Product Description

Rosemary Mahoney was determined to take a solo trip down the Egyptian Nile in a small boat, even though civil unrest and vexing local traditions conspired to create obstacles every step of the way. Starting off in the south, she gained the unlikely sympathy and respect of a Muslim sailor, who provided her with both a seven-foot skiff and a window into the culturally and materially impoverished lives of rural Egyptians. Egyptian women don't row on the Nile, and tourists aren't allowed to for safety's sake. Mahoney endures extreme heat during the day, and a terror of crocodiles while alone in her boat at night. Whether she's confronting deeply held beliefs about non-Muslim women, finding connections to past chroniclers of the Nile, or coming to the dramaticm realization that fear can engender unwarranted violence, Rosemary Mahoney's informed curiosity about the world, her glorious prose, and her wit never fail to captivate.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33624 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-11
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This is travel writing at its most enjoyable: the reader is taken on a great trip with an erudite travel companion soaking up scads of history, culture and literary knowledge, along with the scenery. The genesis for the trip is simple: the author's love of rowing. Her plan, "to buy a small Egyptian rowboat and row myself along the 120-mile stretch of river between the cities of Aswan and Qena," is less so. Mahoney (The Singular Pilgrim; Whoredom in Kimmage) conveys readers along the longest river in the world, through narrative laced with insight, goodwill and sometimes sadness. Mahoney's writing style is conversational, her use of metaphor adept. She cleverly marshals the writings of numerous river travelers but focuses on "two troubled geniuses": Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert. The device allows readers a backward glance at the Edwardian travel accoutrements of sumptuous riverside dinners, staggering supplies of alcohol and food, trunks of books and commodious accommodations. The physical environment is demanding. "When I removed my hat, the sun had made the top of my head sting... it was like having a freshly baked nail driven into one's skull." Yet her biggest obstacle isn't the climate but the slippery hurdles of culture and sex. Whether struggling to buy a boat, visiting historic Luxor or rowing, innocent encounters become sticky psychological and philosophical snares. Still, the ride is smooth, leaving the reader wishing for more nautical miles. (July 11)
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From Bookmarks Magazine
Boston native and avid rower Rosemary Mahoney, once an assistant to playwright Lillian Hellman, has led a peripatetic life, and her writing reflects the breadth of her travels and the depth of her thinking on cultural matters. Previous efforts include The Early Arrival of Dreams, the author's experiences in China just before Tiananmen Square; The Singular Pilgrim, a spiritual travelogue; and Whoredom in Kimmage, a treatise on Irish gender roles. In On the Nile, the author writes beautifully of the connections between culture and history-though critics note how reluctantly she shares details of her own life outside her travels. Still, Mahoney's voice is direct and honest, her Nile as evocative as Paul Bowles's desert, her wit a counterbalance to the unease engendered by such a profound cultural divide.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

About the Author
Rosemary Mahoney is the author of The Early Arrival of Dreams, a New York Times Notable Book in 1990; Whoredom in Kimmage, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist in 1994; A Likely Story: One Summer with Lillian Hellman; and The Singular Pilgrim: Travels on Sacred Ground. She has received a Whiting Writer's Award.

Customer Reviews

What A Brave Lady!
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.

A beautiful and thoughtful book.
What a beautiful and thoughtful book. Rosemary Mahoney sees and describes clearly using unique combinations of words that illuminate an alien landscape and culture. A literate voice with an honest eye.
I enjoyed the adventures she shared with us and admire the courage she showed in undertaking them.

Delighted to discover this writer
Over the past couple of months I've read all five of Rosemary Mahoney's books. The first one I read, Whoredom in Kimmage, I picked up because I have an interest in Ireland. I couldn't put the book down, mainly because of the author's perceptions, style, and voice. After Whoredom in Kimmage, my favorite of her books is Down the Nile. This story is so quirky and funny and informative and, like all her books, well-written. I gave the book to a friend of mine, an American, who lived in Cairo for four years. He, too, loved it and even confessed he envied her nerve to do what she had done: find a boat and row 125 miles down the Nile. (I read only one negative review of this book here at Amazon, also from an American who lives in Cairo. that person;'s criticisms reek of some kind of sour grapes. And envy.) my Cairo friend said that the thing that he noticed the most was how accurate Mahoneys descriptions of the peoole and the place are. he said he was a little hestitant to read it , because he never likees books about places he knows really well. Usually doesn't agree with them. But this one he loved. So, that says something for the book. But you don't have to know anything about Egypt, really, to love this book. You don't even have to have an interest in Egypt. It's a book allabout human fragility and curiosity and the problems that come up when there's cultural misunderstanding. it's such a relevant book for the present times. It's full of entertaining hisorical anecdotes andinteresting facts and, more than anything, very engaging stories. Mahoney is a storyteller of the first order.