Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Travel Memoir
Approximate word count: 75-80,000 words
Availability
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on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or
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Author:
Paul Barach
is a Seattle based writer, producer, and stand-up comic. Among his proudest
achievements in life is “only falling into the La Brea Tar Pits once.” This is
his first book.
For more,
visit Barach’s website.
Description:
“A 750-mile
pilgrimage, an unprepared office worker, and everything that went wrong along
the way.
Age
twenty-eight and fed up with the office job he settled for, Paul Barach decided
to travel to Japan to follow a vision he had in college: to walk the ancient
750-mile Shikoku pilgrimage trail.
Here are
some things he did not decide to do: learn Japanese, do any research, road test
his hiking shoes, or check if it’s the hottest summer in history.
And he went
anyway, hoping to change his life.
Fighting
Monks and Burning Mountains is the absurd and dramatic journey of one impulsive
American’s search for answers on a holy path in an exotic land. Along the
pathway connecting 88 Buddhist temples, he’ll face arduous mountain climbs,
hide from guards in a toilet stall, challenge a priest to a mountaintop karate
battle, and other misadventures. He’ll also delve into the fascinating legends
of this ancient land, including a dragon-fighting holy man, a berserker
warrior-priest, haunted temples, all manner of gods and monsters, and a
vendetta-driven ghost that overthrew a dynasty.
Told with
humor and humility, Fighting Monks and Burning Mountains is a funny, engaging
memoir about the consequences of impulsive decisions, and the things you can
discover while you’re looking for something else.”
Appraisal:
A reader
who doesn’t get a sense of where this travel memoir is headed from the
description surely will if they pause to consider the two quotes that proceed
the prologue.
“Every day some new fact comes to
light—some new obstacle which threatens the gravest obstruction. I suppose this
is the reason which makes the game so well worth playing.”
Robert
Falcon Scott (Died exploring the South Pole)
“Adventure is the result of poor
planning.”
Roald
Amundsen (Did not die exploring the South Pole)
Barach
chronicles plenty of adventure in this story of his pilgrimage. I hesitate to
call it a pilgrimage as the choice of hiking this trail seems to be driven by
the author’s obsession with Japanese culture more than any particular religious
belief, but at its root, his goals for this trip were not all that different
than a typical pilgrim’s might be. He describes this as “enlightenment,” which
is going to be different for each individual, but will boil down to making some
kind of major decision or coming to terms with some aspect of life. In Barach’s
case, figuring out his future direction, not wanting to become an office drone,
but also not seeing an alternative.
I’m always
drawn to travel books that involve a quest, some specific goal that might not
mean anything to many people, but does to the author. This book fits, as would
books from Amundsen or Scott (if he’d only survived to write it), as I think
there is something to be gleaned from the story of the attempt, successful or
not. I’m amused that at least part of Barach’s goal in this trip was to escape
the repetitiveness of an office job, only to replace it by a trip that in many
ways was just as repetitive, although with much more of a struggle to
adequately satisfy basic human needs like food, water, and sleep. Does the
author find enlightenment or come to terms with his future? I’ll leave it to
you to decide. I will say that his journey was a positive step in life’s
journey for me.
FYI:
A small
amount of adult language.
Format/Typo Issues:
No
significant issue.
Rating: **** Four Stars
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