Rating: 
Summary: An Encyclopedia of the Armenian Spirit
Review: "An encyclopedia of the Armenian spirit", "a classic in Western literature about the Armenians" - this is how The Crossing Place is defined by Armenian scholars. Such praise from the very people it describes is enough evidence of the outstanding nature of Marsden's physical and spiritual journey. As the Armenian translator of this marvellous travelogue, I can say, that it is a monumental work, radiating with the pulse of a true Armenian and echoing with the eternal values of this nation. One measure of a people is its hold on the imagination of others. An unusual force drives this Englishman to come out of Cornwall and to walk along the paths of the Armenians from their ransacked ancestral homeland in Eastern Anatolia, towards the Syrian deserts, where they perished in the first genocide of the 20th century. Yet there were survivors of this stubborn people who were resurrected in various parts of the world and there were tough natives still struggling on the southern heights of Armenia's border. Marsden encounters these elusive people in 1991 - at a time of great change in the Middle East and the former Soviet Union, only to find out that such changes, the collapse of empires have always seen Armenians both in front of and behind the scenes. What is it that keeps the Armenians Armenian? Bearing in his eyes the light to see the truth, Marsden looks like a devoted pilgrim, who totally ignores his personal comfort to reach the ultimate destination of his journey - he covers long distances feeling cold, hungry, thirsty, tired, numb or baffled - revealing and wisely evaluating the fundamental qualities of the Armenians. He realizes that an enigmatic language and a distinctive church, an instinctive wildness, and a creative genius - those invincible characteristics, have insured the survival of Armenians from time immemorial to modern ages. One can feel that Marsden is not an ordinary "pilgrim", but an "architect" building his "own" Armenian church. The basis of this meticulously crafted narration is the dark depths of the historical landscape he evokes, while the network of communities form the vaulted "niches" of its vision. All along Marsden tries to capture the whirling spirit of the Armenians in a tangible form, and in the end he metaphorically raises the "solid rock" of the Armenian existence - the "crenellated dome" of the mountaineers defending their land. This is more than just a travel book, since the author digs into the soul and roots of a people capable of recreating itself through devastating predicaments. He plows the mystical realms of its ancient culture and history, penetrates into the chaos that generates its philosophy, and comes out with a clutch of primeval human values. A writer of high principles, Marsden achieves this through his communicative talent, through the warm immediacy of a live experience, the deep research of an ethnologist and the searching eyes of an intent observer. His magnetic style is characterized by poetic touch and kind humour. He shows the Armenian in crystal content. I have been living under the spell of this book since my first reading. It already existed in 6 other languages and I was compelled to translate it to show my deep respect and gratitude to a writer of exquisite sensibility, who was fully aware of the inherent strength of the Armenian script. After almost half a year of the Armenian publication The Crossing Place is still living with me, guiding my insight into the land, the people and the language that make my world. And who could resist reading Marsden's other "tricks"? An author of unique feelings towards the birthplace of nations and their cultural psychology, he also has a deep sense of the vicissitudes of time as well as a unique skill in embracing tormented nations. His other books, "A Far Country", "The Bronski House" and "The Spirit - Wrestlers" about the people of Ethiopia, Poland and south Russia lead the readers into the inner worlds of enduring and spiritually powerful people. Like an epic writer of the classical ages, Marsden carves with the most delicate touch and the most profound inspiration eternal worlds, inhabited by eternal people, living tragic and heroic lives.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent travelogue among Armenians
Review: ... It is really the best yet on travelling among Armenians. Mr. Marsden has a talent for juxtaposing different images through the English language and also through selecting visual adjectives in describing the Armenian character, history and the genocide. I enjoyed this book much more than Michael Arlen's which I had trouble really getting into. Mr. Marsden is honest in his reaction and description of Armenanians -- his repulsion and attraction alike. I recommend this book for anyone wishing to understand the disaspora, the genocide, the Armenian people and their tie to their land.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent travelogue among Armenians
Review: ... It is really the best yet on travelling among Armenians. Mr. Marsden has a talent for juxtaposing different images through the English language and also through selecting visual adjectives in describing the Armenian character, history and the genocide. I enjoyed this book much more than Michael Arlen's which I had trouble really getting into. Mr. Marsden is honest in his reaction and description of Armenanians -- his repulsion and attraction alike. I recommend this book for anyone wishing to understand the disaspora, the genocide, the Armenian people and their tie to their land.
