Quests
Posted on 28. May, 2024 by Paul Sochaczewski in Books
QUESTS
Searching for Heroes, Scoundrels, Star-Gazers, and a Mermaid Queen
Publishing details
Explorer’s Eye Press
Geneva, Switzerland
© 2024
ISBN: Paperback: 978-2-940573-43-1
ISBN: eBook: 978-2-940573-44-8
274 pages
Prices:
Paperback: $17.95
eBook: $5.95
Note: The book is also available on order from independent booksellers
Description
Quests is a volume of 24 personal adventures pursued over more than 50 years— at times obscure, long-gestating, sentimental, and ridiculous.
Quests don’t have to be cinematic or physical. A quest might be as seemingly low-key as getting a degree, eating escargots in Paris, learning a language, or mastering the art of making puff pastry.
I will never climb K2 or windsurf across the Atlantic. I don’t intend to attempt to “discover” an uncontacted tribe in the Amazon, locate the source of the Nile, or find the Holy Grail.
The true stories included in my book tell of my efforts to:
- Seek out, and meet, a female vampire ghost in Borneo who wanted to follow me home (it’s my own fault)
- Have a close encounter with the Mermaid Queen of Java
- Interview the last elephant hunter of Vietnam
- Travel to meet the humble villager in Laos who captured a precious white elephant that was then hijacked by the country’s ambitious First Lady
- Visit the purported “lost Jews” of an isolated Indonesian island
- Befriend a homeless Hawaiian-wannabe Chinese emperor
- Conduct the first comparative taste tests of civet-dung coffee in Vietnam and Indonesia
- Investigate my family’s history and discover one aunt from Transylvania who told bold, self-serving, perfectly understandable lies about her background
I’d like to know what quests you’ve chosen. Big or small? Distant or close to home? Did you achieve your goal? If not, does it matter?
To read an illustrated article about the writing of Quests, please visit.
Critical praise
“Since the Age of Discovery, Western travelers have sought to disenchant the world, to slay its dragons, undermine its gods and ghosts and rationalize away its mysteries. Quests does the very opposite, engaging other peoples on their own terms and restoring to the world the sense of wonder and magic that they retain and we have lost. Sochaczewski’s Quests is the absorbing tale of one man’s personal odysseys, at once humbling and reveling in the sheer exuberant dottiness of life.”
— Nigel Barley, author of Island of Demons and Coronation Chicken, former curator for Southeast Asia, British Museum
“Full of ‘good heart’ journalism and surprising insights. There is much to be learned from these finely-wrought personal tales of quests in search of … well, just about everything that is mysterious, thought-provoking, exotic, and sometimes just plain bonkers. Sochaczewski doesn’t position this as an autobiography, but this book is a snapshot-album of a life well curated, a blueprint for other would-be idea-explorers who want to finally (it’s never too late) chase the end of the rainbow.”
— David Hallmark, fellow, Linnean Society and Royal Geographical Society, co-author, Alfred Russel Wallace: On the Origins of a Theory
“In the annals of storytelling, from the epics of Homer to the mytho-poetics of modern adventure, one motif stands tall and unwavering — the Hero’s Journey. It is a narrative arc that transcends cultures and time, weaving its way through the fabric of human experience. As a quester of both the physical and metaphysical realms, I find myself drawn to this timeless pattern, not just in the grand adventures of first descents of wild rivers, or first ascents of mountains, but in the everyday quests that shape our lives.
“This is why the new book by Paul Spencer Sochaczewski, Quests: Searching for Heroes, Scoundrels, Star-Gazers, and a Mermaid Queen, is so vital, important, and inspirational.
“The Hero’s Journey, famously elucidated by Joseph Campbell, is a blueprint for transformation and self-discovery. We are all heroes in our own stories, navigating the unknown, confronting challenges, and striving for growth.
“Consider the 24 personal quests presented in Quests, from ghosts to gods, mermaid queens to a purported Lost Tribe of Israel. The hero’s journey is not confined to physical feats or epic battles. It is a journey of the soul, a quest for meaning and purpose in a world fraught with challenges and uncertainties. It is about embracing the full spectrum of human experience — the joy and the sorrow, the triumphs and the setbacks — and emerging stronger and wiser on the other side.
“Quests are reminders that within each of us lies the power to transcend our limitations and shape our own destiny. Let us not discount the importance of the small, everyday quests that define our lives. Let us embrace the hero’s journey in all its forms — from the grand adventures that take us to the farthest reaches of the earth to the quiet moments of introspection that shape our inner landscapes. For in the end, it is not the size or scope of the quest that matters, but the courage and conviction with which we embark upon it.”
