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The Cruel Way: Switzerland to Afghanistan in a Ford, 1939 by Ella K. Maillart: book review


 

The Cruel Way: Switzerland to Afghanistan in a Ford, 1939 (written in 2013) is a travel memoir. 

 

Two women, Ella Maillart and Annemarie Schwarzenback, take a road journey from Geneva in Switzerland to Kabul in Afghanistan in a brand new Ford. In 1939 it was rare for women to travel alone on a great adventure and dangerous journey. With the onset of World War II, and Schwarzenbach’s morphine addiction, Maillart’s main aims were to show that the world was still beautiful, ‘to acquire self-mastery and to save my friend from herself.’ Schwarzenbach also wrote her version of the adventure in All the Roads are Open: The Afghan Journey (2000).

 

Maillart is experienced – she had already competed in sailing in the 1924 Olympics, walked across Turkistan, and travelled from Peking to Kashmir. Schwarzenbach had already worked with archaeologists in Syria and Persia. Maillart (1903-1997), nicknamed Kini, is 36 years old, and Schwarzenbach (1908-1942), nicknamed Christina, weak from illness, is thirty.

 

As they set off together for their journey to Afghanistan, their first country is Italy, then onto Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia, and Bulgaria), Turkey, Black Sea, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkistan (now part of Afghanistan), and Afghanistan. There are a few black and white photographs, with one showing the niched Buddha statue (the western side) in Bamian. On reaching the great Buddha, Maillart writes that it ‘dominates Lucerne and melon-fields from his height of a hundred and seventy-five feet [53 metres]. The legs have been almost entirely destroyed and part of the head (the ear alone is twice my size).’ 

 

Maillart writes of making breakfast as an adventure instead of a daily routine chore. She writes of the history of locations, and says, ‘When I fall in love with a place, I want to know who planned it, fought, or lived in it.’ 

 

She writes of the people and landscapes, misunderstanding and mishaps, and problem-solving when in difficult circumstances. However, she writes, ‘I never expected that our first arrest would be so early.’ Arrest is only one of the obstacles along the way. The narrow, mountainous roads with crumbling soil were another: ‘to this day I am sure that Christina never guessed how soft that ledge was.’

 

There are two threads in this memoir: (1) the journey, and (2) the relationship. It is not about the destination. The account of Maillart looking after her bilious friend is poignant, showing her determination to improve her friend’s health despite the challenges and increasing conflict: ‘One thing was certain: Christina believed in suffering. She worshipped it as the source of all greatness.’ So, while fleeing from Europe’s conflict, they have to confront their own. 

 

Maillart’s writing on their extensive journey throughout Afghanistan commences after the mid-way point of the book. It is interesting and insightful.  The start of World War II ends their journey. 

 

I think Maillart’s best writing is when she is empathetic – mainly in treating Annemarie(Christina) Schwarzenbach’s illness. In Kabul, suffering from bronchitis, Schwarzenbach also had large gaping boils on her neck filled with pus ‘that immobilized her head.’ The friendship, the responsibility, the inspirations and the defeat, are honest and revealing. 




 

 


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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).


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