Reading List

August 5, 2010
The Scorpion Fish by Nicolas Bouvier

I looked through my book of 501 Must Read Books, and this one intrigued me in the list of "travel" books. I went to Amazon to see if I could get it. Yikes – the lowest price for a used copy was $87.00. A new copy was going to set me back over $150.00. Therefore, it came off of my list. Then one day, I found myself in a strange place called the library. Just on a whim, I looked for the book and low and behold, it was there, so I checked it out.

This is a travel book in the very loosest sense of the word. The author, a young man from Switzerland was "touring" the sub-continent of India when he reached the lower end and decided to have a go at Ceylon (Sri Lanka), "The Pearl" island at the end of the continent so he could see some newlywed friends of his. In fact, he did not have a good time. He got sick. He was poor and lived in poverty. His newlywed friends left the week before he got there and he had few acquaintances. His story is one of living in a hot, bug infested land that is ruled by tradition, poor officials and black magic. I did not get the actual tone of the book until about a third through it, thinking that he must be writing tongue-in-cheek. When I decided he was writing what he really though, I had to read the first part again.

What did I think of it. Some is well written. Some is a little crude. I imagine that if I was given time, I could find symbolism, but maybe not. It is almost a series of mere journal entries with no continuing theme, some of them written better than others. I could say I struggled to keep reading, but when it was all done, I still went back and read the beginning again. I think I would not have put it on the list of 501 Must Read Books – except that some of his language is really astonishingly beautiful – and some is astonishingly crude.

My recommendation – don't run right out and buy this one (Unless you have $100.00 or so you don't know what to do with – and then you could just donate that to me and it would be better used.) In fact, if I saw it in the library, I might also resist the urge to check it out.