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Rating:  Summary: TAKE A LOOK AT THESE RAVE REVIEWS! Review:
From Forbes FYI: "Weller...serves up every mile in rich, engrossing and often wretched detail...[Weller is] a wonderful, lyrical writer...It's an absorbing, if mind-boggling, read."
From Booklist: "At once superbly balanced and acutely in tune to historical detail, Weller's accessible, lively prose has depth and excitement enough to gratify true history buffs and captivate armchair travelers...A compelling, highly satisfying work of travel literature."
From Publisher's Weekly: "This is a rewarding journey for armchair travelers."
From Kirkus: "...[a] wryly observant travelogue...brimming with beauty and strangeness."
Rating:  Summary: AND THE PATH OF PRAISE GOES ON ! Review:
FROM RONALD WRIGHT, author of Time Among the Maya and Stolen Continents: "Intrepid, perceptive, intelligent, and very funny, Anthony Weller is superb navigator through the tides of life and history in India and Pakistan. His vivid eye, questing spirit and, above all, his graceful writing make this extraordinary journey into both violence and serenity a reader's delight."
FROM SHASHI THAROOR, Executive Assistant to the Secretary-General, UNITED NATIONS, New York: "Stimulating and keenly observed."
Rating:  Summary: GRAND TRUNK IS NOT THE ROAD LESS REVIEWED!!!! Review: FROM LIBRARY JOURNAL: "On the 50th anniversary of the independence and partition of India, Weller, an American poet, novelist, and journalist (e.g. The Garden of the Peacocks, LJ 9/1/96) has written a richly anecdotal account of his journey along the subcontinent's most historic highway, the Grand Trunk Road, for centuries India's main artery, running from Calcutta to the Khyber Pass. The Grand Trunk has been the traditional route of invaders, as well as a conduit for new ideas and faiths. On a previous visit, Weller was stirred both by India's beauty and by his inability to comprehend the experience. So he returned and traveled the 1600-mile length of the Grand Trunk, hoping to make at least partial sense of his earlier impressions. Weller makes an excellent companion whether regaling us with the story of a Mogui emperor's elephant, describing the Juin faith, or speculating on the paucity of beggars in Paksitan. Recommended for academic and public libraries."
Rating:  Summary: learning Review: A. Weller is a superb writer, I learned more about India in 10 pages than I could have in a year of school. Although the names, and dates can be eye crossing after awhile, it only showed me that mr. Weller did a ton of research, and cut no corners' in writing this book. From keen observations interspersed with humerous encounters with strangers' and beauracratic red tape, I applaud mr. Weller for writting a book the he could be proud of first, and not an "India for dummies". Rock on Tony!!
Rating:  Summary: Entertaining Review: Having spent a month in India, and experiencing first-hand Indian roads and traffic, I found Days & Nights on The Grand Trunk Road to be as entertaining as a travelogue on the Travel Channel...no more no less. Some errors intersperse the book, but are of little consequence to its overall flow. However, Weller should be aware that Muslims normally perform ablutions five times a day, preceding each set of prayers. The Pakistani fellow who advised him otherwise was grossly misinformed.
Rating:  Summary: Mildly entertaining travel book. Review: Not a bad book, but not particularly good either. Weller, while intelligent and well-meaning, doesn't seem to know very much about India. To be sure, he's done some background reading -- at the end he provides a curious list of dated references -- but his knowledge seems flimsy. One does not get the feeling that he's studied or thought deeply about the country, its history or culture; but rather that he's parroting views he's read in books or that he's simply reacting to what he sees on the road. As a result one doesn't have confidence in his attempts to synthesize the meaning of India's past or its prospects in the future. What he has to say in this regard is rather banal in any case. I suspect he included these broad pronouncements -- about the population problem, about communal violence -- only because this is what people have come to expect from travel writers, instant and concise analyses of foreign cultures. Unfortunately not every travel writer is a Naipaul. Also, his narrative of his encounters on the road is simply not interesting. It's not boring exactly, just bland. He meets uninteresting people, has brief uninteresting conversations, and then moves on.
Rating:  Summary: Entertaining Review: Reading this book was a great way to take a journey from home. Weller makes great observations about everyday encounters while en route through Northern India. From truck drivers to border guards to off the beaten track historic sites, Weller informs and entertains. I was suprised that the book educates as it entertains. Weller explains various history and religon in a manner that is never boring.
Rating:  Summary: Great read about contemporary India Review: Reading this book was a great way to take a journey from home. Weller makes great observations about everyday encounters while en route through Northern India. From truck drivers to border guards to off the beaten track historic sites, Weller informs and entertains. I was suprised that the book educates as it entertains. Weller explains various history and religon in a manner that is never boring.
Rating:  Summary: Weller blends 3000 years of history with contemporary life. Review: Travelling along the GT Road is an expirience that one never forgets.The author gives an historical perspective of the points along the GT Road. He starts out in Calcutta, the city built by the Raj. Along the way he finds the foundations of the Jain and Buddhist religions. Weller writes about thses religions in an objective manner and gives a clear concise history of the religions along with their beliefs. Between these highlights he meets present day Indians. What he puts into words is what I thought but could not expess myself, both humorously and insightfully. I had lived in India for two years while serving in the Peace Corps. I felt the same frustrations he did in communicating and dealing with the bureaucracy. This is an excellent book for one intending to travel through the subcontinent or has spent some time there.
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