ERIKA AND THE KING

by Erika Leuchtag ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 1958

There is something at once fascinating and disappointing in Erika Leuchtag's dreamlike account of the months she spent recently in Nepal as physiotherapist to the late King Tribhuvana's senior queen. The king she found to be a curious cross between immense urbanity and child-like simplicity. Their deep and undefined friendship and her subsequent successful efforts to persuade Nehru to allow Tribhuvana to be a real governor and not just the figurehead of the state make up the bulk of the story. But the author seems to grasp only the forms of the Buddhist country without comprehending their content. Moreover she makes great efforts to be discreetly unspecific and undramatic. For these two reasons the reader is left with the feeling of having read the story of some remote miniature country, governed by the laws of a fairytale hero. This is no Anna and the King of Stam.

Pub Date: June 2, 1958

ISBN: 054838648X

Page Count: -

Publisher: Coward-McCann

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1958

Categories: NONFICTION