Rating:
Summary: Good!
Review: A wonderful story of a Journey not only in Armenia, but of the road there. His knowledge of history and people allow him to well place stories and observations within the book, and illuminate the world of Armenians across the globe. Too bad it's unavailable...
Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: An amazing story of the author's quest to learn more about the Armenian people!
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Summary: First person account of a journey of discovery
Review: Charming and well written book of a young Englishman's voyage of discovery among the middle eastern diaspora of Armenians and then through the Balkans and across the Caucasus to Armenia itself. Weaves in the history and present situation of Armenians and projects a powerful and sympathetic image of perhaps the most resilient culture and people in history. Easy and enjoyable to read.
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Summary: Excellent travel/history book about the Armenians
Review: Mardsen's book is a unique combination of present travel storytelling and history. Few books have explained the Armenian people, how they think (and why), what they have been through, and what they hope for, so well. By visiting different Armenian Diaspora groups, he gets a unique perspective from Armenians everywhere, not just Armenians from the Republic or the United States. The reader can tell that Mardsen is entranced by the Armenians and their culture and this creates an extremely interesting and good read. It is also filled with quite a few interesting and little known facts about Armenians. This is a great book for anyone interested in Armenians and their culture, past and present.
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Summary: The Quest for Ararat
Review: Philip Marsden clearly harbors a special interest in eastern Christian traditions, for they run like a red thread through his three travel books. In "A Far Country: Travels in Ethiopia" he visits this sole surviving Christian nation in the Horn of Africa, surrounded by Islamic countries. "The Spirit Wrestlers" explores a plethora of religious movement springing up in Russia, Ukraine and the Caucasus in the wake of the Societ Union's downfall.. In "The Crossing Place" Marsden sets out to investigate the tragic fate of the Armenians, an ancient Christian people from the Caucasus. This mountainous region tugged in between the Black and Caspian Seas lies on the crossroads of the old Persian, Turkish and Russian realms. It is also the place were six of the world's twelve tectonic plates meet, making it one of the most earthquake-prone regions in the world. Because of this geographical position Armenia's fate is permeated with disaster, both natural and man-made. These experiences have made dislocation a continuous theme in Armenian history and provide the book with a double travel motif: not only the author is constantly on the move, but so is his subject. Marsden became interested in the Armenians through a chance encounter in eastern Turkey. There he stumbled on some fragmentary remains of the 1915 Armenian genocide. Intrigued by what he had found he decided to work his way back to the Armenian heartland. The first part of the book is situated in the Near East, where Armenia had almost ceased to exist, "pushed down one of history's side-alleys and murdered". Or so it seemed, had they not been such a resilient people. Marsden picks up the trail in the Armenian quarter of Jerusalem. He learns that the Armenians first appeared on the Anatolian plains in the sixth century BC. Eight hundred years later their king became the first ruler to accept Christianity. A first glimpse of the 'essential Armenia" is caught during a visit to a famous center for Armenian Studies, the San Lazzaro monastery in Venice (where Armenians had been resident well before the city's rise to commercial and political prominence in the 12th century). According to one of its scholars the unique Armenian script developed by Mesrop Mashtot embodies an idea that can not be explained but only expressed in one word "Ararat", the mountain that is the heart of Armenia. Marsden continues his quest in Lebanon -- by way of Cyprus -- and poses himself the question how such a mobile nation, consisting of merchants, pilgrims and adventurers, had been able to maintain its distinctiveness. Nowhere better to get a sense of that than in Beirut, which has just emerged from a brutal civil war. Here the Armenians had staunchly stuck