by Levison Wood ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 24, 2016
The author’s intentions are genuine and ambitious, but the result is uninspired.
In a follow-up to his African odyssey (Walking the Nile, 2016), explorer Wood hits the road again on a trans-Asian adventure.
Like his earlier work, this book opens with a bang. In 2001, the author was in Nepal during the Maoist uprising. Just before his scheduled departure, the Crown Prince Dipendra massacred the royal family, plunging the country into chaos, and Wood briefly went into hiding. The author describes this action in the prologue, noting how he was young and broke. The story resumes 14 years later, when his life was decidedly calmer. At this point, Wood lived in London as a published writer with little to prove. Only after much goading from his friend Ash did the author consider another long walk. In contrast to the brutal African wilderness, the Himalayas were majestic and relatively tranquil. Instead of dodging bullets and befriending warlords, Wood met with shamans, villagers, herders, and activists. The desire to explore unfamiliar places is pure and admirable, and Wood is a likable guide. He thoughtfully describes the scenery of places like Tibet, Afghanistan, and Bhutan, and he delves into the basic political problems of Central Asia. Yet many foreigners have trod this region, and Wood’s journey through Pakistan seems less daring after, say, Michael Palin chronicled a similar passage. Given his track record of tenacity and resourcefulness, Wood’s talents seem wasted on such sentimental sightseeing. Most of his prose is dedicated to spiritual rites and friendly chats along the way. The finale feels lackluster, as if he has become bored by his own story. Toward the end, he writes, “ ‘Live in the moment,’ the Dalai Lama had said. ‘Stop concerning yourself with the future.’ ” After so many dramatic experiences, it’s a bit of a letdown. The author certainly deserved a vacation, and fans will appreciate his ongoing travels, but Wood’s skills are too valuable to squander here.
The author’s intentions are genuine and ambitious, but the result is uninspired.Pub Date: May 24, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-35241-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2016
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by Brian Fies illustrated by Brian Fies ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2019
Drawings, words, and a few photos combine to convey the depth of a tragedy that would leave most people dumbstruck.
A new life and book arise from the ashes of a devastating California wildfire.
These days, it seems the fires will never end. They wreaked destruction over central California in the latter months of 2018, dominating headlines for weeks, barely a year after Fies (Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?, 2009) lost nearly everything to the fires that raged through Northern California. The result is a vividly journalistic graphic narrative of resilience in the face of tragedy, an account of recent history that seems timely as ever. “A two-story house full of our lives was a two-foot heap of dead smoking ash,” writes the author about his first return to survey the damage. The matter-of-fact tone of the reportage makes some of the flights of creative imagination seem more extraordinary—particularly a nihilistic, two-page centerpiece of a psychological solar system in which “the fire is our black hole,” and “some veer too near and are drawn into despair, depression, divorce, even suicide,” while “others are gravitationally flung entirely out of our solar system to other cities or states, and never seen again.” Yet the stories that dominate the narrative are those of the survivors, who were part of the community and would be part of whatever community would be built to take its place across the charred landscape. Interspersed with the author’s own account are those from others, many retirees, some suffering from physical or mental afflictions. Each is rendered in a couple pages of text except one from a fellow cartoonist, who draws his own. The project began with an online comic when Fies did the only thing he could as his life was reduced to ash and rubble. More than 3 million readers saw it; this expanded version will hopefully extend its reach.
Drawings, words, and a few photos combine to convey the depth of a tragedy that would leave most people dumbstruck.Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3585-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Abrams ComicArts
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
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by Helen Macdonald ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 3, 2015
Whether you call this a personal story or nature writing, it’s poignant, thoughtful and moving—and likely to become a...
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An inspired, beautiful and absorbing account of a woman battling grief—with a goshawk.
Following the sudden death of her father, Macdonald (History and Philosophy/Cambridge Univ.; Falcon, 2006, etc.) tried staving off deep depression with a unique form of personal therapy: the purchase and training of an English goshawk, which she named Mabel. Although a trained falconer, the author chose a raptor both unfamiliar and unpredictable, a creature of mad confidence that became a means of working against madness. “The hawk was everything I wanted to be: solitary, self-possessed, free from grief, and numb to the hurts of human life,” she writes. As a devotee of birds of prey since girlhood, Macdonald knew the legends and the literature, particularly the cautionary example of The Once and Future King author T.H. White, whose 1951 book The Goshawk details his own painful battle to master his title subject. Macdonald dramatically parallels her own story with White’s, achieving a remarkable imaginative sympathy with the writer, a lonely, tormented homosexual fighting his own sadomasochistic demons. Even as she was learning from White’s mistakes, she found herself very much in his shoes, watching her life fall apart as the painfully slow bonding process with Mabel took over. Just how much do animals and humans have in common? The more Macdonald got to know her, the more Mabel confounded her notions about what the species was supposed to represent. Is a hawk a symbol of might or independence, or is that just our attempt to remake the animal world in our own image? Writing with breathless urgency that only rarely skirts the melodramatic, Macdonald broadens her scope well beyond herself to focus on the antagonism between people and the environment.
Whether you call this a personal story or nature writing, it’s poignant, thoughtful and moving—and likely to become a classic in either genre.Pub Date: March 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0802123411
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Grove
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
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