"This isn't a goddamn travel guide, it's my brain on paper."

[gwaevalarin]

I promised raths_kitten a review of Adrian Glynn's Fish-Skin Memories, and I think this quote *points to subject* sums it up perfectly.

If you are looking for a book that gives you an objective view of India and the Middle East this isn't it. This book tells you at least as much - probably more - about Adrian's state of mind as it does about the places he visits. It won't allow you to retrace every step of the journey. It won't even try to fill the blanks. It throws you into moments. It's loosely connected thoughts and atmosphere. You can be in a secluded little town on the top of a mountain on one page, and in the middle of the buzzing streets of Tel Aviv on the next.

Some stories are funny, some thoughtful, some sad, some TMI, some simply beautiful, some unpleasant (usually ending with Adrian coming to the conclusion that he's too Canadian to be impolite), and some so raw and personal that I had to remind myself that he decided published them before I could read on.

What they all have in common is how honest, and open, and just... Adrian they are.

"And I must tell you I'm searching these days. My liberal education and western upbringing have taught me cynicism and skepticism in the face of religion since I was a teenager. That said, I have felt in the glory of the peaceful mountain-shadow or the sweat and aftershock of the loversbed the greater connection - the Spiritual. I am not aspiritual. Just disillusioned.

I knelt to pray in silence with the others. To pray. I haven't really tried to pray in years. It felt clumsy, like I was reading Shakespeare for the first time, but it also felt somewhat freeing as I tried to humble myself."


This part gave me Inias in hiding feelings:

"And I was cold, lonesome and homesick, wending my way up the dark narrows, moon and stars overhead, donkeys wrestling in the shadows. Thinking of the gift of family. You can't invent family or pretend it or replace it."


And I also have to quote this part because angels:

"Prayers flood upwards, translucent puffs of smoke, rainbow in the sun like oil on tarmac, they grow thick in the stratosphere, oily, airborne rivers are born, cascades of invisible rainbows lost between here and space, angels caught in the prayer paste like cormorants in oil spills, slick and frightened, suffocating from the Earth's truth, humanity's silent desperation and terrible fate. Beings of light floundering in invisibility, broken by spider-webs where the black meets the blue."

I wish I could quote one of the funny parts as well, but they only really work if you read the entire chapter. Which is something you should do if you get the chance.

Comments

[cassiopeia7.livejournal.com]

Wow, that last bit you quoted is downright poetic. Lyrical. He's a very good writer -- I shall have to check this out. Thanks muchly for reccing!

[gwaevalarin.livejournal.com]

His songwriter is showing quite a bit.
My pleasure. I'm always happy to send people into Adrian's general direction.

[raths-kitten.livejournal.com]

Okay, this sounds really awesome! Can you link me again to where you bought it, please?

[gwaevalarin.livejournal.com]

Sure. I got it from the shop on his management's homepage (http://www.simkinartistmanagement.com/store/artists/adrian-glynn). Here is the direct link to the book (http://www.simkinartistmanagement.com/store/products/21).