[fantasyfan]

I would agree that the writing is very good. I also enjoyed the picture of life in Europe just before World War II. The knowledge of this gave a definite elegiac quality to the book. We knew that many of these loveable people were gong to perish in the dreadful catastrophe which was to follow.

A fact that cannot be avoided is that the author clearly is remembering those things that he wishes to remember while forgetting those things he wishes to forget. The result--as Ccowie pointed out--is a tendency to present a narrative deeply coloured by Fermor's later retrospective musings on the entire adventure.

Of course, this is not necessarily a negative aspect of the book. It does mean that we do not have here a narrative with a strong emphasis on the accuracy of external historical detail and the terrible political events which would eventually result in the Holocaust, but rather a journey of an individual soul which includes both the young man on his trek and the much older author reflecting on it.

I agree with Hamlet that there is a "nostalgia" (perhaps unintended} that there was once a European Civilisation where even the unknown wanderer could be made generously welcome. The fact that this would exclude Gypsies and Jews does not seem to be a main priority of Fermor's meditations--but then--as I said--historical and political evaluations were not the main purposes of the author and to have included them would have meant writing an entirely different book. What we do have is certainly something quite special.