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
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK TO SCREEN
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Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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