I couldn't bear to see particular shores of the canal floating by, anonymous and silent. Then I found that the travel across the Isthmus was as intense as the book itself.
I did manage to finish the book before reaching Panama. Cruise ship stage shows? Nah! Cocktails with the captain? Forget it! I read it desperately night and day, hoping to finish before reaching the canal. It awoke the "inner engineer" in me that I didn't know I had. I forgot all about the cruise ship activities and buried myself in this book. This book is a detailed, non-fiction account of France's selection of the canal site in Central America, the politics, diseases, intrigues, and construction of locks and "Big Dig". I had barely started it when we left on a cruise of the Panama Canal, sailing from LA. Sorry, David.įollow The Great Adventure on WordPress.My uncle recommended it. I will give the author credit for thoroughness, but that very aspect is probably what made the story–all 698 pages of it–pretty intolerable for me. Especially when so many critics think this book is absolutely wonderful. Even so, it wasn’t much beyond watching paint dry.
It wasn’t until I got to the last part of the book, when the United States got involved that it picked up somewhat. I found myself dragging through the book. But the book spent half the book on the political aspects of France’s raising money for it, and whenever a new person was introduced, McCullough went into incredible detail about that person’s origins and background. The Path Between the Seas is about the creation of the Panama Canal, which the book proposes was the greatest engineering feat the world has ever seen, perhaps greater than getting us on the moon. My two favorite categories of books are science fiction and historical. I absolutely LOVED 1776, McCullough’s book about the beginnings of the United States, and his book about the Johnstown Flood was fabulous. And….well…something is missing.ĭon’t get me wrong. She even writes a loving phrase inside the cover, knowing how much you are looking forward to the book.Īnd then you actually read it. You put it on your wish list, and your wife finally buys it for you as a Christmas gift. Do you ever really like an author, read a couple of his books and really, really like the way he writes? You find a book that he’s written that you haven’t read yet, it’s a winner of the National Book Award, and you know it’s guaranteed to be a great book, wonderful book? You hear from friends and critics that it is absolutely wonderful. The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914 by David McCullough.
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