Review of Man Mission

[Gman94]

[i][Following is a volunteer review of "Man Mission" by Eytan Uliel.][/i]

[rbc=4]id359556-125[/rbc]In Eytan Uliel's delightful and inspired debut, "Man Mission: Four Men, Fifteen Years, One Epic Journey" we join him and his three companions in their testosterone-driven challenges from biking, kayaking, hiking and more across the globe. Through torrid heat and rain, desert and forest, and the isolated to the urban; from Harper's Pass to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, we experience in admirable detail each locale, the people, and the personal troubles affecting the group of friends back home; experiences we feel no matter the location physically or otherwise shows its conversational universality.



On their first mission, Sam, a friend since college, decide at-the-hip to travel to New Zealand with the goal of hiking Harper's Pass in mind. Away from their menial jobs, they find themselves in a number of hilarious mishaps from being wakened by something grazing the side of their tent while they deliberate who would be the brave soul to confront the "poltergeist" or meeting a group of bearded drug dealers-- the favorite being the former. Armed with a fearsome bean and slapstick propane cans the author glimpses a constellation of menacing eyes staring at him from his tent. However, fear loses its grip shortly thereafter when they both realize the threat was AWOL cows.

Eventually, after hurting his knee and ankle, the author arrives at an urgent-care clinic all thanks to his newly-found bearded, hunting buddies.



Tokyo to Niigata was the next Man Mission for the author and Sam. They

bicycled from urban landscapes to rural beauty filled with delightful details of vivid flowers seen hillside or the odd, singing vending machines they'd come upon.

At one great point, when visiting a shrine, the two meet an odd, chain-smoking, local wise-man addressed as Mr.Takeda who sporadically lends wisdom to issues found throughout the book (manhood, how a man should comport himself, social roles, etc.).

Indeed, when the three part ways Takeda-San says:

“Tell your wife you love her. Tell your parents you love them. Tell your sons and daughters you love them. Tell them every day you love them. It is the secret to a happy life.”(location 899)



And the page previous, “In Japan, men do not say how they feel. They do not know how to talk with women. Is it also like this in your country?” (Location 892)



Like the Medieval minstrel, he regales from song the quests, travails, and gallantry of its subjects and therein he is one acting part. And with that the author shows us through this  story of friendship, love, and its highs and lows the development of each man--or as the author puts it at the end of the book:



"But the magic of Man Mission is that in doing these things—by allowing myself to behave like a little boy—I have gone some way to learning what it means to be a man." (Location 5154)



These are the two favorite tramps out of the fifteen. Nonetheless, all the stories in here have their personal charms that bring a full day to an afternoon read.

If you want a thoughtful and enjoyable read to end the summer, I highly recommend readers to try their hands at this little gem by this promising, new author. Deservedly, this lovely travelogue gets a 4 out of 4.

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[i]Man Mission [/i]
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