Barnstorming on an Invisible Segway

that's the problem I hoped that a book that purported to be a human history of the Himalayan region would solve for me, giving me access to what, generally, people in this region were up to when the white empires were not looking. And this book is utterly useless on that front

I am sorry to hear it, since I had read an earlier, positive review. (I'm still interested in the Jamaica Kincaid reviewed also therein.) How is it as a book of Himalayan interaction with said white empires?

There's a focus on Monet's very late life here that leaves me with a lot of unanswered questions that I bet other books are practically panting to answer.

May I ask?

Also, weirdly, Peck was Dilly Knox's sister. !!??!!??

She's mentioned in Penelope Fitzgerald's family biography The Knox Brothers (1977), but I don't remember anything about her own writing! I will look for this one. Has it been recently reprinted or was this a library book?