Keahey fully understands the art of taking the road less traveled—a solid addition to his body of work.
Veteran journalist and author Keahey (Seeking Sicily: A Cultural Journey Through Myth and Reality in the Heart of the Mediterranean, 2011, etc.) chronicles his sojourns to lightly visited areas of Tuscany.
The author focuses on areas ignored by most travel guides “to avoid writing about the whole of Tuscany, concentrating on the coastal area, its islands, and a handful of inland villages—never straying far from the sea—which Americans seldom seem to visit.” A product of his trips to Tuscany during spring, summer and early fall of 2012, Keahey’s delightful sketches offer alternatives to the standard routes and methods of vacation travel. Rather than a guidebook, Keahey explains his narrative should be the basis for inspired travel—“pick a direction, carry a map so you know how to get back to your resting place each evening, and set out each morning with no agenda.” The author does not list accommodations, restaurants or star attractions (except for a few favorites), encouraging the discovery of simple pleasures found in less-visited environments. In northwest Tuscany, Keahey profiles sculptors whose medium is the fine Carrera marble found in the surrounding area. He deftly recounts the effects of World War II on Italy, and he dusts off the fascinating history of the Etruscans in the south. Though venturing to the many islands off the coast during late summer makes travel a bit more arduous, the rewards prove worthwhile. Writes Keahey: “One benefit of visiting Capraia in August is being able to lie back in a lounge chair and watch the star-filled sky during a Perseid meteor shower.” Of course, this is Italy, so food is a frequent subject. Among other highlights, the author recounts his visit to the town of Lari, “one of Italy’s pasta production centers.”
Keahey fully understands the art of taking the road less traveled—a solid addition to his body of work.Pub Date: July 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-250-02431-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
Occasionally unfocused, but redeems itself by putting a vivid, human face on an unimaginable nightmare.
A ground-level illustration of how the plague ravaged Europe.
For his tenth book, science writer Kelly (Three on the Edge, 1999, etc.) delivers a cultural history of the Black Death based on accounts left by those who witnessed the greatest natural disaster in human history. Spawned somewhere on the steppes of Central Asia, the plague arrived in Europe in 1347, when a Genoese ship carried it to Sicily from a trading post on the Black Sea. Over the next four years, at a time when, as the author notes, “nothing moved faster than the fastest horse,” the disease spread through the entire continent. Eventually, it claimed 25 million lives, one third of the European population. A thermonuclear war would be an equivalent disaster by today's standards, Kelly avers. Much of the narrative depends on the reminiscences of monks, doctors, and other literate people who buried corpses or cared for the sick. As a result, the author has plenty of anecdotes. Common scenes include dogs and children running naked, dirty, and wild through the streets of an empty village, their masters and parents dead; Jews burnt at the stake, scapegoats in a paranoid Christian world; and physicians at the University of Paris consulting the stars to divine cures. These tales give the author opportunities to show Europeans—filthy, malnourished, living in densely packed cities—as easy targets for rats and their plague-bearing fleas. They also allow him to ramble. Kelly has a tendency to lose the trail of the disease in favor of tangents about this or that king, pope, or battle. He returns to his topic only when he shifts to a different country or city in a new chapter, giving the book a haphazard feel. Remarkably, the story ends on a hopeful note. After so many perished, Europe was forced to develop new forms of technology to make up for the labor shortage, laying the groundwork for the modern era.
Occasionally unfocused, but redeems itself by putting a vivid, human face on an unimaginable nightmare.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000692-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2005
A feast for students of ancient history and budding historians of any period.
A delightful new translation of what is widely considered the first work of history and nonfiction.
Herodotus has a wonderful, gossipy style that makes reading these histories more fun than studying the rise of the Persian Empire and its clash with Greece—however, that’s exactly what readers will do in this engaging history, which is full of interesting digressions and asides. Holland (In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire, 2012, etc.), whose lifelong devotion to Herodotus, Thucydides and other classical writers is unquestionable, provides an engaging modern translation. As Holland writes, Herodotus’ “great work is many things—the first example of nonfiction, the text that underlies the entire discipline of history, the most important source of information we have for a vital episode in human affairs—but it is above all a treasure-trove of wonders.” Those just being introduced to the Father of History will agree with the translator’s note that this is “the greatest shaggy-dog story ever written.” Herodotus set out to explore the causes of the Greco-Persian Wars and to explore the inability of East and West to live together. This is as much a world geography and ethnic history as anything else, and Herodotus enumerates social, religious and cultural habits of the vast (known) world, right down to the three mummification options available to Egyptians. This ancient Greek historian could easily be called the father of humor, as well; he irreverently describes events, players and their countless harebrained schemes. Especially enjoyable are his descriptions of the Persians making significant decisions under the influence and then waiting to vote again when sober. The gifts Herodotus gave history are the importance of identifying multiple sources and examining differing views.
A feast for students of ancient history and budding historians of any period.Pub Date: May 19, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-670-02489-6
Page Count: 840
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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