Beneath Blossom Rain

March 1, 2011

Debut memoir of a man's discovery of spiritual rejuvenation while hiking Bhutan's daunting Snowman Trek.

In 2007, outdoors writer Grange began his 24-day journey along the "toughest trek in the world" by tying a string of prayer flags to some rocks, only to watch them flutter free, a setback representative of "all the loose ends in [his] life. As an unmarried, middle-aged, failed screenwriter, the author tackled the trail in order to surrender "to the adventure" and peer "resolutely forward"—yet throughout, he remained firmly cemented to the worries of the past. A man at odds with his dream, Grange continually contemplated the fading likelihood of his success as a screenwriter, acknowledging that "life had its own timeline," and that the only control he possessed was the ability to put one foot in front of the other on the trail. In this way, the book is an adventurous travel memoir focused on perspective. In one instance, Grange gulped a beer and found his taste buds tingling, not because of the beer itself, but because "[e]verything tastes better on a hiking trail." Similarly, he soon discovered that all successes were sweetest when laced with suffering. As the author endured the grueling trail, he began viewing the world through a different lens. While in a particularly grumpy mood, a fellow hiker reminded him that every hour of sadness costs a person "3,600 seconds of happiness"—a statistic that rattled Grange out of his funk once and for all.

A highly readable journey of one man's renewed lease on life.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

April 15, 2011
In his first book, Grange chronicles his 25-day hike through Bhutan in 2007. Stepping off with a group of trekkers, a guide, and Bhutanese helpers, Grange advances the moment-by-moment narrative with anticipation of his encounters with the next village or vista. What the guide and his new Bhutanese friends predict, only experience will ratify, and Granges open-minded inquisitiveness whets the accompanying readers interest in every next day. Photographs assist visualizing Granges journey, which grows more difficult as the trail ascends above forested rivers into ethereal, glacial heights. Some drama arises when Grange gets lost, but for the most part, the story progresses via passages describing his spells of self-searching, which vanish when he meets a monk, soaks in Himalayan scenery, or swaps drolleries in camp. With cultural digressions about Buddhism and the history of Bhutan and a quest for the meaning of the phrase blossom rain, Granges book, like Lisa Napolis Radio Shangri-La (2011), will absorb anyone interested in escaping to the Dragon Kingdom, as thousands of adventurous Westerners annually do.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)