Synopsis
Alexander Frater spent the first six years of his life on a South Pacific island where rain seemed to have "metallic weight and mass" and hurricanes gave seasonal "bravura climactic performances." His father - the only doctor within a thousand square miles - passed on to him a fascination and respect for the volatile play of the elements. In 1987 he was about to realize his dream of witnessing firsthand the most dramatic of meteorological events - the Indian monsoon - following it from its "burst" on the beaches of Trivandrum, through Delhi and Calcutta, across Bangladesk, to its finale in the town of Cheerapunji, dubbed by The Guiness Book of World Records as "the Wettest Place Place on Earth."
With exceptional sensitivity and wit, Frater uses fact, impression and anecdote to vividly describe his own experience of the monsoon, and at the same time illustrate the towering influence of nature over the lives and culture of India and her people.
Library Journal
The monsoon in India is an exalting, inspiring event which heralds the rebirth of greenery. Yet, in chasing the summer monsoon along the coast, journalist Frater ( Stopping-Train in Britain: A Railway Odyssey , LJ 5/1/84) quickly discovers it can turn sinister. The monsoon overpowers technology, bearing disease and floods to an overpopulated land where runoff-preventing asphalt has replaced forests. In his engaging, witty travelog replete with anecdotes and asides, Frater comes to terms with his parents' deaths and learns to accept the Indians' attitude of submission to more powerful forces which, for them, makes the inevitable more bearable. The pleasure of reading this lively book can be enhanced by pairing it with Steve McCurry's spectacular photographic essay Monsoon (Thames & Hudson, dist. by Norton, 1988), which covers other monsoon areas as well as India. For general travel collections. BOMC and Quality Paperback alternates.-- Louise Leonard, Univ. of Florida Libs., Gainesville