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| The Places In Between | 
 enlarge | Author: Rory Stewart
Publisher: Harvest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $2.85
You Save: $11.15 (80%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (157 reviews)
Sales Rank: 3181
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0156031566
Dewey Decimal Number: 915.810447
EAN: 9780156031561
ASIN: 0156031566
Publication Date: May 8, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Recommended read but not worthy of higher star rating April 10, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The book is a rather detached narration and at the end one feels the author needed to say more; an analysis of the people, their life, the wretchedness and an absolute destruction of the society. it seems that he is unaffected by what he sees!
The value of reading the book is a realization of the absolute devastation of the lives of the Afghans. A rich culture being driven to a primitive state where participants have become numb to their surroundings and life has little value. The book is undoubted peppered with a few good perspectives, such as the global media hype on the Bhuddah's destroyed by the Taliban (a sad affair in its own right) but pale compared to the numerous villages and people burnt and killed by them.
Premise seemed interesting February 26, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I borrowed this book from a friend, he explained a Scot crosses Afghanistan on foot shortly after 9/11/01. Seems like it would be action packed? Not quite, it must be hard to write a revealing travel journal about a people that aren't very revealing themselves. Although the Muslims do consider themselves first class in terms of hospitality towards travelers believe it or not.
Well, it's a welcome window on a world that we are educated on very little and as you read further you understand why so little is known. First, it is very hard to get to. Second, literacy and technology seem to be very sparce and thus info on this area does not travel far.
An interesting excerpt, one night Mr. Stewart is going to bed as villagers listen to a translated BBC transmission of Bill Gates explaining bundling Internet Explorer with Windows; these villagers marry their first cousins and do not use toilet paper they could not possibly have an idea what Mr. Gates is talking about.
You have to respect Rory's timing in all this, to him it is simply an opportunity to finish his epic trek. And after the reader finds out he can speak Persian fairly fluently that "danger element" an American reader might have intially presumed about his adventure seems to dissolve into a snapshot of conversations that seem perfectly logical.
Bottom line, it's worth your time. But perhaps a little reading up the modern history of Afghanistan wouldn't hurt. Stewart skims the political history in a way that I would have felt shorted if I hadn't read up on it elsewhere.
 Gives excellent insight into the other side..... February 22, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A quick read that covers in his eye's the way of life of a people or culture that most of us will never comprehend. I don't know why he did it either; maybe it's that some people are apt to roam the world. Stewart is not a Novelist, as some people have tried to critique him on unfairly, but does write in a fashion that you can relate to. It is more of a journal than a story but I found it very interesting and informative. Why some reviews have tried to compare Rory Stewart to Barbour who is the original traveler, explorer extraordinaire is beyond me. I don't think he ever really tried to make himself out to be someone he is not although he is an accomplished Diplomat and PR veteran from the first Gulf War. My opinion is that we should all read this short book just to gain some insight into the minds of the Afghanistan culture. They are a proud people that in some ways more respectful and polite, especially to travelers, than anyone in the western world (not in all ways but in some).
A Travel Book Like No Other February 3, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
In theory, it is easy to hate an Eton educated upper class Scotsman who decides it'd be a lark to walk across Afghanistan six months after the fall of the Taliban. But after reading Stewarts book, I have to say it is extremely good. We learn next to nothing about Stewart here outside of the details of daily walking. He is cold, he has dysentery, he is hungry, etc other than that, the focus is almost entirely on the people he meets, and I cannot think of a travel book that does a better job of honestly relating the lives of the people the writer meets.
Not every Afghan in this book is a noble tribesman; some are downright unkind to Stewart. Others are incredibly welcoming. Some are Taliban supporters; some are not. Some are drug dealers and some are subsistence farmers. I think the honestly in Stewart's portrayal of the Afghans he meets is very respectful and his writing of this book is the best outcome of this kind of experience I can imagine.
 A long slog through Afghanistan February 3, 2008
Rory Stewart's decision to walk across Afghanistan in early-2002 is the topic of this bold and thoughtful travelogue. It was hard to resist buying this book, as much for its imprimatur as a NY Times bestseller, as for its provocative and engaging subject matter. And sure enough, Stewart makes a spirited attempt at providing interesting insights into the customs and lifestyles of the people he meets. I enjoyed the fast pace of the story, and the ample vignettes about the villages and families that he encounters along the way
Where the book suffers is in its matter-of-fact style. There's not much emotion in Stewart's descriptions. The days and chapters seem to bleed together until you reach the end of the book, wondering what his conclusions are. This may be a byproduct of the author's journalistic background. Or the fact that he took notes at the end of exhausting days, and then wrote the book back home in Scotland, publishing it some two years after his adventure.
In any case, "The Places in Between" both educates and entertains. But I suspect that you'll come away from this book thinking that it's average at best in the travel writing genre.
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