to their neutrality but also maintained a basis for their commando-type liberation movements, operating with surgical precision in sixteen countries. Only by tapping into the efficient Armenian network of connections is Marsden able to move swiftly and inconspicuously through Lebanon and Syria. Taking the Baron hotel in Aleppo -- founded and still managed by an Armenian -- as a base camp for explorations into the last surviving Armenian villages of northern Syria, Marsden gives us a chilling account of the ruthlessness with which the Turks perpetrated their ethnic cleansing during the First World War. From Syria the author moves into Turkey. Using the ancient city of Antioch, which for seven hundred years had been largely populated by Armenians, the ruins of Ani, capital of a long-lost Armenian state, and finally Istanbul as a backdrop, Marsden gives an excellent overview of another Armenian characteristic: their genius for building. No single ethnic group in the Middle East has made so many contributions to architecture as the Armenians. They were employed by Turkish, Persian and Indian rulers alike. Marsden conjectures that they may have been instrumental to the development of Europe's Gothic style with its pointed arch. The second part of the book takes us to the Balkans. Since the days of the Byzantine empire, subsequent rulers of Asia Minor have used this region to exile unwanted elements. This permits Marsden to launch into one of his favorite topics: arcane religious sects. The reader is provided with a most interesting account of how the doctrine of dualism, which can be traced back to the earlier Persian religions of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism, forms the origin of many Christian heresies. Marsden has clearly studied this issue thoroughly and makes an Armenian role in the spread of heretical beliefs to western Europe quite plausible. Traveling through Bulgaria and Romania, Marsden "[..] became aware that the Armenians had been a much greater presence in the Balkans than [..] first imagined." More gaps in the knowledge of this, at first so enigmatic, people are filled. He penetrates deeper into their language and learns about the extent of their trading relations. In the Middle Ages they had already reached Moorish Spain, Poland and the court of the Mongol Khan. By the 18th century Armenians were connected with the Ottoman, Safavid and Moghul courts, had established an influence with Burmese and Ethiopian monarchs, and traded in Amsterdam, Calcutta, Java and Tibet. Via the Crimea Marsden finally makes it to Armenia proper where the third part of the book is set. Recently wrested away from seventy years of Soviet domination the situation there is still very precarious. During visits to four famous monasteries in the country's northeast, the writer contemplates the so-called "Silver Age", Armenia's last period of brilliance during the eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Buried deep beneath this short period of fervent monastic activity lies Armenia's pre-Christian heritage. This atavistic past is just as much part of the Armenian identity as its unique Christian beliefs. The book closes with an account of Armenia's more recent tribulations: a devastating earthquake and the war with neighboring Azerbaijan over the region of Karabagh. Witnessing its effects first-hand, Marsden "[..] sensed that here, where the threat was greatest, the Armenian spirit was at its strongest. It was the same spirit that had driven the Armenians through the vast improbability of their history". "The Crossing Place" establishes Philip Marsden as a worthy successor of Colin Thubron, one of Britain's best travel writers. Not only do the two share an interest in less obvious travel destinations on the Eurasian landmass, visiting people at the fringes of so-called great cultures, but their writings have also a certain style in common; a captivating prose that unfolds the power of the English language and holds the reader's attention until the end.
Rating: 
Summary: Subjective is a good word.
Review: Please don't make the assumption that because I criticize this book that it means I am a "turkish denier", that I deny that the genocide ever happened. People seem to be so polarized over this issue that it is almost impossible to have a discussion about Turkish/Armenian relations without being instantly pigeon-holed. The reason that I dislike this book, is that it seems to attmept to widen and strengthen this polarization, without any true insight into the issue.
