A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson

I love to travel.  I don't get a chance to do it very often, so armchair travelling is often the next best thing.  As soon as I heard about A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar, I knew I would have to read it and was thrilled to be approved for a copy on Netgalley.

A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar is a dual narrative story set in the past and the present.  In 1923, Evangeline (Eva) and her sister set out on a missionary trip to the Silk Road city of Kashgar, which has a fusion of Chinese and Islamic culture.  But Eva is only pretending to be a missionary; she dreams of becoming an adventurer like her hero Richard Burton and of writing a best-selling account of her travels.  In the present day, Frieda works for a think tank travelling around various Arab countries and producing reports.  Returning to London after another long trip she finds Tayeb sleeping by her door and a letter informing her of an inheritance from someone she has never heard of.

A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar contains many elements that I generally love in fiction - a dual narrative, historical fiction elements, Islamic culture, travel and feminism/independent women.  I was expecting to love it and it completely lived up to my expectations.  After a bit of a slow start the pace picked up and I was soon completely engrossed in what would happen to Eva and Frieda.  What I loved most was the way the author's love of travel completely suffused the whole novel and how Eva grew up reading travel books, just like I did;

"It was reading her descriptions of the candles and lights and the mysterious glittering interiors, the tapirs, silks, the jewels and hangings that had inspired my desire to travel."

As with any dual narrative book, one story was stronger than the other.  Whilst I enjoyed reading about Frieda, it was Eva's story that captivated me.  The woman in charge of their missionary trip, Millicent, has no concept of sensitivity to local culture and the three women soon find themselves in danger, forcing Eva to confront the darker side of travel ("despite a childhood of examining maps and reading adventure stories, I realise I am quite terrified of the desert").  I just flew through Eva's sections of the book.

Although I subjectively loved this book, I can see that it's not without fault.  At times it feels like Joinson is trying to do too much, commenting on travel, motherhood, women's rights, prejudice against Muslims, alternative childhoods, cults and adultery.  Some readers won't connect with Frieda's story.  But despite all of this, I just loved A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys travel books or historical fiction.

Source: From Bloomsbury, via Netgalley
Published: 4th June 2012
Score: 4.5 out of 5

Read Alongside:
1. The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark - Another dual narrative travel story, this one set in India.  One of the stories centers around two unconventional Victorian women and India is a character in it's own right.
2. The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger - Sally travels to Egypt with her mistress, Lady Duff Gordon and finds the restraints of Victorian society slightly loosened.  Wonderful descriptions of Egypt.

A Beginner's Guide to Acting English by Shappi Khorsandi

Shappi Khorsandi is an Iranian born comedian who is quite well known here in the UK due to her performances on Live At The Apollo and as a panellist on shows such as 8 out of 10 Cats.  A Beginners Guide To Acting English is a memoir of her childhood during the Iranian revolution.  The family originally left Iran as her father had a job opportunity in London, but when he later tries to return after the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini, he only just manages to escape with his life.  Unable to go home, the family must come to terms with becoming refugees and getting used to the English way of life.

A Beginners Guide To Acting English is a well written memoir.  It is written with a light and humorous touch, which make the occasional 'heavy' moments more profound.  Stories of learning English and getting to grips with English food are interspersed with worry about family members left in Iran and the constant fear that Shappi's father will be targeted by radicals, even in London.  The emotional anchor of the book is really the later sections in which the family must enter police protection for a time to keep them safe.  Shappi describes the all-consuming fear she felt realistically and also manages to do so from the point of view of the child she was at the time, who didn't really understand everything that was going on.

That said, there were things about A Beginners Guide To Acting English that didn't work as well.  Whilst I thought  it was interesting to read about family members left in Iran, Shappi's technique of writing them in the first person didn't really work.  All these other family members ended up speaking in the same voice, which dulled any impact they might have had in the memoir. I also think the title is a bit misleading; there wasn't too much about the culture shock of moving to England, and more about events in Iran and lives of other Iranians in exile.  I did find this interesting, but the title does lead you to think this memoir is about things it isn't.

Overall, this was an average memoir.  It passed the time nicely but I probably wouldn't recommend it to others.  For me, Persepolis is a much better memoir of the Iranian revolution and life in exile.

Source: Library

First Published: 2009

Score: 3 out of 5