- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Viking (29 Jun 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0670914843
- ISBN-13: 978-0670914845
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.8 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 527,761 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Magic Bus: On the Hippie Trail from Istanbul to India
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More About the Author
Product Description
Sunday Telegraph
MacLean is a wonderfully deft writer’
TLS
'MacLean’s prose moves elegantly from the elegiac to the ironic, from the sad to the grotesque to the comic'
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
My wonder at that first step moves me still, that stride into the unknown, that grasping for stars; the open road before me, the Blue Mosque at my back, the Beach Boys in my ear. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
My wonder at that first step moves me still, that stride into the unknown, that grasping for stars; the open road before me, the Blue Mosque at my back, the Beach Boys in my ear. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Thanks to Rory Maclean the bus still runs, and I was able to catch it a generation and a half after the departure of the original Intrepids to the once-wild East. That East that was the world of dreams for a tired Europe whose kids desparately needed vision and freshness, for whom there was nothing at home that could hold the imagination, and whose parents' lives had been consumed and formed in the horror of war, the collapse of empire, incredible technological changes and the struggle to hang onto something familiar.
Rory Maclean balances the sentiment of the original journeys, thousands of them, gained by a brave attempt to trace their route under very changed, and more dangerous circumstances than they once were, with an updated perspective on the trail as it appears today. Those early travellers were gullible, naive and inexperienced. They were also passionate and committed to a new world of real relations - and of pleasure.
It may be that the passage of those early hippies laid something of the foundations for the present tensions and unhealthy religious and political conditions. Yet this too will pass. Maclean's account, meanwhile, consists in the main of encounters along the way with a brilliant Afghan rug of characters, from the ancient hippie soulmate he meets in Turkey to the Iranian city guide who opens his mind behind closed doors, the Englishman who converted to Islam in Pakistan and created for himself a spiritual path from the land and the people and the ecstasy of the meeting. Old hippies, musicians, their admirers along the way, NGO employees who wished they had been part of it... they are all here. And in each case there is a true encounter, a meeting of minds - surely the purpose of all travel, then and now and henceforth.
For anybody who did not travel on the first trail, this is a superb synthesis of many strands that gives a good picture of how it was. For anybody who has visions of a closer world and a new paradigm for living, this account shows much of what was achieved before, and some of the mistakes, and inspires one to try again. For those who did travel the Trail, I doubt that they will have much to argue with Maclean about.
Rory Maclean balances the sentiment of the original journeys, thousands of them, gained by a brave attempt to trace their route under very changed, and more dangerous circumstances than they once were, with an updated perspective on the trail as it appears today. Those early travellers were gullible, naive and inexperienced. They were also passionate and committed to a new world of real relations - and of pleasure.
It may be that the passage of those early hippies laid something of the foundations for the present tensions and unhealthy religious and political conditions. Yet this too will pass. Maclean's account, meanwhile, consists in the main of encounters along the way with a brilliant Afghan rug of characters, from the ancient hippie soulmate he meets in Turkey to the Iranian city guide who opens his mind behind closed doors, the Englishman who converted to Islam in Pakistan and created for himself a spiritual path from the land and the people and the ecstasy of the meeting. Old hippies, musicians, their admirers along the way, NGO employees who wished they had been part of it... they are all here. And in each case there is a true encounter, a meeting of minds - surely the purpose of all travel, then and now and henceforth.
For anybody who did not travel on the first trail, this is a superb synthesis of many strands that gives a good picture of how it was. For anybody who has visions of a closer world and a new paradigm for living, this account shows much of what was achieved before, and some of the mistakes, and inspires one to try again. For those who did travel the Trail, I doubt that they will have much to argue with Maclean about.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Many books have been written about the sixties, but Rory Macleans "Magic Bus" is the first to my knowledge which describes the journey many thousands of us made in those tumultuous years, overland from Istanbul to Kathmandu. The author retraces the route, describing with accuracy and humour the old haunts that many of us knew so well. From the Pudding Shop in the shadow of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, the Amir Kabir in Tehran, the cafes on Chicken Street in Kabul, the magnificient statues of Buddha in Bamyian tragically destroyed by the Taliban, to the dope filled dives of Freak Street in Kathmandu. For me the book brought the memories flooding back as I am sure it would for others familiar with the "hippy trail" But the book is not just for those who made that journey in the sixties and seventies, it's a fascinating travelogue in its own right, a piece of our cultural and social history, and a wonderful description of an era and a journey which will never be repeated in quite the same way. A five star read.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Thanks to Rory Maclean the bus still runs, and I was able to catch it a generation and a half after the departure of the original Intrepids to the once-wild East. That East that was the world of dreams for a tired Europe whose kids desparately needed vision and freshness, for whom there was nothing at home that could hold the imagination, and whose parents' lives had been consumed and formed in the horror of war, the collapse of empire, incredible technological changes and the struggle to hang onto something familiar.
