Invading Tibet [Hardcover]

Mark Frutkin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1993

A British journalist accompanies British and Indian troops on the 1904 invasion of Tibet, hoping to be the first Westerner to write about this extraordinary and enigmatic land, but he is drawn into a spiritual discovery on the way.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Two Tibets--one of harsh reality, one of the imagination--make competing claims on the questing characters in this poetic, meditative novel. Alex, a scholar in Montreal, becomes obsessed with his great-great-uncle Edmund Candler, a London news correspondent who joined a British military expedition that murderously invaded Tibet from India in 1904 to prevent the Dalai Lama from joining forces with Russia. Through Candler's diary excerpts, interwoven with an account of Alex's research in London, we see how each member of the expedition projects his own hopes, fears and dreams onto the fabled city of Lhasa. A subplot involves a Tibetan monk who plots with Rasputin to win the Buddhist world for Tsar Nicholas II. Alex's conversations with an eccentric intellectual buddy, Milton, for whom the realm of imagination furnishes the only real life, effectively counterpoint the prescriptions of Tibetan religion and meditation. Frutkin ( Atmospheres Apollonaire ), a practicing Buddhist born in Cleveland and now living in Ottawa, has created a shimmering, fragmentary parable about the hazards of the aggressive pursuit of enlightenment, the West's efforts to dominate the East, and the difficulty of knowing others--and oneself.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This first novel by a student of Tibetan Buddhism and a practicing Buddhist reveals his fascination with exotic Tibet. The novel is based upon the writings of Edmund Candler ( The Unveiling of Lhasa ), a British journalist who accompanied a force of British and Indian soldiers in 1904 on a mission to force the Dalai Lama to expel foreign agents so that the British could gain favorable trade terms. The narrator of the story is Alex, a great-nephew of Candler, who is researching Candler's work. Weaving back and forth through time, the story reveals the hold that Tibet came to exert over Candler and eventually upon Alex. Though the West was invading the East, the East remained inscrutable and, in some ways, inviolable. The writing is graceful if occasionally elliptical, but while the book is entertaining, it may have difficulty finding its audience.
- Dean James, Houston Acad. of Medicine/Texas Medical Ctr. Lib.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 215 pages
• Publisher: Soho Press (February 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0939149745
• ISBN-13: 978-0939149742
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,709,086 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly Boring!, March 7, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Invading Tibet (Hardcover)

I expected this book to be interesting and a good source of information on the 1904 invasion of Tibet by the British. However, I was incredibly bored the entire time I was reading the book, I found myself hoping desparately that I was at the end, only to my despair turning the page and finding there was a whole nother chapter. I would not have finished it if it were not for the fact that I was reading it for an English assignment on Tibet. The story is told in flashback form, with no indication of whose story is being told in that current chapter, and sometimes switches half way through! The parallels between present day Alex and 1904 Edmund Candler are weak, making it seem as if Alex's story was added to beef up the number of pages in the story and cover for a lack of information, instead of enhancing the literary experience. The most interesting subplot, involving the relationship between Rasputin and one of the Dalai Lama's servants, develops on a whopping 4 pages of the entire story. If Mr. Frutkin deleted Alex's story, and added more about this specific sub-plot, the entire story would be much better! I have read a lot on Tibet, but I do not recommend this book for someone looking for information or an enjoyable book.