Walking the Woods and the Water (Nick Hunt, 2014)

(329 pages)

Author got the idea to replicate Patrick Leigh Fermor's 1930s walk as a young man "from the Hook of Holland to the Golden Horn".  I much enjoyed Fermor's books (discussions are here) and was quite curious to see how the author would handle things.  I think it worked!

good travel books - and this is one - are a really useful tool in reading about geography and history and culture.  both large-scale and (particularly!) micro-scale.  scenes throughout but especially compelling as he works his way east.  

Picking up the concerns of locals in relation to their neighbors - something that is thought about pretty much everywhere.  Unusual examples such as the concerns of Romanians v. Hungarians v. Bulgarians; and then onto Turkey.  Walkers can pick up lots of details. 

[something interesting - author is into Hungary (and out of what I'd call western Europe) by page 119 - the rest of the book is him working east.  Interesting perspective in that alone.  Hugeness of east.  other routes could have devoted a higher % to west but still.  Fermor's books like this as well - I appreciate opportunities to learn more about eastern Europe.]

Varying modes of hospitality encountered in so many local settings - this is super-interesting - in author's experience, the people got more hospitable as he moved east, while the dogs grew more unwelcoming.

Delightful, serendipitous encounters when in challenging circumstances.  

reflections on the act of walking.  how he felt like he had missed something whenever traveling in some other way.  in our small way in cities we visit - it feels the same

winter walk in Germany - so reminiscent of the Schubert song cycle

doesn't necessarily make it a better book than Fermor's - but it was written promptly after completion of the walk, so to that extent it's a more faithful portrayal of what was experienced.

the walk took place shortly after the financial crisis of 2008 so repercussions affected locations visited.  EU expansion into eastern countries especially tenuous at this stage; thugocracies in former Soviet satellites are troublesome.  But it's not a book about politics.

Relatable in that many of us can imagine extended walking tours.  But no way to do anything close to this - author was adept at sleeping out in a tent whenever needed, dealing with elements, relating to all sorts of hosts.  Seemed able to survive whatever local alcohol was featured for toasts (sometimes weed-accompanied).

The Broken Road (Patrick Leigh Fermor, edited by Colin Thubron and Artemis Cooper) (2013 (from 1930s travels))

(349 pages)

This is the third of Fermor's now-famous trilogy in which he writes - much after the fact - about his 1930s walk from Holland to Constantinople (or thereabouts).  I really liked all three; perhaps this best of all notwithstanding its unusual provenance.  In this book Fermor is traveling from the "Iron Gates" (on the Danube along the Serbian-Romanian border) to Constantinople; then onto Mt. Athos (Greece).

Here's an overview of book one; here's an overview of book two.  They're quite wonderful.

For book three, Fermor had more source material available (most of his 1930s notebooks were lost - pretty much everything relating to books one and two).  Fermor started this book, then set it aside . . . returned much later . . . but never finished.  The last portion (on Mt. Athos) is more directly taken from a diary - different style.  The two editors did their best, and it's quite good.

I keep feeling that Fermor was unusually gifted in seeing it, taking it in, and then succeeding in describing it; upper-class Brit perspective but not failing to see by feeling superior or judgmental.  Unusual in that he experienced all this as very young and inexperienced; then he wrote it up decades later - trying to filter out later experiences and knowledge, but I think possession of just that (ultimately unfilter-able) made the writing more interesting.  Not provable one way or the other.

Also the 1930s are inherently interesting - this a last glimpse of a pre-industrial world in many of these areas; preceded the vast WWII changes; areas absorbing, more or less, WWI changes - again, described with post-WWII knowledge - this approach works.

This part of the world is totally interesting to me - largely unknown; reading a lot but barely scratching surface.  I get the impression that things somehow run deeper for the local populace - not sure how to express this idea - their history goes way back, they have been overrun by conquerors so often (with attendant suffering) - Fermor's descriptions of the the sounds of the music, the instruments, the voices; hmmm.

And then the variations of Christianity introduced here, often competing, the depth of the icons and the ceremonies, again perhaps spurred by the regular, and awful, invasions.

Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Greece, Macedonia.

Moldovia Wallachia became Romania mid 19th century, acquire Transylvania from Hungary after WWI; Hungarians with long memories about this.

Many dog-eared pages.  The episode where he is lost and spends the night in a cave with shepherd-outlaws - seems to take place in a different world, one thinks of Odysseus and the Cyclops.

Etc.  Highly recommended.

The Transylvanian Trilogy - Vol. II - They Were Found Wanting; Vol. III - They Were Divided (Miklos Banffy, 1934)

(830 pages)

I had read Volume I of this trilogy back in 2016; liked the final two volumes even a bit better.  My summary for Volume I actually work quite well for purposes of Volumes II and III; however, the action (certainly the political stakes) pick up as World War I nears.  

The story lines of course take place in the geographies where the incidents that kicked off the war occurred, so there's the run-up for that.  More discussion of Franz Ferdinand as heir apparent; he is presented as a conniver, quite unflattering.

