Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff

I recently returned from a tour of Egypt and a 5 day cruise down the Nile, and I've got to say that Ms. Mahoney has written one great story about this charming and mysterious country. Myself being a single woman and traveling alone in this strange land, I must say that this author is spot on with her descriptions and characterizations of everything Egyptian and there aren't enough words to say how much I enjoyed this book. I highly recommend this book to anyone planning a trip to Egypt, especially single women traveling alone.

I have been a big fan of this writer for a long time, so I was really excited when I read the great review of this new book in the New York Times. I bought the book and my expectations were far exceeded by the sheer beauty of it. I think Mahoney has matured as a writer over the years and has really found her voice. This is the story of her solo trip rowing a small boat 120 miles on the Egyptian Nile River. The adventure itself is worth attention, but the thing that always pulls you in with Mahoney's books is her voice and her personality. She is smart, very funny, very gutsy and tough, and has done some crazy travels--which she wrote about in her other book The Singular Pilgrim and also The Early Arrival of Dreams. Though she is tough and determined, she is also very sensitive. She seems to notice everything that happens around her, and though she can be critical and even a little cynical and impatient, you get the impression that she really loves the people she meets. She decided to take this trip, she says, because she likes rowing, which doesn't seem like a real justification for going all the way to Egypt, buying a fishing boat, and rowing alone down the longest river in the world. But then you figure out that rowing a boat in Egypt is just a way of meeting new people and understanding a culture that is very different from ours. I'd say that kind of in-depth travel and experiential analysis are Mahoney's trademark. She's the sort of person who will talk to anyone, even to the people the rest of us wouldn't bother to talk to. The story reads very smoothly and the writer's encounters with the Egyptian people are what really make this book. In her attempt to buy a boat, she comes to know one sailor in particular and his sweet little sister who has a physical deformity. The way she writes about them is heartbreaking and it is probably my favorite part in this book, aside from the chase scene at the end of the book. What I like most about Mahoney's way of writing is that you feel you are sitting next to her as she is making her journey. Everything is described in a very vivid , intimate way so it's like watching a movie. You kind of feel like you know her, even though she doesn't say very much about her private life. I recommend this book highly and I'm eagerly waiting to see what she will do next.

This book is a rather strange take on the usual "My Trip to Egypt" memoirs written by other intrepid adventurers to the area. Most of the book is spent with the author obsessively searching for a boat in which she can row herself down the Nile - alone. The quest to obtain such a boat brings her in contact with a bevy of wild and wonderful characters - none of them keen to see the author realize her ambition. I thoroughly enjoyed Mahoney's description of the Egyptian people - their confusion as to why on earth a woman alone would want to row down the Nile, and their often bumbling efforts to allow them to do the rowing for her. She brilliantly evokes the feeling of the Nile and the Egyptian land, so that you can almost feel the heat from the sand and hear the river in it's relentless flow. I came to love the character Amr - a gentle Egyptian with a huge heart and even bigger spirit. Mahoney peppers her account with fascinating insights from luminaries such as Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert, both of whom had travelled to Egypt in the previous century and had each written of their own experiences. And along with the historical points of interest, Mahoney unearths all sorts of weird and wonderful facts that won't fail to surprise and titillate the reader. But then we come to Madeleine Stein. Here is a woman who lives and works in Egypt, speaks fluent Arabic, is obviously somewhat of an adventurer, and she agrees to accompany the author down the Nile in order to satisfy the legal requirements of the inspectors. Indeed, the book is dedicated to her. A fascinating woman by anyone's account, but what does she look like? How old is she? Who does she live with? What does she think about things? Whereas Mahoney has intricately described every other character in the book, including herself from a self snapped photo, there is absolutely no quality information on Madelaine Stein other than the bare facts of her presence. This omission was almost irritating enough to deduct a star from my review. Other than this, an enjoyable read and highly recommended.

The single word that summarizes this beautiful book is "exquisite." It is an exquisitely written travel diary, a brief and inquisitive glimpse into an alien world and culture, in a land that has entranced travellers, tourists, and adventurers for centuries. The result is neither patronizing nor rose-tinted, but compassionate, human, often perplexed, and occasionally fearful. An accomplished rower, Rosemary Mahoney sets off to fulfil her long-time ambition to row down part of the Nile. Most regard her as stir crazy for even thinking about such a feat, particularly as a woman, in an Egypt paranoid about tourists travelling alone. Her greatest difficulty turns out to be the seemingly simple task of procuring a boat. Having spent days in Aswan, trying to persuade somebody, anybody, to sell her a small craft, she eventually meets a gentle Nubian felucca captain, who agrees to let her use his boat on condition that he sail his felucca at a distance behind her for protection. Having successfully completed this leg of her trip, she travels to Luxor where she buys another boat and travels a farther stretch of the river to Qena, this time completely alone. The real treasures in this book are the accounts of Rose's encounters with ordinary Egyptian people, from the giggling group of Nubian village girls, to the creepy Jimi Hendrix look-alike felucca captain. Her conversations with some of the Egyptian men make for wonderful reading. Their mixture of mischievousness, naivety, and malignity; their bizarre and unhealthy obsession with sex; their `doublethink' attitudes to Western and Muslim women, all offer a unique insight into the minds and culture of the people that is accessible, refreshing, and humorous. Rosemary Mahoney's descriptive powers are at times breathtaking. Her language is simple and yet evocative: the reader can feel the tension in a room, hear the tone of voice in a conversation, see the baked skyline, and feel the oppressiveness of the heat. She has an unusual ability to capture the trivial detail that conveys the essential substance of a situation. Armchair Interview says: This is one talented writer--and is a top-drawer book.