Short Walks from Bogotá, book review
Short Walks from Bogotá is a deeply political account of one man´s journey to the violent heart of modern, rural, Colombia. It is a travel book that transports the reader to an unreported world far away from Bogotá and Medellín, and far away from the well trodden backpacker route.
For many visitors, the pages of this book are as close as they will get to the tragedy of Colombia´s recent history. For this reason alone Feiling is an essential read.
Feiling´s story telling style is easy yet thoughtful. There is always a message, a political point to be made. In fact, it is impossible to escape the sense that the author is on a mission – to wake the world up to the reality of Colombia, and to shake off the stereotyped view.
Feiling opens with the painfully accurate assessment that Colombia ´is both demonized and ignored. Most people can´t even spell its name properly´, and promptly sets about filling us in on the history and the origins of the conflict still with us today.
Thankfully, Feiling avoids the usual trap of reporting on the sensational, almost completely ignoring Pablo Escobar altogether, and instead focusing in large part on the plight of the rural poor whose lives have been destroyed by both the FARC and the Paramilitaries.
To guide him on his walks, Feiling enlists the help of old friends and new contacts, mainly in the academic and NGO world.
It is at this point that the reader begins to realise that perhaps Feiling´s own politics start to show through. There is a distinctly left-wing bias, to the book. The tone is never a hectoring or preachy, but it is clear that Feiling has a view. Perhaps it is this view, this passion to try to expose the truth that makes the book so readable – even if you don´t agree with every word.
Colombia is often talked of as a series of countries, as culturally variable as her nature is biologically diverse. Feiling took the decision to focus on a Colombia that it is easy to forget, and in the process chose to be virtually silent on what life is like for those who are more used to hearing their voices heard.
There is little interest expressed in city life; even while in Bogotá you can detect the author´s itching desire to set off into the mountains or valleys beyond the metropolis.
Although the sleeve promises a journey into ´the new Colombia´, I wonder whether Feiling was actually actively avoiding the modernity and ´newness´ of the country, which is almost entirely restricted to the urban centres.
Indeed, the passages that explain Colombia´s history offer some of his best writing, offering us a clear explanation of why and how this country´s violence has been so intractable, and so widespread.
There are many sides to ´the new Colombia´that Feiling does not touch. There is very little celebration of Colombia´s cultural delights, except for a brief passage on Vallenato when in Valledupar, and there is no attempt to sell the country to would be tourists.
I think this is to his credit, lending the book an authenticity missing in many travel books. You can almost hear the argument Feiling had with his publisher, when reading the account of his time in Mompos. There is no evocation of the beauty of this colonial wonder, save for a mention of his time spent in the Casa Amarilla hotel. Instead of offering paeans to the elegance of the architecture, ´surely something visitors would be interested in´ you hear the publisher say, Feiling heads straight to talk to former FARC guerrillas. His seriousness has a commendable relentlessness to it.
In all, Short Walks from Bogotá is a must read for anyone curious about a side of Colombia that too often goes unreported.
Feiling´s cultural perceptions of Colombia are sharp, and poignant rather than glowing or gushing.
Short Walks is not travel writing that compels the reader to visit on holiday, but instead demands a deeper, more intelligent and questioning relationship with the country.
Colombia…is a project…and it demands ambition, not stewardship. Like all countries of the Americas, Colombia was born of hope…Until those hopes are realized, it will continue to simmer with accumulated frustration and resentment.
Short Walks from Bogotá is published by Penguin Books.