While I truly applaud Mr. Marsden in undertaking this incredible journey and doing so much to dig so deep into a culture, I coulnd't help but be effected by some of the implications he makes in his book in relation to Turks and Turkey in general. Of course this is a document of his own PERSONAL feelings and experiences in the journey which are richly written, but... had I not known any better I would walk away from this book feeling somewhat of a hatred for Turks. What bothers me is the way he accomplishes this by playing loose and fast with facts and alluding to things without saying them directly (and I don't mean loose and hard facts about the genocide, I mean about things that happen to him). While it may seem that due to my personal connection to Turkey I am simply over-reacting to a few small details in the book, I would argue to the contrary. Part of the effect he seems to want to create hinges on convincing us to share his view of how Turks as a people and culture are.
For example, the book itself opens with him in Eastern Turkey chancing upon an abadoned Armenian village and a Turkish shephard. Marsden finds a bone and then asks the shephard about the village. The shepard barks "Ermeni", grabs the bone and throws it to his dogs. Without stating it directly he opens the book "saying" that Turks are glad the Armenians are gone, still hate them, feed their bones to their dogs, and are barbaric. Whether the bone was or was not human or even Armenian for that matter he doesn't say, nor whether or not the man was angry because he hates Armenians, is annoyed by a nosey British man interrupting his solitude, or for any number of reasons he doesn't say either. Either way his aim at the start of the book seems rather, sadly, clear.
Later he says that he meets a man in a mosque in Edirne. The man asks what he is doing in Turkey and Marsden says he tracing out the Armenians. Marsden then asks the man what he does and the man says he's a cop. Again, this is told in such a way as to imply that perhaps some kind of secret Turkish police is following him around, not that it is a chance encounter with a man in a mosque who simply answers his quesiton about what his job is. He refuses to even once refer to Istanbul by any other name than Constantinople. He offers no historical background to the genocide (although a plethora of history elsewhere) which again gives the impression of it just happening out of nowhere due simply to inanate/genetic Turkish barbarity. He even states that he's glad to leave Turkey finally as it is a place "neither East nor West"; this is a very surprisingly superficial view coming from someone so well traveled and who seems to look into everything else so deeply around him: where he is not content with superficial information on Armenians and goes to great lengths to get to the bottom and truth of this information, he seems totally content with accepting and furthering completely superficial information and views in relation to Turks.
I am not here to debate about the genocide and related issues nor to defend Turkish/Ottoman actions, but I do want to point out what I feel to be a "message" in the book. Due to these inbalances in the book at the end it seems to come off as too one-sided and almost irresponsible: yes he has done a wonderful job bringing to light a complex, important, and beautiful culture, but at the cost of sidlining and de-humanizing another. Having been to Armenia and currently living in Turkey myself I agree with another reviewer's comment of Turks and Armenians having more in common than they might want to admit. If Marsden is truly commited to the Armenian cause then he would do good to be more aware of the effects his book might have in furthering the Turkish-Armenian rift.
Again it's a great travel book, but be wary of it's implied politics.
Rating:
Summary: Fiction or reality?
Review: The main problem I had with this book was that it was a bit too subjective. I'm aware of the fact that Armenians were good warriors and in particular innovative architects, but let's not blow it up. Shiragatsi does not exist. To which degree the Armenians used their alphabet for mathematical reasons is unknown. To which extent they used math to build churches, is not proven. Other parts in the book sound too fake: all the non-Armenians are belligerent and crude while all the Armenians are nice and helpful. I know plenty of nasty Armenians... Also Turks using Armenian bones to feed their dogs sounds a bit too unbelievable. And from what I've read elsewhere, Armenian architecture in Anatolia has been recorded (by western explorers). Turks wouldn't dare blow up another church. Added to this: some Armenians changed their names around 1915, not because they were ashamed to have survived where so many had died, but because they were afraid to be treated like second-rate citizens (which many of us still feel until today, particularly in the west). One last thing: Turks and Armenians are not so different, considering that they used to be brothers. Their culture and mentality are very similar and if you don't believe me, try getting to know the Turks.
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