Slow Boats Home

by Gavin Young

Book Overview

In this, the sequel to Slow Boats to China (also reissued in Faber Finds), Gavin Young tells, with equal panache, of his return voyage from the China Seas to England, via the South Seas, Cape Horn and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394521420
• ISBN13: 9780394521428
• Release Date: March 1986
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 441 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The slow pace of the mind

Gavin Young is a remarkable writer who has the ability to place you inside his field of perception as he describes his travels. Even so, his highly personal style is never intrusive and reminds one of George Orwell's essays. Slow Boats Home takes us once again into that almost vanished world of tramp steamers, island-hopping in small boats and a multitude of brief glimpses at other people's lives seen by this quintessential observer of life. Young's obvious sympathy for those he encounters, sometimes during dark phases of their life, makes it clear that he has a firm belief in the fundamental humanity of people everywhere. Nonetheless, he has no patience for the crude, the imperialist and often frankly racist attitudes he often encounters. Young is offering a silent plea to slow down the pace of modern development in favor of respect for indigenous cultures and languages. We can only hope that this plea, so eloquently phrased in this wonderful book, is heeded before it is too late to preserve local cultural variety.