Rory Maclean balances the sentiment of the original journeys, thousands of them, gained by a brave attempt to trace their route under much changed and more dangerous circumstances than they once were, with an updated perspective on the trail as it appears today. Those early travellers were gullible, naive and inexperienced. They were also passionate and committed to a new world of real relations - and of pleasure.
It may be that the passage of those early hippies laid something of the foundations for the present tensions and unhealthy religious and political conditions. Yet this too will pass. Maclean's account, meanwhile, consists in the main of encounters along the way with a brilliant Afghan rug of characters, from the ancient hippie soulmate he meets in Turkey to the Iranian city guide who opens his mind behind closed doors, the Englishman who converted to Islam in Pakistan and created for himself a spiritual path from the land and the people and the ecstasy of the meeting. Old hippies, musicians, their admirers along the way, NGO employees who wished they had been part of it... they are all here. And in each case there is a true encounter, a meeting of minds - surely the purpose of all travel, then and now and henceforth.
For anybody who did not travel on the first trail, this is a superb synthesis of many strands that gives a good picture of how it was. For anybody who has visions of a closer world and a new paradigm for living, this account shows much of what was achieved before, and some of the mistakes, and inspires one to try again. For those who did travel the Trail, I doubt that they will have much to argue with Maclean about.
Rory Maclean balances the sentiment of the original journeys, thousands of them, gained by a brave attempt to trace their route under much changed and more dangerous circumstances than they once were, with an updated perspective on the trail as it appears today. Those early travellers were gullible, naive and inexperienced. They were also passionate and committed to a new world of real relations - and of pleasure.
It may be that the passage of those early hippies laid something of the foundations for the present tensions and unhealthy religious and political conditions. Yet this too will pass. Maclean's account, meanwhile, consists in the main of encounters along the way with a brilliant Afghan rug of characters, from the ancient hippie soulmate he meets in Turkey to the Iranian city guide who opens his mind behind closed doors, the Englishman who converted to Islam in Pakistan and created for himself a spiritual path from the land and the people and the ecstasy of the meeting. Old hippies, musicians, their admirers along the way, NGO employees who wished they had been part of it... they are all here. And in each case there is a true encounter, a meeting of minds - surely the purpose of all travel, then and now and henceforth.
For anybody who did not travel on the first trail, this is a superb synthesis of many strands that gives a good picture of how it was. For anybody who has visions of a closer world and a new paradigm for living, this account shows much of what was achieved before, and some of the mistakes, and inspires one to try again. For those who did travel the Trail, I doubt that they will have much to argue with Maclean about.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Disappointing and uninformative. Avoid.
I borrowed this book from my other half on our last holiday. I was expecting to find it absolutely fascinating given the places and times it would be covering. Read more
Published 3 months ago by snowman1
Magic Bus Review
Interesting account of the hippie trail to India.Entertaining but one criticism is that it could have contained more photographs of the journey. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Eduardo
Humourless & unrevealing
This was a deeply disappointing book. The material is rich but nothing (good) stood out. The straight travel writing was poor with some very cliched descriptive passages. Read more
Published on 29 July 2009 by S. J. Pearson
Good in parts
I found this book very interesting to begin with - the author went into great detail about his earlier locations but towards the end it seemed as if he kind of lost interest and... Read more
Published on 20 May 2009 by jkennedy
I missed the bus!
Although I was the right generation, sadly(?) I didn't take the hippie trail in the 60s/70s - nonetheless I really enjoyed this book. Read more
Published on 26 Sep 2008 by G. E. Harrison
A travelogue with a difference
To make a travelogue different from those that have gone before takes talent but to inject a sense of documentary evidence and current reportage takes great skill. Read more
Published on 9 Sep 2007 by Fiona Stewart
A new Nicoles Bouvier?
It is an understatement to say that I have devoured "Magic Bus" !
A Frenchman (so sorry for my broken English !) in my fifties now, the book took me back to my twenties. Read more
A Frenchman (so sorry for my broken English !) in my fifties now, the book took me back to my twenties. Read more
Published on 14 July 2007 by Padraigbo
Buy this book
Many books have been written about the sixties, but Rory Macleans "Magic
Bus" is the first to my knowledge which describes the journey many thousands of us made in those... Read more
Bus" is the first to my knowledge which describes the journey many thousands of us made in those... Read more
Published on 3 July 2007 by Mr. David T. Cooper
A book for past, present and future
This book, honest and warm, is powerful in its attention to the small details of human characters that fill us with laughter and with sorrow. Read more
Published on 2 July 2007 by Emily Ferenczi
Bringing together East and West
This book, honest and warm, is powerful in its attention to the small details of human characters that fill us with laughter and with sorrow. Read more
Published on 8 Jan 2007 by Emily Ferenczi
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