ASIAN DIARY

by Charlotte Y. Salisbury ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 12, 1967

The main qualification the author appears to have for writing this book is that she is the wife of Harrison Salisbury, and accompanied him on his trip around the perimeter of China while he was researching Orbit of China (1967). Mrs. Salisbury has a good heart and a deep horror of war. In Hawaii, at the military cemetery, she pauses to exclaim over ""how it is they can turn our sons into corpses for shipment to this old volcanic crater only ten minutes from the blue surf and the sand of Waikiki."" Throughout her brief book the same anti-war message emerges as the central theme. Mrs. Salisbury on Hong Kong (""Everything was more than I had imagined""), Cambodia, Thailand, Burma (where she tasted a durian: TERRIBLE), India (a popular slogan, ""Loop before you leap""), Sikkim, Mongolia, Siberia, Japan is only sketchily interesting or informative. People pretty near everywhere are good looking and nice, and she concludes that they are different, and why not? She closes with the thought that we cannot destroy another country without destroying ourselves. Disappointing.

Pub Date: Jan. 12, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribners

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1967

Categories: NONFICTION