>Sacred Ground and Holy Water by Lyn Fuchs – A review

fiction

by admin | on January 27th, 2011 | 0 comments

Sacred Ground & Holy water is the kind of travel book that makes you wish there were more of it’s kind out there. But then again, I do it a great disservice by calling it merely a travel book.

It is also a very personal, frequently humorous and often poignant call to take a look at your religion or whatever higher powers it is that you bow your head to. The book seems to be answering the question that the author himself makes clear.

‘Do I travel to know a higher reality, the world or myself?’

The essays take us through his travels from Vancouver Island to Kyoto to Zihuatanejo to Belize to Antigua to Mahabalipuram and a number of destinations around the world, where the paths are definitely less trodden.

His writing has a five senses style. You can taste the salt in the seas and the dust of the jungle roads and squirm as if the beetle that has crawled into his navel is in yours.

Yes, not all the essays grip you as they should and they are not consistent in terms of painting a vivid picture. But the essay on Belize, more than enough makes up for it as it points out that a terrorist is only one in the eyes of the beholder. And the one on New Orleans will leave you misty-eyed for all the right reasons.

On the whole, Lyn Fuchs as a writer in his mission to get men attracted to reading spiritual literature succeeds. That too admirably!

Spicy writing with a strong male perspective with more than an ample dash of wit and humour make the Sacred Ground & Holy Water, a very enjoyable read.

Though reading it as I did in one sitting, one might wish that there were more of a flow from chapter to chapter.

But by the end of the book, the only thing the voice in my head was saying was, ‘Please Sir, I want some more.’

The reviewer Shweta Ganesh Kumar is a writer and freelance travel journalist based in the Philippines. You can read about her work and life as a writer at www.shwetaganeshkumar.com