Bowing to Elephants: Tales of a Travel Junkie

by Mag Dimond

In Bowing to Elephants, a woman seeking love and authenticity comes to understand herself as a citizen of the world through decades of wandering the globe. During her travels she sees herself more clearly as she gazes into the feathery eyes of a 14,000-pound African elephant and looks for answers to old questions in Vietnam and the tragically ravaged landscape of Cambodia.


Bowing to Elephants is a travel memoir with a twist―the story of an unloved rich girl from San Francisco who becomes a travel junkie, searching for herself in the world to avoid the tragic fate of her narcissistic, alcoholic mother. Haunted by images of childhood loneliness and the need to learn about her world, Dimond journeys to far-flung places―into the perfumed chaos of India, the nostalgic, damp streets of Paris, the gray, watery world of Venice in the winter, the reverent and silent mountains of Bhutan, and the gold temples of Burma. In the end, she accepts the death of the mother she never really had―and finds peace and her authentic self in the refuge of Buddhist practice.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Travel

266 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 17, 2019

Reviews

[Pai Siri Pal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not sure why the rave reviews. There was no connection to the title and her story. Her travels were superficial lagging in any depth with people or the places. It was about someone wanting to write about her loneliness—I wouldn’t recommend this book.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've given five stars to this memoir for several reasons:
- It is a very personal memoir mapping out her journey from an unhappy childhood to a place of peace and acceptance
- For me, it gave insights into a privileged childhood (so different from my own working class in the UK) and how that money and privilege do not necessarily bring happiness. It is a very honest memoir, warts and all, and at times raw.
- While some of the book didn't always hold my attention, I'm pleased I stuck with the book to the end, as there were parts which I found riveting and extremely interesting (especially the personal accounts)
- It is a memoir with many layers: I found it educational and thought-provoking, particularly when the author described the poverty she encountered on her travels and contrasted this with the incongruity of the luxury of the hotel where the tourists stayed, sipping their cocktails.
- Mag describes all the difficult and uncomfortable aspects of her travels so the reader doesn't have to, but her descriptions are vivid and it's like the reader is accompanying her, by her side, experiencing all the things she describes.
- As a musician, I loved all the references to classical music, though I can understand this might not be of interest to other readers, but to me it was very meaningful
- Again, from a personal point of view I connected with the author in that I too love San Fransisco (though I live in UK and only visited once in the late 80s) - I fell in love with the city. Then the name Lavinia - I have an aunt by that name (though she's always been Aunty Vinnie) - I found it interesting as it is an unusual name. Then I loved the author's musings about her "uncertain adventure of becoming an old lady" - something that faces us all as we approach our 70s and some people in their 80s and beyond.
- I thought the memoir was well crafted - the way it bounced back and forth from the travelogue experience to the author's past. It gave the reader an insight into the author's restlessness, yearning, the need to find answers.
- I liked that the author could forgive others and herself, and move into a place of being kind to oneself.
- I liked that the book made the reader think, and (for me personally) was challenged to examine my own life and culture.
Overall, this is a memoir which has many qualities and details a personal journey with candour and honest

[eleanor · Rating 3 out of 5]

i really did enjoy this memoir, i felt as though mag really enjoyed travelling and this came through in her writing, but it was problematic at some points, making me feel kinda uncomfortable & i felt that she was quite degrading to other tourists

[Pookie Sekmet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Initially I was annoyed by both the disorganized structure and the pedantic voice. Later I became angry that I was forced to travel with the author as she, in the resolution of the book’s primary relationship, revenge-writes about her “crazy” alcoholic mother that “…she died alone in a San Francisco hospital with a bloated liver, seized up lungs, and an abiding terror.” (Alcoholism is an ILLNESS, no?) Dimond continues, describing a scene not long before the mother’s death in which the mother was found, “…collapsed over the edge of the bathtub, blood spewing from her stomach that she had relentlessly poisoned, splattering the lovely pink walls, the towels, and the white bathtub.” Then, “…a horror scene of dark clotted blood on towels and tub, on the pink walls and fuzzy bedroom slippers, the sour rank smell hanging in the air.” She draws a parallel to her mother’s color preference in clothing, cars, and home décor, “Mom had always loved a pink-and-red landscape, like the one she finally collapsed in.” I love a good revenge story in which there are evil-doers who get what they deserve, but this book was unjustifiably unkind in the way this death was written about, making me distrust most of what the author wrote.

