GATES TO ASIA

by Jan & Gun Kessle Myrdal ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 16, 1971

Though Myrdal gives his travels a political framework, this book essentially provides aesthetic experience of Afghanistan, India, and the Soviet republics in Asia, along with notes on certain social universals concerning the nomads, peasants, villagers. The travels began in 1958: Afghanistan seemed the least-touched place for a rugged auto tour and the best contrast with smug social-democratic Sweden, against which Myrdal makes so many boyish snipes. Myrdal knows the history of the cities he and Kessle visit (like Herat) and the sequence of imperialist incursions. In an early '60's vein of radicalism he dwells on the chauvinism displayed by Europeans and Americans in Asia and on the stupidity, carelessness, and exploitation characteristic of various aid projects. Instead of offering a development strategy, Myrdal indulges ill brief fantasies of economic autarchy; instead of assaying prospects for political organization, he indulges in visions of peasants with rifles. Myrdal opens himself to this sort of criticism because he calls his book an instrument for understanding present-day imperialism. Yet its merits -- descriptive power; a rewarding concern with the links between desert, cultivated countryside, and town; an understanding of the differences between the old feudalism and the new despotic pseudo-feudalism; a contagious enthusiasm for the life-stories of cities -- recommend it to a general audience. Kessle's photographs illustrate the book. Their collaboration has also produced Chinese Journey, Angkor, and China: The Revolution Continued.

Pub Date: Nov. 16, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1971

Categories: NONFICTION