Opening Closed Doors

Nothing to Envy
by Barbara Demick

One of the things I take into consideration when selecting travel literature is whether or not I will ever travel to the location in question.  In the case of Nothing to Envy, the chances of me doing that are pretty much non-existent.  North Korea is the most closed country in the world and is, needless to say, not a place for a relaxing vacation.

Oddly, I have read a story about travel in North Korea before.  It was a chapter in Bad Lands by Tony Wheeler.  In that book he traveled to some of the most dangerous places on earth including North Korea, Libya, and Iraq.  While none of the stories in that book were especially gripping and thought provoking, each did provide a window into a place that I will never see.  In the case of Nothing to Envy, however, it isn't just the window.  No, the door to North Korea is thrown wide open as Demick relates the lives of those who survived the famine of the 1990's and managed to defect to South Korea.  The lives are those of ordinary people and the stories of those ordinary lives are absolutely heart breaking and yet utterly absorbing.

Demick does an excellent job keeping a neutral stance as she lets the defectors tell the story of their life.  She doesn't provide analysis of how the government manages to hold power and the apparent devotion of its citizens.  Instead each defector relates how they felt and how those feelings slowly changed in the face of total economic collapse and widespread famine.  It is difficult for the western reader to fully understand the total lack of choice and appreciate the situation of each of these ordinary people and I very much appreciated Demick letting me do it myself. I truly found myself transported into their lives.

The journey here is a bleak one, but eye opening.  To me, it truly demonstrates how important travel can be.  Who is to say you know the true story of a place and a people until you have seen it for yourself.  It also demonstrates the gift of freedom, a word which has been much abused in our society of late.  Maybe to truly know freedom, we need to experience a total absence of freedom?  All I know is that I don't want to ever go to North Korea, but I would like the citizens to be able to come here.

Driving Change

Country Driving
by Peter Hessler

China is a frequent topic of travel literature these days.  I can't even begin to keep track of how many books I have read in the past couple years.  The most recent would include The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester, Dreaming in Chinese by Deborah Fallows, and now Country Driving by Peter Hessler.  Country Driving, which was mentioned on several best of the year lists, is the third in a trilogy that begins with River Town and Oracle Bones.  I have not read either of these first two books, but they are definitely on my TBR list now.  I absolutely loved Country Driving.

In this book, Hessler has just obtained his Chinese driving license, something that an increasing number of Chinese citizens are now able to do.  Not owning a car, he rents a variety of cars and explores far beyond the boundaries of his rental contracts.  The book is divided into three sections, each touching on a different aspect of the rapid changes China is experiencing and demonstrating how that change is so fast, the culture and infrastructure of the country cannot keep up.  He starts by tracing the ancient history of China with a travel route along the Great Wall.  He visits many small and dying villages, some of which are older than the wall itself, some bearing delightfully descriptive names such as Smash the Hu.  In the next section he relates his experiences as a part time residence in a village on the outskirts of Beijing, a village that in just a few years almost completely transforms and becomes part of the suburbs.  The final section relates the story of a small factory owner in one of the industrial districts, an area that was built and working before any infrastructure, such as roads or off ramps, had been completed. 

Hessler tells his story in part through Western eyes.  From that perspective, it is sometimes easy to laugh at the bizarreness of China--the wacky 50 yard driving test, the driving schools, the lack of off ramps on a freeway, the custom of negotiating payment for minor accidents there in the street.  It is also easy to condemn the environmental disaster that is China today, but is it really any different than the Industrial Revolution in the West? The US and Europe probably changed just as rapidly and as destructively. 

Hessler, a long time resident of China, is also able to give us the insider's viewpoint, telling the story of ordinary Chinese citizens who are working hard to get ahead even as the ground changes underneath them.  The way of life has shifted literally over night, leaving many physically behind in the villages as the young go forth to the cities.  The second section relates the story of a family running a small business to take advantage of the changes in their town.  Their child is born into the old ways, but being raised in the new.  It is a tale that makes it easy to condemn the West of today rather than China.

Hessler's ability to offer both perspectives absolutely mesmerized me.  He captured the contradictions, the insanity, the beauty that is China today.  Where is China going?  No one seems to know, the forces of change may beyond anyone's control.  It is going to be a fascinating journey, however, that, if nothing else, is crystal clear.

Deep Deep Deep Underground

Blind Descent
by James M Tabor

I hear about books from various sources.  I read reviews, browse books at the library, read articles, and get personal recommendations among other things.  I am an adventurous reader for the most part, but rarely do I actually read the adventure genre.  Travel is adventure, of course, but travel to the depths of the earth?  That is an adventure of exploration I am never ever going to take and not particularly interested in reading about if I am honest.  Blind Descent, however, showed up on several "best travel writing of 2010" lists and that intrigued me.  It was on the shelf at the library so I checked it out.

The story starts out with a death, displaying how truly unforgiving an environment is found in extreme caving.  The inexperienced need not apply or they will never become experienced.  From that doomed expedition the story divides up into two separate quests to discover the deepest place on earth.  One takes place in Oaxaca, Mexico and the other in the Ukraine.   The two expeditions are near opposites in terms of the people who lead them, the cave environment, and the end result of the mission.  Both, however, involve unbelievably dangerous risks. 

Much of the story focuses on the cavers, in the case of Bill Stone, a driven, almost obsessive personality who comes to dominate the book even when the pages were deep underground in the Ukraine.  His quest to conquer the sumps and invent a re-breather for cave diving was fascinating and very illustrative of the dangers of the Chevre Cave in Mexico.  At the same time, Alexander Klimchouk in the Ukraine, was so solid and resolute the actual cave itself seemed to lack drama despite the fact that it was the deepest place on earth at more than 2100 meters below the surface.

Because of the focus on the cavers, I never really felt transported by this book.  It was simply too grounded in the reality of the earthbound personalities.  At the same time, I will admit that caves are not likely the most vivid of environments.  How do you paint a picture of a place that has no light to illustrate it?  How do you capture the oppressive nature of the weight of thousands of feet of rock above you?  It is so alien, so forbidding, it sometimes literally drives people crazy.  I just didn't feel that as I read this book, though it was a good story.  Then again, I don't know that I want to go that far underground, so perhaps it was for the best.