flinn@seismo.UUCP (E. A. Flinn) (03/11/84)
Comments on "The Journeyer," by Gary Jennings (Athenaeum, 1984) This book is good reading. It is an historical novel in the form of an autobiography by Marco Polo, filling in experiences left out of the well-known Travels - particularly those that would have shocked fourteenth-century readers, and will probably shock a good many readers today. The novel begins when Marco was a young boy in Venice, and ends with him a wealthy old man in Venice, 783 pages later. The adventures in Asia are almost fantastic, except that we know that they really happened. Jennings spent a good deal of time in Asia, and did a lot of research to incorporate local color, history, and Mongol/Chinese legends into the book. Historical novels are seldom great literature (I suppose Margaret Yourcinar came closest), but this book is outstanding in the genre. Jennings' first book, "Aztec," was rather a potboiler, but "The Journeyer" is well plotted and well written. For those who like adventures in the remote parts of China, I also recommend "News From Tartary," by Peter Fleming (Ian Fleming's brother). It is a true account of a trek Fleming and a woman companion made in the 1930's from Beijing to Sinjiang to India, by train, wagon, camel, and foot. The only problem is that the edition now in print has no maps, and most of the place names have changed. However, Fleming's book complements Jennings' very nicely.