Cathedrals of the Flesh
My Search for the Perfect Bath
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
'A lot of books make you feel dirty. This one makes you wish you were clean' Guardian
'Who cares about home when you can steam with Finns and soak with Japanese, while consorting with Belgian art dealers and Romanian prostitutes? ... beautifully written' Sunday Times
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People journey to Greece for the ruins, Turkey for the Hagia Sophia, and Russia for St. Peter's, but Alexia Brue travels with a different itinerary: to visit the baths. What starts off as an innocent vacation quickly becomes an obsession, as the author ventures to Turkey, Greece, Russia, Finland, and Japan to sample the range of bathing traditions the world has to offer.
Caught up in the tide of travel and exploration and crossing paths with fellow travellers along the way, Alexia drifts further and further away from the life she left behind in New York City. Hoping to find a thriving local bath scene, she dips into hamams, banyas, saunas, and onsen, finding both disappointment and bliss.
At once deeply personal and highly informative, full of intimacies, discoveries, and unexpected twists, CATHEDRALS OF THE FLESH is the candid and playful account of one woman's determination to follow her passion, ultimately inspiring readers to do the same.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Originally undertaken as research for setting up a Turkish bath business in New York City, journalist Brue's project revealed that her cultural curiosity was greater than her entrepreneurial drive. At first, the book hews too closely to the genesis of Brue's endeavor as the opening chapters, about her initiation at various Parisian baths and her first forays in Turkey, are overshadowed by the urge to take notes for the business. But then there's a trip to Greece to visit ancient thermae a fine excuse to meditate on the centrality of baths to classical culture followed by an amusing stay in Russia, where skillful flogging at scorching banyas proves suffering can still be a cultivated art. It's then on to Finland and Japan, where it's clear this has become a cultural inquiry, not a business research project. Brue, who's bold enough to wander abroad speaking a bare handful of polite phrases, does get herself into the proverbial hot water on occasion mistakenly stripping naked for a Japanese mixed sex bath, for example but with humor and good attitude she manages to learn even from her faux pas. Her style is delightfully informal, packing in a lot of (admittedly esoteric) information, e.g., what's the physiological effect of birch twig beatings? "What sicko" invented the Japanese electric bath? And who knew how popular breast implants are with young Russian women, or that they have their pubic hair waxed down to a Mohawk? Better her than me, many readers may be muttering, but isn't that the point of armchair travel?
