Paddy's progress

I was drawn to this book having read the brilliant biography of PLF by Artemis Cooper. I understand now why it took him so long to complete these volumes (he never finished the third). The writing is on a different plane from most of the classic travel writers like Thubron and Dervla Murphy who are much more linear in their approach. Here even the tangents have tangents and one has to just lie back and soak it all in rather than get frustrated by the reduced physical distance along the Danube, Rhine or Waal. Sometimes the language consumes itself in its garrulousness, for example some of the architectural descriptions of cathedrals and the like. Some travel writers like Chatwin are well known for writing a mixture of fact and fiction to better engage the audience and increase tension in the storylines and I suspect some of this is going on here. Cooper makes reference to changes that PLF made to time, place and person. Also he lost so many notebooks and diaries on the way before putting it all together years later that he could not possibly have remembered so much of this detail. These complex musings and reflections could not all have been in the mind of a nineteen-year-old and required many years of careful contemplation (and physical revisiting of places) during the writing process. However, this does not make the work any less real or enjoyable. As a none German speaker and possessing only schoolboy Latin I was at times frustrated when PLF went off into some diatribe requiring not only the ability to translate but then comprehend whatever point he was trying to illustrate. He was clearly a polyglot who could pick up complex language and syntax in a matter of weeks. The most enjoyable portions of the story, for me, are those where he meets people and has adventures that shed light on the history and culture of Central Europe during the 1930s, for example staying at Kovecses with Baron Pips von Schey in the later stages of the book. Definitely not a quick listen and needs some slow drinking-in at times, nevertheless a rewarding and a valuable insight into lost times and attitudes. Not the kind of author who comes around very often. If you want a briefer more readable insight into PLF I would recommend you start with the Cooper biography which is outstanding.

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