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This review is about the author's book of letters: "Houseboat on the Ganges" Letters from India and Nepal 1966-1972Like me, the author is a Californian, a lover of art and books, a Berkeley undergraduate--a traveler at heart, I also religiously wrote letters to my mom. She left California about twenty years before I did. In fact, her India sojourn began two years before I was born.... and yet it seemed so familiar.We shared the same world before the Internet and cell phones; when you communicate...
Marilyn Stablein takes readers to the remote reaches of India and Nepal of the 1960s, when westerners looked east for inspiration, adventure, and nirvana. A pioneer of the on-the-economy kind of traveler, Stablein's at ease in the world, making small talk in Tibetan, painting mandalas, studying temple rituals and life. Every traveler's gotta have a grail, and every westerner should spend some significant time outside the comfort zone.
I read Sleeping in Caves as background for my book on Ganesh Baba. Imagine my surprise when Baba actually turned up in Stablein's memoir! Great book, but not a very flattering picture of my teacher, who was obviously not her teacher. Still, I love her wry voice and the images of India and Nepal she evokes. I've read a number of 60's memoirs recently, and I'd say this one is one my favorites.