ENDORSEMENTS
‘Beyond Snake Mountain becomes a personal account as well as a travel story, and the particular interest of this book lies in the perfect meshing of the two … The physical descriptions are evocative and well written (in fact, good, easy writing is a hallmark of the book); the observations about what is after all an alien culture are non-judgmental. There is no earnest attempt to “understand India” and one is not constantly on the lookout for misapprehensions … [Doyle] has produced an unpretentious book that is something a little out of the ordinary.’
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‘Passage to India’
Sherna Ghandhy,
Gentleman Magazine, November 1991
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‘Doyle’s commentary can be amazingly lucid: “Indians do not try to make excuses for their country’s poverty nor attempt to understand it. They accept it as an intrinsic cultural presence, like the Ganges … Indians can, when they wish, observe like no one else can. The fixed stare, initially disconcerting to foreigners, is simply an uninhibited expression of interest … Because of crowding, there is little inhibition. Privacy is a state of mind, not a physical condition” … Doyle’s metaphors are marvellous: while eating local food, “… eyes, nose and pores wept luxuriously over the table and my palate danced in disbelief.’ On the international flight, looking at the passengers: “Cultures threaten to collide, but only nudge each other politely in the vacuum of duty-free dreaming.” Genuinely yearning for this collision, Doyle is never going to be the type of visitor Carl Jung, in a quote introducing a chapter in Beyond Snake Mountain, claimed lived in India “in a sort of bottle filled with European air…” ’
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‘Beneath the Whirlpool of Experience’
Smriti Vohra,
Sunday Mail 29 September 1991
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‘Travelling in India has a meaningful edge to it. Sean Doyle’s acute perception notes this and so Beyond Snake Mountain turns out to be the discovery of a sliver of India. In his own way, he adds an informative page to the annals and life-style of modern Rajasthan … There is never a dull page in Doyle, for he stuffs in plenty of information. The Rajput tribes, the camel races, the snake charmers. And foreigners drawn by the charm of Pushkar. The portrait of Arthur is memorable … Doyle finds an uncanny presence of the spiritual in Pushkar, but of course one is never far away from ugly travesties of spiritualism as well.’ ​
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‘An Area of Brightness’
Prema Nandakumar,
Sunday Herald 1 December 1991