This is an odd and rather pleasant little book, the account of a springtime visit to Crete around 1993. As I was reading it, I could not shake the feeling that it was written forty or fifty years ago, probably because the black and white photographs looked as if they dated from the 1950s. Barry and wife Aira's trip proceeds from west to east, mostly along the north coast of Crete, with occasional forays inland and to the south. Even in the early 1990s, tourism was growing faster than the infrastructure of transportation and services, such that the author muses sadly on the result:What has been missing is what is always missing, in Crete as in a thousand other places, cooperation between citizen and municipal authority, the ability of local communities, often traditionally poor, to withstand the invasion of capital and so take a longer view, retain some space for human purposes other than the single one of spending money, open the land to people instead of closing it. But this would mean admitting the inadmissible: that constant growth is a chimera, that the stream can dry up, that unlimited numbers of free-spending people cannot be accommodated in a limited space, and that continued attempts to do it will foul up the very thing that the people came for in the first place.The thought of giant hotels shoehorned into pedestrian-unfriendly spaces where the buses refuse to stop and driving rental cards is likely to result in an accident is a tourist nightmare.I had expected more of this book, probably because Unsworth is a winner of the Man Booker Prize who has been shortlisted several other times. But literary excellence does not necessarily make for a great travel book, especially in a region of the globe which has seen outstanding works by the likes of Patrick Leigh Fermor (Mani and Roumeli), Lawrence Durrell (Reflections on a Marine Venus and Bitter Lemons), and even Henry Miller (The Colossus of Maroussi).For a one month journey to Crete, the book is excellent and worth reading. It does not inspire me to visit Crete, which I've always wanted to see -- but that is not Unsworth's fault. J. Lesley Fitton's The Minoans has made me want to see Knossos, Festos, and other archeological sites on the island; but if the Cretans don't know how to grow their tourism without killing the goose that laid the golden eggs, I may have to reconsider.
This made me yearn to go back to Crete. I wanted to buy a plane ticket after reading the first five pages. I have visited and walked on some of the paths that were described in this book; The beautiful and Venetian inspired city of Chania, the Samaritan gorge, the ruins of some of the churches and places of worship, the beautiful secluded beaches, and the mythological stories and the places that they occurred in. Crete has its hands full in the birth of civilization. So much history that shaped a country and eventually shaped the known world. This book is an ode to that magical island, told with love on a family vacation. How amazing is that, to pass on your love and passion for a place to your children first hand."3.5/5"
What do You think about Crete (Directions) (2004)?
Because in all likelihood I'm never going to visit Crete, I felt compelled to at least armchair travel there. The book was just the ticket. Brief (but then again it's a fairly small island) and vivid travelogue through the place where if you believe your mythology Europe began when Europa gave in to Zeus's advances. This was part of a literary travel series and indeed read like literature, so it was somewhat less humorous and more serious than the regular travel book fare, but managed quite nicely on both educational and entertaining categories.
—Bandit
