Customer Reviews

The Last Barbarians: The Discovery of the Source of the Mekong in Tibet

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Just about the only redeeming thing about this book is that it deals with Tibet. Peissel is a complete bore through most of the text. He spends way too much time bitching and moaning about how he wished he was a true Victorian explorer and hardly discribes the scenary or the people he encounters. He spends over 200 pages whinning about his lot in life, intertwined with his trip to the head waters of the river, then in only 12 pages he recounts a later trip to Tibet to study native horses. It's sad to say but I much preferred the 12 pages to the 200.

Traveling to the source of the Mekong River - and in Tibet no less. The premise of this book (and its cover) offered the potential of an intriguing account of exploration in a (largely) undiscovered and exotic land.

Sadly, reading (and finishing) the book became a chore. Occasional lapses into "stream of consciousness" writing - where one had to connect the dots between the thoughts, personal opinions on historical events, and the continual ruminations on horses and their origins, served to rob the book of the depth that the author craved.

The deficit was exacerbated by the lack of contact that the author had with the "Barbarians" referenced in the title, and that potentially humorous situations and relationships (his recalcitrant Chinese guide, for instance) were left virtually un-mined.

That said, I did not mind his repeated reference to the Victorian explorers of yesteryear. If one has to hang their story off a hook that is as good as any for me - just make sure the hook doesn't work itself loose in the process....