The Maze by Lucy Rees is a travel memoir which I have had for quite some time – I have no idea when I acquired it or where it came from. I have a small hardback edition, complete with dustcover, which is in excellent condition.
The author trains horses and writes for a living. She doesn’t really have a base, although she is Welsh, and has a nomadic lifestyle. At the time when the events in this book happened she was living in Arizona with her boyfriend Rick, although the relationship was coming to a natural end. The couple became intrigued by the design of a carved maze which is located in the home of the Hopi tribe in a far part of the state. The maze, which is actually a labyrinth, is a design replicated across many cultures, including that of the Cornish people where it is found in Tintagel. Lucy and her companion decide to travel across the desert like environment to see the Arizona version.
What follows is an account of their journey. The pair travel by horseback but, because they don’t have very much money, the animals they take on the trip are not well trained and they spend quite a lot of time dealing with horse related issues. They stay with friends and people who become friends, and one of the revelations for me was how many people live in this marginal area. Most of the people they encounter are living a very independent life.
The book concentrates on how Lucy feels as they make the journey and her interaction with those who also live on the margins of society. I found their lack of preparation for the trip annoying but possibly understandable if the object was to find themselves in the desert. The maze at the centre of the book was really an excuse for undertaking the journey and seemed very unimportant by the time that they reached the end.
I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would after I had read the first couple of chapters. I found the landscape and environment fascinating and many of the people that they met lived interesting lives.
This book was left at my holiday hotel, on the shared bookcase, in the hope that another holidaymaker will enjoy it.
