An honest and illuminating study that portrays the process by which the investigation of a continent becomes an examination...
A veteran travel author takes a look at life (especially life for women) in modern Africa.
Jones’s journey began as an idle conversation during a vacation in the mid-1990s: while canoeing on the Zambezi River, she was asked by one of her companions where she wanted to go next and decided then and there to drive across the continent in a variation of the old “Cape-to-Cairo” trek. She returned to the US, collected the necessary equipment (and funds), and began to plot out an itinerary while her fellow traveler Kevin Muggleton, a former soldier now working as a photographer, went back to Britain and bought a used Land Rover. They then met up and traveled together through Europe before boarding a ship bound for Morocco. By this time Jones had learned of the existence of a tribal queen in South Africa who was renowned for her supernatural powers, and her journey began to take on many aspects of a pilgrimage—although, in the best Chaucerian style, it was one that involved many detours and few straight lines. From Morocco, they crossed the Sahara desert into Mauritania, one of Africa’s forgotten countries—a vast, arid region torn by civil war and ethnic hatreds. They survived the desert and traveled south into Nigeria, which was a nightmare of checkpoints—at least 27 in the first few kilometers. Muggleton, obsessed with covering distance, soon began to irritate Jones, who wished to take a more leisurely journey; their sojourn in Zaire tried them even further, as Muggleton came down with malaria, the rivers lacked bridges, and the roads were mostly gulch-deep potholes. In Kenya they parted company, and Jones completed the trip with two African women she had met along the way. Eventually she did meet the queen, who ruled over a greatly diminished territory north of Pretoria and claimed to control the rainfall. By journey’s end, Jones had discovered a kinship with the women of Africa but was happy to return home.
An honest and illuminating study that portrays the process by which the investigation of a continent becomes an examination of the self.Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2001
ISBN: 0-375-40554-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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