Reviews for Desert places

The average rating for Desert places based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-07-09 00:00:00 Nikolas Porter Robyn Davidson has the tendency to envisage a romantic ideal trip, like journeying in the desert with the nomadic peoples of India, only to slam up hard against a solid brick wall of reality. Davidson thought it would be as simple as contacting a group of Ribari (one tribe of India's nomadic people) and convincing them to let her join them on one of their sojourns. She quickly learns that its easy to dream the trip, but pulling it off was a fumbling, frustrating process of continued disappointment. Many Ribari don't trust her, afraid that she might be a spy for the government and many of those who do are not making nomadic journeys at that time, either for reasons of poverty or prosperity. When she does connect with a group of Ribari, who do claim to trust her, who offer to take her with them, Davdison finds again and again her hopes dashed as the plan falls apart just days before she is meant to start her journey. Again and again over the course of over a year a blooming hope of finally bringing the trip to fruition is stomped into the dust, and she finds herself on numerous occasions considering giving up the plan entirely. But Robyn Davidson has a tenacity and a courage that should astound anyone and eventually finds a tribe to take her with them. Again there is no romance in this, because the road is rough and Davidson is isolated by her inability to communicate with those who have welcomed her. The lack of communication means false starts and improper handling of gear. She doesn't sleep because of the sheep pressing against her cot and falls into helpless exhaustion. She is stared at where ever she goes, pointed out and hounded as the white stranger, the white, European alien. And despite her loneliness, she is never alone, always surrounded to the point that she longs for the open deserts of Australia, where she was allowed the solitude to reconnect with herself. Cultural confusion abounds. As just one example, many of the Indian people she meets cannot understand why a rich person like her, who has the immeasurable wealth to afford car, would want to walk along the ground like peasant, while Davidson could not grasp the complacency of the cast system, which required her to sit idle and be served instead of doing things herself. However, Davidson also becomes family with the group of Ribari she travels with. They bring her into their world, welcome her, and care for her. She does the same for them. Do not yourself approach this book with your own romantic ideas of India, of bright colors. This is not an easy book to read. It a brutal journey, both physically as well as emotionally. Davidson is so beaten down by poverty and red tape and physical sickness and irritations big and small (from a horror of a camel guide to her own camels trying to kill her), that she comes to a state of alternating absolutes -- both hating and loving India with deep and virulent passion. But just as there are moment of outrage and ugliness, Desert Places also contains moments of joy and laughter, beauty and compassion, of generosity and kindness. If Davidson were a hair less of the fantastic writer she is, the book would not work, but fortunately she's wonderful and the book, though full of rough edges laying in wait to snare, is too. If nothing else, it will certainly make you think.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-03-09 00:00:00 Evan Swain Australian lady thinks it would be cool to migrate with nomads of the Indian desert. So she spends months intruding on, sampling, and harassing impoverished villagers, thoughtlessly exposing them to increased exploitation by outsiders, in order to find just the right noble savages for her precious dream. She doesn't bother to learn the local languages because she views the desert as a menu of cultures from which she can pick just the right a la carte experience, and it would be wasted effort to learn the language of the people she doesn't pick. I had to stop reading when I reached the part where one of these traditional villages finally has the courage to reject her, and, outraged, she gets the state government to force them to become her hosts. Mind-bogglingly narcissistic and selfish, Davidson suffers from either inexplicable naiveté or profound cultural blindness. There's a belief commonly held by the middle and upper classes of affluent nations that travel leads to open-mindedness, tolerance, and a better understanding of how people in other cultures live. Davidson certainly gives the lie to that. She represents a society whose wealth and power come from its imperial legacy of exploiting labor and resources in the "third world." World travel and tourism, and the supposed learning experiences that come with them, are just an updated form of that exploitation, a privilege and luxury available only to a minority of the world's population. In reality, the poor who don't travel typically live more responsibly than the rich who do. Where did she get the idea that this kind of expedition is morally acceptable? Hopefully they're not teaching it in the Australian schools.