Book review of Beneath My Feet: Writers on Walking, edited by Duncan Minshull

Beneath My Feet, Writers on Walking

Most of the authors in this anthology are British, hence little known to Americans. Yet no biographical annotations provided in the book itself, as though to hide from us the obscurity of many of the authors.

The assembled writings are not merely British, but are "very" British, at times resembling clumsy translations into American English from another language altogether. And at times the subject of walking plays a role only in an obscure way. Still, this hardbound but small book is elegantly crafted, complete with a red-ribboned bookmark attached to the binding, so worth the price, which at the time of my review is inexplicably less expensive than the paperback edition. Worth the price, but just not worth the time to read most of these selections. Even the selection from Will Self, the most well known of these contemporary British authors and whose novel Great Apes indeed is great, proved to be very forgettable. He wanders all over the map, from Paris to London to NYC, but comes to no conclusion, so ends nowhere.

With so many other anthologies about walking that are in print, I rank this one not on the bottom but only midway on my list.

( This and 6 other books about Walking reviewed by Mark Mathew Braunstein www.MarkBraunstein.Org )