Book Title: Three Weeks with My Brother
Authors: Nicholas Sparks and Micah Sparks
ISBN: 9781538705452
Publisher: Hachette Books
Never forget that anticipation is an important part of life. Work’s important, family’s important, but without excitement, you have nothing. You’re cheating yourself if you refuse to enjoy what’s coming.
I chose to review this book because it is a non-fiction and a New York Times bestseller. I’m curious to know why it is a bestseller.
Also intrigued by the title, I flipped through the book before I bought it and knew it was a travelogue. So, I was curious to know what the authors did together and where they went.
Last but not least, the book is in large print. Large print makes it easier for a reader, young or old, to read a book.
Nicholas Sparks is apparently one of the best known writers in America and overseas because of love stories he has written.
But this book is not a love story; instead, it is an entertaining blend of travelogue, memoir and loving relationship the brothers share.
Nicholas could have written the book alone but he chose to co-write it with his brother. Perhaps it is because he loves Micah.
This book came about because of a brochure Nicholas received in the mail in the spring of 2002.
The brochure came from the alumni office at the University of Notre Dame and advertised a “Journey to the Lands of Sky Worshippers”. The tour was called “Heaven and Earth” and those who accepted it would travel around the world over a three-week period in January and February 2003.
Nicholas was at first reluctant to leave his wife, his five little children and his work for three weeks.
With his wife’s blessing, he eventually went on the tour with his elder brother, Micah.
The brothers visited Guatemala; Lima, Peru; Cuzco, Machu Picchu, Peru; Easter Island, Chile; Ayers Rock, Australia; Angkor, Cambodia; Jaipur and Agra, India; Valletta, Malta and Tromso, Norway.
The three-week trip marked a milestone in the lives of Nicholas, 37, and Micah, 38, the only surviving members of their family. Earlier on, they had lost both parents and their younger sister; their father died in an accident while their mother and sister succumbed to illnesses.
As the two brothers voyaged to many interesting places stated in their tour, the story of their lives unfolded and readers would learn about their rambunctious childhood adventures.
A chapter and a personal photograph are devoted to each place they visited.
For example, they described Cuzco as the oldest permanent settlement in the Western Hemisphere and the former capital of the Inca empire.
Since Cuzco was situated at 11,500 feet, they had warned about altitude sickness on their flight.
Ignoring their tour guides’ advice to go slow as they exited the plane at the airport, both Nicholas and Micah soon felt really fuzzy, like they had a few too many beers. For whatever reason, they started giggling and couldn’t stop.
On Easter Island, Chile, Nicholas and his brother saw the Moai statues.
They wrote,” The first statue we saw was fascinating. So were the second and third. By the time we viewed the fourth and fifth statues, the novelty began to wear off.
“Though the local archaeologist assured us that each was different, to my untrained eye they looked pretty much the same: eye sockets, long ears, nose and mouth, all carved from lava rock.”
Their description made me laugh.
In Phnom Penh, Nicholas and Micah toured the Holocaust Museum and visited the Killing Fields.
Nicholas wrote, “From the outside, the Holocaust Museum looked remarkable. A two-storey, balconied building set off the main road, it resembled the high school it had originally been. But belying its innocuous appearance was the sinister barbed wire that still encircled it: this was the place where Pol Pot tortured his victims.”
Now, for those who don’t know, Pol Pot was the leader of the Khmer Rouge who hoped to create a perfect communist state in Cambodia in the late 1970s.
Both Nicholas and Micah were horrified by the exhibits they saw at the Holocaust Museum. They said the rooms where Khmer Rouge soldiers tortured their victims hadn’t altered since Phnom Penh had been reclaimed, on the floors and walls, bloodstains were still visible.
“So much that we saw that day seemed beyond belief; the fact that most of the Khmer Rouge were children was almost too appalling to contemplate.”
These, to me, are interesting first-hand accounts of a visitor who’s a well-known writer.
As a writer myself, I find this book interesting because of the brothers’ perception of the famous places they visited. I like the way the story is written — in simple English.
I hope someday, I can also visit some of the places they visited.
