What I Says: The Narrow Smile is a portrait of the Pathan and their highland home on either side of the Pakistan-Afghan frontier. Peter Mayne grew up in India, and later spent four years on the Northwest Frontier during the Second World War. Mayne delighted in the company of these fierce but hospitable highlanders, who were as hard as the mountains that assured their independence but democratic to the point that no man admitted the right of another to lead him. In 1953, Mayne took a long journey to see what had become of his old friends in the high, flower-filled valleys on the roof of the world. But peace had always been a relative concept on this frontier, where Afghanistan was now eyeing Pashtun lands in a new iteration of the Great Game. Mayne’s misadventures are sometimes serious, often very funny, and at all times compassionate.
What I Says: The Narrow Smile is not your standard travelogue, it is not about the people or the places covered in “this” journey, it is about memories and trying to find a place that existed in the traveller’s youth. Peter Mayne spent many years on the Pakistan-Afghan border, he made friends when other Englishmen in his position wouldn’t, he witnessed the violence as Pakistan earnt their independence and now he is back to find those friends and places.
The book starts off full of energy, Mayne is excited to be back, he has lots of plans, places to visit and friends to locate, he knows it isn’t going to be easy as this time he is just a tourist and not there for work. He soon realises he has miscalculated the difficulty of his task, the bureaucracy the British left behind seems to be working very well and Mayne soon finds delay after delay thwarting his plans. So many friends of his past have moved away, are busy or have died and the loneliness soon creeps in. Mayne does make new friends but you can see his heart isn’t in it as all thoughts are about getting away and being on his own. This loneliness does take over the book and it makes you feel for Mayne, the place and people he remembers have gone and what is left is not really anywhere he fits in.
The writing is excellent, descriptions of people, events and places make it easy to picture. The people he meets are great and a few of them manage to bring him out of his shell a bit, Said Akbar was a ray of positivity in Mayne’s depression, I think it was his presence that kept Mayne going….and Mayne’s battle to keep ownership of his blue jeans was hilarious. Mayne is knowledgeable about this country and he shares a huge amount of history with the reader and whilst it isn’t the most fun read there is still a lot for the reader to take on board.
Many thanks to Eland Books for send me this copy, you can get yourself a copy from HERE:
Gnome Appreciation Society 