Review of 'Between the Woods and the Water' on 'GoodReads'
5 stars
This is an interesting one. In the second book of his trilogy, Fermor continues to move from castle to castle, each time being hosted by an acquaintance of his previous host, who has sent word ahead. There is some bittersweet romance this time.
"Between the Woods and the Water" is often held up as the best travel book of all time. I don't know. At times it seems more of a history book than a travelogue. There are just a handful of memorable incidents in the narrative and the rest is a series of history lessons about the regions Fermor passes through.
The lessons are wonderful, though. They focus on cultural outposts that no longer really exist (see also the tragic epilogue) and that really highlights how fortunate Fermor was to be 18 at this exact moment. Had he been forced to wait a four or five more years there …
This is an interesting one. In the second book of his trilogy, Fermor continues to move from castle to castle, each time being hosted by an acquaintance of his previous host, who has sent word ahead. There is some bittersweet romance this time.
"Between the Woods and the Water" is often held up as the best travel book of all time. I don't know. At times it seems more of a history book than a travelogue. There are just a handful of memorable incidents in the narrative and the rest is a series of history lessons about the regions Fermor passes through.
The lessons are wonderful, though. They focus on cultural outposts that no longer really exist (see also the tragic epilogue) and that really highlights how fortunate Fermor was to be 18 at this exact moment. Had he been forced to wait a four or five more years there would have been (even more) Nazis in his path. And five years after that, nothing.
A modern traveler reproduced Fermor's route around the time of Fermor's death in 2011. I haven't read it, but I understand it involved a lot of industrial parks and suburbs. Read Fermor to learn how Europe once was.
