Because Ideas Matter...
The faculty and staff of Butler University's College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences presents
Recommended Readings
The Way of the World
by Nicola Bouvier (translated by Robyn Marsack), New York Book
Reviews Classics, 2009
Reviewed by Tiberiu Popa
In the summer of 1953, while still a student
at the University of Geneva, Nicolas Bouvier embarks on a long and
often perilous journey together with his friend, Thierry Vernet,
who would later provide the illustrations for this book. In about a
year and a half the two young men, driving an unimposing and fairly
unreliable Fiat Topolino, explored postwar Yugoslavia, northern
Greece (fleetingly), northern and western Turkey, before venturing
around Iran, and into Pakistan and Afghanistan (about as dangerous
back then as it is now). The narrative line is just as
captivatingly sinuous, often accelerating in unexpected directions,
for the poignant tale of some misadventures in Anatolia or in the
desolate Iranian mountains, or slowing down occasionally so that
the author can properly convey his impressions arising, for
example, from the archaic ambiance in the camp of nomadic gypsies
or from some otherworldly landscape. The vividness of the author's
observations and the evocative force of the narrative episodes make
it easy for the reader to forget that this book is not a journal;
indeed, Bouvier allowed no less than 10 years to pass after his and
his friend's exploits and tribulations, before he published this
volume (à propos, if you are in good command of French, you may
want to savor it in the original). As a result, his initial
impressions became more crystallized and his reflections gained
depth without, however, losing the appearance of spontaneity. The
book may charm its readers with its youthful taste for conquering
unknown worlds and with its keen 'ethnographic' snapshots. Still,
its literary worth may lie chiefly in its reflections on the inner
trajectory taken by that journey, an occasion as much for
discovering exotic lands and cultures as for self-discovery, and in
the hauntingly lyric tone that infuses most of the chapters and
renders the substance of this book atemporal and very much worth
reading.
- Tiberiu Popa is associate professor of philosophy at Butler
University.