Monday, December 21, 2015

Five Weeks in Amazon - Sean Michael Hayes

Five Weeks in the AmazonFive Weeks in the Amazon by Sean Michael Hayes
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

After Ketkar's "Tales from the Road...", amazon.com was throwing random travel book suggestions at me. I opened a few that looked interesting, many of which were titles by Indian authors. The short descriptions seemed extremely interesting : some were talking about dirt cheap hitchhiking through India, others talking of conversations over chai in various parts of India, or a motorcyclist's journey through the country. We do know how to come up with wacky projects! Among all those titles, Sean Michael Hayes's "Five Weeks in the Amazon" popped up. I debated a long time whether to get this one or not, but since I have had Peru on my mind for a long time and since the book highlighted ayahuasca ceremonies which I was interested in knowing more about, I decided to give it a shot.

I picked this book up with next to no expectations. I had not even checked the goodreads rating or reviews for this one. But the first few pages of the book were quite gripping. So I went forth without much further thought. Hayes knows how to write, that's for sure. He has structured the book as a candid mention of the more important of his daily activities and thoughts. But somewhere after the first three weeks into his five week journey, you come to realise that this truthful account of events in the authors life has turned rather dull. The thoughts are more or less on a similar pattern and the author's belief in his own goodness and the goodness of humanity in general sounds somewhat redundant and pontifical. I would have loved the book had it been a third shorter but it dragged on and lowered the sheen of the more relevant parts as well. The most important audience for the kind of writing that Hayes did would probably have had been his self but there is a big difference between what you write for yourself and what you write for others.

The book starts with the author looking for a cab outside Lima airport. He had landed in Peru with very little knowledge of Spanish and an idea of what he wants to accomplish in his time there. He spends the first week in Lima, partying and skateboarding through the streets of the city. Then he moves to Iquitos in search for a recommended shaman with whom he wishes to undergo the ayahuasca treatment. Hayes is looking to heal from his heartbreaks and go on a spiritual journey that would help him find his place in the world. He lives in the amazon jungles for close to three weeks, undergoing various treatments prescribed by his shaman and taking part in multiple ayahuasca ceremonies. He eventually leaves the jungle cured of his depression and ready to take on life with a new vigour.

My biggest complaint with the book was that it was not what it advertised itself as. It was supposed to be a backpacker's journey through the Peruvian jungles, his experiences with ayahuasca and his observations of life in the jungle. These themes made up less than half of the book. It was more about a man's spiritual healing and discovery. Five weeks could have been much more eventful had the author not had a completely different agenda. That Hayes was there to heal himself and that was his primary goal needed to be mentioned somewhere in the description of the book. Hayes knows how to use the language but I am rather skeptical about picking up another work from the author. This one seemed to be a general rant.

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