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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
In Search of Don Croner, June 20, 2000
This book presents a fascinating view of Mongolia, written by an American who has seen and done much more than the typical American tourist. I would agree with others who commented about the strange combination of a highly literate author and a non-native English-speaking editor. This didn't detract from the book at all for me; it merely deepened my curiosity about Don Croner. Who is he? Why would an author who took pains to design the Book and cover, painstakingly draw the book maps, and even select the book's typography- (for heaven's sake!)- allow the most basic grammatical errors to creep into the manuscript?Most good travel writers, like Paul Theroux for example, bounce the stories of their journeys off of personal revelations. This invigorates their travelogue and allows readers to identify with them as they travel. "Hmmmm," we say, turning the page, "I too would have found that funny, or alarming, or interesting, because I have parents who were hippies in the 60s, or because I once lived next to a Chinese gardener." But although Don Croner's narrative is chock-full of thick description, it contains maddeningly few personal glimpses. We find ourselves reading passages of intelligent observation or wry humor without any knowledge of the writer. Croner's reticence about himself merely feeds his readers' eagerness to gather together what few facts we can find on him: He's a self-described American of European descent, tall, thin, speaks Russian fluently, and identifies with the American National identity but not at all with American mass culture (although he's very knowledgeable about mass culture). He's a voracious reader, and tends toward history books, but will probably devour anything in English that crosses his path. Like any experienced traveller, he will eat anything, sleep anywhere, and showers when he can- hot, cold or no water. He has a technical background and holds down a favored job- some type of employment with access to sufficient official connections to secure all those visas he needs for moving about a part of the world still notorious for difficulty in procuring travel docs. He either grew up abroad or is an ex-runner who blew out his knees when he was younger, because Americans simply do not walk for enjoyment as much as he does. His editor has learned english from a book or institute of British english, not American english, and displays "spell-check literacy"- that is, has run a computer spell check over the manuscript so that there aren't any glaring spelling errors. What errors there are result from incorrect word endings and grammar errors- stuff that would make it through a spell check. At any rate, Croner's contribution is his description of places rarely seen, his speculations on the movement of historic personages, and his curiosity about native-held beliefs. With regard to this last point, he queries the locals incessantly in order to differentiate folklore from faith, to separate romantic legend from divine action. An interesting read from several perspectives.
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