— Richard Bangs, author of The Art of Living Dangerously: True Stories from a Life on the Edge, co-founder of Sobek Expeditions, named by Explorersweb as one of the “100 Great Explorers of the Last 100 Years”
“Cosmically curious, Sochaczewski is always a surprising guide into strange encounters and lingering mysteries. If you are interested in stories about the gods, poking into family history, adventuring across the globe or around your living room, you will want to read this book.”
— Thomas Bass, author of The Eudaemonic Pie, The Spy Who Loved Us,
and Return to Fukushima
“Paul Spencer Sochaczewski never travels in straight lines. He goes where his imagination and curiosity lead him, which is to places, people, books, and stories that fill him with wonder. He writes with grace and purpose. The winners are his readers, who in a book such as this one can grasp his fine mind and endless energy to reinterpret the known world.”
— Matthew Stevenson, contributing editor to Harper’s Magazine,
author of Biking with Bismarck
and Donald Trump’s Circus Maximus & Joe Biden’s Excellent Adventure
“Paul Sochaczewski’s latest book, Quests, is personal travel writing of the highest quality — a model of journalistic skill.
“During his purposeful quests over wide swathes of tropical Asia he manages to find, and make sense of a homeless wannabe emperor, a Philippines politician who used love potions to get elected, a man-hating female vampire ghost (who wanted to follow him home), the mermaid queen who is the consort of modern Indonesian sultans, the allure of coffee enhanced by civet droppings, the challenges of being the (almost) last shaman of Malaysian Borneo, and the discipline of training monastic jumping cats in Burma.
“As a diplomat and foreign correspondent working in Asia, I long ago realized how a conventional financial and geopolitical analysis of Southeast Asia could carry me only so far. Writers like Sochaczewski (with twenty books about Asia) have made a major contribution to our understanding of the cultural curry of this important, and ever fascinating, corner of the world. He has a terrier-like tenacity to pursue legends, contacts, and hidden facts in his often decades-long pursuit of quests that surprise, challenge, and delight us. Sochaczewski is blessed with a mind capable of illuminating rarely imagined insights; he sees the world through a startlingly refreshing and insightful prism. He joins a fraternity of skilled chroniclers and explorers, some from the past, like Joseph Conrad, and other more contemporary writers including William Dalrymple and Paul Theroux.”
— James Clad, author of Behind the Myth: Business, Money, and Power in Southeast Asia, co-author of After the Crusade: American Foreign Policy for the Post-Superpower Age, former staff correspondent Far Eastern Economic Review, former United States deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia
“Paul Sochaczewski is a remarkable traveller, exploring exotic places and discovering memorable, unheralded people. In this latest recounting of his fascinating physical and mental journeys, he combines his particular insights of worldly wisdom with sardonic humor about life’s absurdities. A most enjoyable and challenging book, a wonderful voyage with a very special guide.”
— Daniel Warner, author of An Ethic of Responsibility in International Relations
“An important ingredient of happiness can be a sense of purpose — of having a goal and setting out to achieve it. Paul Sochaczewski employs the useful term ‘quests’ for such enterprises, and in this book, he documents a few of his own, exotic, often fascinating, sometimes bordering on the fantastical. All are recounted in lively fashion. His accounts encourage you the reader to break out of your usual patterns and set out on your own quests for illumination and adventure. This could well make a difference to your life.”
— Richard Stevens, former chair of Association for Humanistic Psychology, author of Understanding the Self and Personal Worlds,
lead psychologist for BBC TV’s Making Slough Happy
“Quests is a new kind of guidebook for the adventure-seeking traveler with a mission.
“People travel for various reasons. Some seek to soak up the sun and sip cocktails by the pool, others to tick-off famous sights like Angkor Wat, while others are happy to wander like an aimless leaf in the wind and ‘see what happens.’
“But Paul Sochaczewski is an inspirational example of those curious people who travel with a purpose.
“In his latest book, Sochaczewski calls these goal-oriented adventures ‘quests.’ He sets out to investigate mysteries that may seem too distant, too complex, too esoteric for many of us. I recommend the clear-eyed voyager reads Quests to inspire a richer and more fulfilling personal travel experience.”
— Bill Dalton, author of Indonesia Handbook,
founder of the Moonbooks travel guide series