way overland from their native Geneva to the Khyber Pass. They had a rattletrap Fiat and a little money, but above all they were equipped with the certainty that by hook or by crook they would reach their destination, and that there would be unanticipated adventures, curious companionship, and sudden illumination along the way. The Way of the World, which Bouvier fashioned over the course of many years from his journals, is an entrancing story of adventure, an extraordinary work of art, and a voyage of self-discovery on the order of Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. As Bouvier writes, "You think you are making a trip, but soon it is making-or unmaking-you."
Editorial Reviews
"A genuine masterpiece, an exhilarating, innocent, perceptive and wholly enjoyable young man's travel book, and a discovery of the Asian road that by rights deserves to occupy the same shelf as great classics of the genre such as Robert Byron's The Road to Oxiana or Eric Newby's Short Walk in the Hindu Kush." --The Financial Times
The exhilaration of the open road and the feeling of connectedness to the natural world that it can produce, is, after all, a common human experience. Simply expressed, it has produced some of mankind's greatest writing. The Swiss travel writer Nicolas Bouvier explores this territory in his youthful masterpiece, The Way of the World, where he conveys as well as anyone the raw intoxication of being on the road." -The New York Times
"The Way of the World is a masterpiece which elevates the mundane to the memorable and captures the thrill of two passionate and curious young men discovering both the world and themselves. Racy and meditative, romantic and realistic, the book is as brilliant as Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time of Gifts, but with its erudition more lightly worn and as alive as Kerouac's On the Road, though without a whisper of self-aggrandisement...On every page a gem or two glitters, and the accumulation of colour, detail and inspired metaphor produce an intensely hypnotic effect...If you read any travel book this year--or indeed the next forty years--this should be it." --Rory Maclean, The Guardian (UK)
"Bouvier has all the gifts a travel writer could want--curiosity, tolerance, hardiness--but above all he has a poet's sensibility with words. His is a lyrical style that is as pure as spring air." --James Owen, Telegraph (UK)
"...it's about a journey in the 1950s from Belgrade to India. They try to go to India in a tiny battered Fiat and it takes them several years, these friends, and it probably describes the attraction of travel better than any book I've ever read." --Roy Moxam
"Bouvier wrote only a handful of books, but this relatively small production has attained classic status in Europe...His prose is at once musical and remarkably factual, while the odd detail always seems captured with the deftness of a haiku poet. His gift for summing up significant experiences often r...
The exhilaration of the open road and the feeling of connectedness to the natural world that it can produce, is, after all, a common human experience. Simply expressed, it has produced some of mankind's greatest writing. The Swiss travel writer Nicolas Bouvier explores this territory in his youthful masterpiece, The Way of the World, where he conveys as well as anyone the raw intoxication of being on the road." -The New York Times
"The Way of the World is a masterpiece which elevates the mundane to the memorable and captures the thrill of two passionate and curious young men discovering both the world and themselves. Racy and meditative, romantic and realistic, the book is as brilliant as Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Time of Gifts, but with its erudition more lightly worn and as alive as Kerouac's On the Road, though without a whisper of self-aggrandisement...On every page a gem or two glitters, and the accumulation of colour, detail and inspired metaphor produce an intensely hypnotic effect...If you read any travel book this year--or indeed the next forty years--this should be it." --Rory Maclean, The Guardian (UK)
"Bouvier has all the gifts a travel writer could want--curiosity, tolerance, hardiness--but above all he has a poet's sensibility with words. His is a lyrical style that is as pure as spring air." --James Owen, Telegraph (UK)
"...it's about a journey in the 1950s from Belgrade to India. They try to go to India in a tiny battered Fiat and it takes them several years, these friends, and it probably describes the attraction of travel better than any book I've ever read." --Roy Moxam
"Bouvier wrote only a handful of books, but this relatively small production has attained classic status in Europe...His prose is at once musical and remarkably factual, while the odd detail always seems captured with the deftness of a haiku poet. His gift for summing up significant experiences often r...
Readers Top Reviews
KayakkkThe WelkAndre
Fascinating travelogue through the near east. Interesting to me was that the voice of the writer was that of a mature adult. He made the trip in his early 20s but wrote the book 6 years later and that is reflected in his observant mature adult voice. There are some amazing stories here. The fact that these two young men worked their way through their journey picking up odd jobs made this an even greater adventure.
Robert Dubose
A remarkable little book that doesn't fit any category. It is hardly a travel essay. Bouvier gives no overview of the cultures he visits. His descriptions of sites and scenes are often minimal. Nor is it a chronicle of a personal journey. Bouvier provides little internal monologue. Although he occasionally makes philosophical pronouncements, his tone is distanced and impersonal, curious and objective. He looks outward, not inward. It reads more like a series of impressionistic short stories. I enjoyed most the literary snapshots of people in the 1950s in Yugoslavia, Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. Against a remote backdrop of religious extremism, bribe-taking officials, and tyranny in one form or another, Bouvier finds individuals who love life, seek pleasure, chase irrational dreams, and give unselfishly to needy travelers. More than anything else, it is a book about hospitality in an inhospitable world.
A. Wald
Nicolas Bouvier is an enjoyable travel companion. He is observant, clever and writes well. His insights are excellent and he is absolutely fearless in relating ALL of the travel experience, whether good or bad. Bouvier's style is relaxed and very comfortable. One of his best aspects in relating his trip across the Middle East to India is his lack of judgmental cultural imperialism. Bouvier remains open to people, and because of this, he is welcomed and accepted. He comes in contact with a great cast of characters. It is most enlightening to look at the people and countryside through his 1953 eyes and see the area in an earlier time. I would highly recommend this book and author to anyone interested in the Middle East in specific and travel in general. Read it and take away some excellent lessons in how to be a good traveler and a welcome guest in another country.
Marilyn M. Oliphant
This travel book has an introduction by Patrick Leigh Fermor, which attracted me to it. In no way does it compare with Fermor's writing about his own adventures, however. Too much of Bouvier's narrative describes the mechanical failures of his vehicle and the attempts to get it repaired. There is too much detail about engine failure and not enough description of his hosts' viewpoint, the cultural differences he encounters, and the general atmosphere surrounding the Balkans, Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. Still, it is an enjoyable treatment of an unusual journey that contrasts greatly with the present situation in that part of the world.
William
The setting for the book is this lengthy road trip from Europe to the Khyber Pass back in the 50s. I did a similar trip in 1970. The strength of the writing is all in the understanding and insightful nature of the descriptions of the daily doings. It's not exciting or hair-raising, though certainly it held my interest throughout. Quite a few times I read a paragraph where I stopped and commented to my sister or wife, "Listen to this". And then just read aloud that snippet. The author and his buddy were a journalist and an artist taking a year long journey in a small and problem prone Fiat auto of the time. And stopping in towns where they would stay for a night or a couple weeks or even longer. They were trying to raise money from their work as they went along. Everybody understands that need, so they were on a more level footing with those who they encountered. This is certainly a fine book, and I'd recommend it to any thoughtful person.