The scenes taking place in Transylvania and Hungary are consistently interesting; the author also certainly must had a great feel for the era's politics.

The book is a great companion to the second of Patrick Leigh Fermor's books - he was visiting much the same geography, only in the 1930s.

Balint; his mother Roza; Adrienne; Pal Uzdy; Laszlo; many more.

Recommended

Fortunes of War - The Balkan Trilogy (Olivia Manning, 1960-1965)

Manning wrote a total of six novels in the collection known as "Fortunes of War" - this book ("The Balkan Trilogy" includes the first three:  The Great Fortune (1960), The Spoilt City (1962) and Friends And Heroes (1965).

Another 900+ page work; another effort to get better acquainted with the Balkans.

Story centers around newlyweds Guy and Harriet Pringle - married after a short courtship while Guy visits London in summer 1939; they settle in Bucharest, where he is involved in teaching.  The story line revolves around two main themes:  (1) developments in the war (German advances create big changes in Romania and eventually force the Pringles (and most of the Brit community in Romania) to Athens (which is as far as the Pringles venture in this trilogy), Cairo, etc.; (2) the Pringles get to know each other better, which isn't always uplifting.  Based on the author's own experiences.

Sometimes this felt a bit like a mere page-turner, but I do think there's quite a bit going on.  Very interesting to read about the experiences of British citizens residing in these places in the run-up to the war - the best perspective I've gotten on what that might have been like.  Also interesting to read about late 1930s Romania.  And the story line about the relationship of the newlyweds was handled well.  So I liked this . . . but not sure it was worth 900 pages of effort . . . except it was ideal gym-reading.

Prince Yakimov; Lord Pinkrose; Sasha; many, many other characters are introduced - primarily Brits with various positions, but also Romanian and Greek characters.

The Transylvanian Trilogy - Volume I - They Were Counted (Miklos Banffy, 1934)

This sounded interesting, and I was willing to give it a try as part of an ongoing effort to get a better picture of eastern Europe, Balkans, etc. (for example, this, this and this within the last few months).

Quick read; debatable whether I'll go on and read the last two parts of the trilogy.

Author is telling a story of Hungarian aristocracy in the years just before World War I (as a result of which their world broke, irretrievably).  Two cousins are the main characters:  Balint Abady and Laszlo Gyeroffy.  They are headed down different paths.

Sometimes draggy but generally interesting discussion of early 20th century politics in this corner of the world - feeling pushed around by the emperor in Austria; the "Dual Monarchy" not seeming very well balanced.  Some are dreaming of incorporating Balkan states into the empire.  References to 1848 and 1867 episodes and influence on Hungary, Transylvania; Kossuth; but no references reaching back to Turkish occupation etc.

A reminder of how closely integrated this world was with all of western Europe; perhaps now the effect of the Iron Curtain is fading a bit and that integration is somewhat restored?  Romanian minorities (including folks on Balint's estates).  A sense of the geography of Transylvania - hinterlands even by the standards of these countries.

So much of the talk by the politicians would sound right at home in 2016 presidential campaign - phony patriotic appeals, identity politics, payoffs, etc.

Descriptions of of old houses - originally built with fortifications.

Balint interested in Adrienne and Laszlo interested in Klara.  Author burns a lot of time on this and it's the weakest part of the book - these portions are how I imagine a Harlequin romance would read.

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon - A Journey Through Yugoslavia (Rebecca West, 1940)

I keep trying to make more sense out of the Balkans/SE Europe, it's not easy.

In 1937, West travels for about six weeks through what was then "Yugoslavia".  (She had gotten intrigued with the area on a visit the prior year.)  Yugoslavia - cobbled together after WWI - is struggling to form a state . . .  out of multiple and incredibly disparate pieces.  Reading this book gives a sense of just how disparate.  As her little tour group proceeds, Italy (Mussolini (cum Hitler)) is closing in.  (Feels a bit like this work in that regard.)

An absolutely delightful 1,150 pages.  My sense is that she researched meticulously; yet she had strong opinions, was biased toward certain groups; makes for an amazing combination of highly-readable-yet-informative.

The author apparently had a pretty interesting personal life - mistress to H.G. Wells, etc.

Geography wasn't kind to this part of the world - a crossroads for pretty much everyone (interestingly, the 2015/16 "refugee" "crisis" involves folks criss-crossing this region yet again).  Ottomans, Austrians, Russians, etc.  In midst of Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Islam, etc.

Astonishing geography; long, complicated histories; Croatia; Dalmatia; Bosnia; Montenegro; etc.

She has a long and interesting discussion of events in Sarajevo (Franz Ferdinand assassination).

"Constantine" as guide.

As she thinks about what happened in this part of the world - and in context of imminent Nazi threat - she seems to have a kind of epiphany - discusses that it can be necessary and fine to fight for something valuable, and laments that Western Europe seems to have lost its way in this regard.  (Another discussion that is ongoing.)

I read that this appears on lists of 100 best nonfiction books of 20th century.  I enjoyed it, immensely.