Mr. Dimock Explores The Mysteries Of The East: Journeys In India

While travel writers these days favor brawny outdoorsy adventures — scaling Everest or crossing Arctic tundras — Dimock, an American professor, in Mr. Dimock Explores The Mysteries Of The East: Journeys In India relates an enjoyably old-fashioned, brainy, amusing travelogue about India, where he lived with his wife and five children in the 1950s and '60s and has since visited yearly. In 20 essays centering on India's culture — from vegetarianism to snake charmers, monkey mythology to population explosion — Dimock uses the great Indian storytelling tradition of layering vignettes within vignettes to illustrate his own evolution from bedazzled Westerner to learned outsider. It's a journey that proves, for the reader, both charming and enlightening. B+