[Cindy Rasicot · Rating 5 out of 5]

What makes this book unique is the way Dimond weaves travel with memories of her lived experience. Her early years in Florence trace her lonely childhood in which she longed for her mother’s love at the same time she is absorbing the magical world of Italy’s rich food and colorful sites. Rich in description and poignant details Dimond manages to capture the heart and soul of her travel adventures while tracing the course of her own life. I particularly liked the way she wrote about Vietnam, and the sensitive way she depicted the complexity of Aung San Suu Kyi’s life within the historical and political realities Myanmar. A veteran traveler and foodie, this is an absorbing read from start to finish.

[Kathy Wivell · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unusual memoir

As someone who likes to travel and who is trying to write about her ancestors and her own family life, I found this book intriguing. It cleverly links experiences Mag had whilst travelling, back to thoughts and struggles she had in earlier life. Through her travels she has learnt how to be truthful to herself and how to love, to understand death and how to adhere to her Buddhist faith. Everyone must live their life like a hero battling their foes and learning from each experience.

This book has some truly beautiful and moving descriptions of experiences which made me rethink some of my own ideas.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Based on the description, I thought I was going to love this book. Unfortunately. It was very disappointing. She never gets past surface descriptions, perhaps to shield herself from scrutiny. She comes across as bitter and misanthropic. I was looking forward to the photographs in the center of the book but unfortunately those reflect her prose: generic pictures of tourist attractions in various countries that could easily be googled.

[Beverly Hollandbeck · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subtitle "Tales of a Travel Junkie" suggested to me that this would be a travelogue. It is not. It is a memoir. It is fairly interesting and well-written, but I feel like a victim of bait and switch. Also, a travelogue is about getting to a place and only secondarily about being there (think Paul Theroux on the Orient Express, Bill Bryson on the Appalachian Trail). Dimond's essays about places are strictly about the destination and never about the journey.

[Angelica Payne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really disappointed with this book. I was expecting it to be packed with adventure but it ended up being a cluster of jumbled and repetitive stories that were more factual than filled with intrigue.
Not sure that the elephants should have been the title of this book as the trip to Kenya was not particularly interesting. Might have been better off as a travellers foodie journal.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. I like the flow and the chapter titles. But some of it really dragged on and on.

[Pauline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclosure; the author is a friend.
The travel narratives are well woven back into the memoir. It all came together to give me a full sense of the author.

[Ashleigh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Would not recommend to anyone

[Jennifer Hopper · Rating 1 out of 5]

So boring! Bounced around too much, tried very hard to be poetic and very flowery, but just ended up shallow and pretentious. I am sad because it sounded like such a good book.

[Danaprov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful passages with significant narrative disconnects

[Ronda Canary · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.3

[Tonya Wetzel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don’t recommend. Writing lacked depth and a connection with the reader. Skipped multiple pages due to redundancy. It seemed like she was searching for a story or theme to bind her travels and imperfect childhood together, yet never really found one.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bowing to Elephants is a travel memoir with a twist―the story of an unloved rich girl from San Francisco who becomes a travel junkie, goes searching for herself in the world to avoid the tragic fate of her narcissistic, alcoholic mother. Haunted by images of childhood loneliness and the need to learn about her world, Dimond journeys to far-flung places―into the perfumed chaos of India, the nostalgic, damp streets of Paris, the gray, watery world of Venice in the winter, the reverent and silent mountains of Bhutan, and the gold temples of Burma. [Which you only hear about when she describes the setting she is in when she starts her musings on her past] In the end, she accepts the death of the mother she never really had―and finds peace and her authentic self in the refuge of Buddhist practice.

[Maria Chambi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found the structure of this book so hard to follow. It jumps from different time periods and to different countries continuously. Don’t get me wrong, there are many tales of the author’s travels that are spellbinding and she writes so beautifully, but I would have enjoyed a more chronological account as opposed to so much back and forth. It also felt a bit ego-centric to me and at times superficial. However, that’s because I couldn’t relate to the author’s way of thinking and doing things. Others might love this book and find great inspiration from it, but it wasn’t for me.

[Linda Ulleseit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This delightful book is a mix of physical travel and spiritual travel. I thoroughly enjoyed the author's experiences in far flung places in the world, and her tying it all to her beloved San Francisco. I'm impressed by her ability to be present in each place, to soak up what the place had to offer rather than projecting herself onto the place.