Customer Reviews

Days and Nights on the Grand Trunk Road

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A. Weller is a superb writer, I learned more about India in 10 pages than I could have in a year of school. Although the names, and dates can be eye crossing after awhile, it only showed me that mr. Weller did a ton of research, and cut no corners' in writing this book. From keen observations interspersed with humerous encounters with strangers' and beauracratic red tape, I applaud mr. Weller for writting a book the he could be proud of first, and not an "India for dummies". Rock on Tony!!

Travelling along the GT Road is an expirience that one never forgets.The author gives an historical perspective of the points along the GT Road. He starts out in Calcutta, the city built by the Raj. Along the way he finds the foundations of the Jain and Buddhist religions. Weller writes about thses religions in an objective manner and gives a clear concise history of the religions along with their beliefs. Between these highlights he meets present day Indians. What he puts into words is what I thought but could not expess myself, both humorously and insightfully. I had lived in India for two years while serving in the Peace Corps. I felt the same frustrations he did in communicating and dealing with the bureaucracy.

This is an excellent book for one intending to travel through the subcontinent or has spent some time there.

Reading this book was a great way to take a journey from home. Weller makes great observations about everyday encounters while en route through Northern India. From truck drivers to border guards to off the beaten track historic sites, Weller informs and entertains. I was suprised that the book educates as it entertains. Weller explains various history and religon in a manner that is never boring.

This was a joyful read... entertaining as well as informative.
I enjoyed his sense of humor and descriptions which brought back memories of the hardships & fun of travel while trying to make some meaning of it all.
This is a book I'd take to India and Pakistan while travelling or read it after you return. You'll enjoy! I'll read again.

Having spent a month in India, and experiencing first-hand Indian roads and traffic, I found Days & Nights on The Grand Trunk Road to be as entertaining as a travelogue on the Travel Channel...no more no less. Some errors intersperse the book, but are of little consequence to its overall flow. However, Weller should be aware that Muslims normally perform ablutions five times a day, preceding each set of prayers. The Pakistani fellow who advised him otherwise was grossly misinformed.

Not a bad book, but not particularly good either.

Weller, while intelligent and well-meaning, doesn't seem to know very much about India. To be sure, he's done some background reading -- at the end he provides a curious list of dated references -- but his knowledge seems flimsy. One does not get the feeling that he's studied or thought deeply about the country, its history or culture; but rather that he's parroting views he's read in books or that he's simply reacting to what he sees on the road. As a result one doesn't have confidence in his attempts to synthesize the meaning of India's past or its prospects in the future. What he has to say in this regard is rather banal in any case. I suspect he included these broad pronouncements -- about the population problem, about communal violence -- only because this is what people have come to expect from travel writers, instant and concise analyses of foreign cultures. Unfortunately not every travel writer is a Naipaul.

Also, his narrative of his encounters on the road is simply not interesting. It's not boring exactly, just bland. He meets uninteresting people, has brief uninteresting conversations, and then moves on.

India is enormous in every sense, and thus unwieldy. Anthony Weller captures its peculiar flavor as well as anyone. This is an erudite piece of scholarship for serious India students, as opposed to a Bill Bryson "drive-by."