Wheels Within Wheels
In this beautifully written and searingly honest autobiography, the intrepid cyclist and traveler Dervla Murphy remembers her richly unconventional first thirty years. She describes her determined childhood self - strong-willed and beguiled by books from the first - her intermittent formal education and the intense relationship of an only child with her parents, particularly her invalid mother, whom she nursed until her death. Bicycling fifty miles in a day at the age of eleven, alone, it seems only natural that her first major journey should have been to cycle to India.
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I have read a lot of Dervla Murphy's books, and being a bit of a completist, when I saw this book, even knowing it is not about her travels, I didn't hesitate to pick it up.
This is her eighth book, published in 1979, and is an autobiography covering her childhood up until he mothers death when Dervla was 35, and she was able to fulfill her very long-term wish to cycle to India.
As anyone who has read Murphy's travel books will know, she writes honestly, shares he flaws, and doesn't shy from the hard parts. Her childhood in Lismore, Ireland contains almost nothing orthodox - her family, their lifestyle and lack of wider family bonds, their approach to religion, her mothers medical condition, her complex relationship her parents, her education (by homeschool, then boarding school), her leaving boarding school to nurse her invalid mother.
It is easy to take the view that Murphy wasn't a nice child. She was argumentative, obstinate, but also contained an intelligence (or perhaps just knowledge) beyond her years. This was partly due to her mother never hiding things from her, being forward with knowledge, and also that Murphy didn't have many childhood friendships. She was almost certainly an odd child. Other reviewer's have indicated that made her unlikable - perhaps, but it is the formative time, and her childhood surely made her what she became in her travels - incredibly strong-willed, determined and fearless. Of course it also made her often abrupt, judgemental and sometimes obnoxious, but what I like about her is that she doesn't pretend that these are not a part of her. She always shares / writes about her journeys in an honest way even when it is not flattering.
This is a relatively short book - around 230 pages, and it is not a long read. There were a few patches where it lacked a little vigor and my attention waned, but not for too long. I can't say that it interested me as much as her travel books, but it fills some gaps as to why she comes across certain ways in her books. As usual I got a kick out of the places in Dublin she mentioned which I recognised!
For me 3.5 stars. Rounded down.
