Customer Reviews

Journey to a War (Armchair Traveller Series)

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This is the record of a train journey from Hong Kong to Shanghai, made by Isherwood and Auden between February and June, 1938. The writers had been commissioned by their publisher to write a travel book about the East, the choice of itinerary left to their own discretion. With the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, the pair decided to go to China. As Isherwood says in the foreword: "We spoke no Chinese, and possessed no special knowledge of Far Eastern affairs." Acknowledging that he cannot vouch for the accuracy of many of the things told him by the Chinese, Isherwood continues: "We can only record, for the benefit of the reader who has never been to China, some impression of what he would be likely to see, and of what kind of stories he would be likely to hear."

In this collaborative effort, Isherwood wrote the text and Auden contributed a substantial body of verse. There is also a very good selection of photos, mostly of people, both notable (Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Chou En-lai) and obscure (soldiers, peasants).

Throughout their journey, Auden and Isherwood were treated as dignitaries, shown every deference by the locals and granted numerous audiences with both Chinese and European officials. They seem to always be sitting down to tea with somebody! Except for the occasional Japanese air raid, the travelers never get all that close to the war. The front is always somewhere out there on the periphery. I didn't find the book particulary illuminating about the nature of the Sino-Japanese War. There are a few mentions of the atrocities committed by the Japanese Army, but not much detail. That criticism notwithstanding, JOURNEY TO A WAR is a very interesting book for armchair travelers, and Auden and Isherwood are pleasant and amusing traveling companions.