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Sto caricando le informazioni... Wild Coast: Travels on South America's Untamed Edge (2011)di John Gimlette
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. Superb travel book ( ) I am a traveler, and was thrilled to find a book about a part of the world that is rarely written about. My expectation with this book was to really get a sense of the three countries - the culture, a little history, the people...and some reasons to follow the author's lead in visiting them. So I guess I was using Gimlette as an advance team. To his credit he did a very nicely detailed job, it's clear that he spent the time and did his homework. That said, there's something about his style that doesn't compel me. With Theroux it's a love/ hate relationship...I'm always intrigued, am often irritated with his perspectives, am surprised by my agreement, and almost always want to take the same journey to see how I feel about it. With Bryson I laugh, I am satisfied that he has done his homework, and I want to go and meet the people he has met. With Gimlette, though, I found myself not wanting to do any of those things. What comes across as detailed, yeoman-like reporting really turns into a long slog through some apparently god-forsaken places. There is little to no humor. Anecdotes and compelling storylines are absent, and what we're left with is reporting and cold travelogue. Perhaps this is not much more than "Joe Friday's" trip report. I am sorry for being so critical, yet the more I think about it the less compelling the book is to me. Perhaps, though, as Gimlette illustrates, these three countries really are god-forsaken messes. I suppose I will have to go and see for myself, and for that I thank Gimlette. I have come to expect intriguing and humorous works from John Gimlette, and "Wild Coast" didn't let me down. I have been a fan of Gimlette since picking up "Tomb of the Inflatable Pig" some years ago and "Wild Coast" could be his best year. Gimlette takes us on a journey through Guyana, Surinam and French Guiana, introducing us to its people, its dark history and its uncertain future. To most people, the most one knows of the three countries is that Guyana is part of the West Indies cricket team (and the location of the Jamestown massacre), Surinam won a gold medal in swimming at the 1984 Olympics and French Guiana has a rocket launching site. This book gives you so much more. And, yes, the book has increased my desire to visit these countries even more.
a narrative that sounds as if it had been penned by an Edwardian explorer—you can almost envision his pith helmet—but also by crafting a superb travelers' tale in which yesterday has far more ballast and heft than the fleeting happenings of today. Premi e riconoscimenti
Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana are among the least-known places in South America: nine hundred miles of muddy coastline giving way to a forest so dense that even today there are virtually no roads through it; a string of rickety coastal towns situated between the mouths of the Orinoco and Amazon Rivers, where living is so difficult that as many Guianese live abroad as in their homelands; an interior of watery, green anarchy where border disputes are often based on ancient Elizabethan maps, where flora and fauna are still being discovered, where thousands of rivers remain mostly impassable. And under the lens of John Gimlette--brilliantly offbeat, irreverent, and canny--these three small countries are among the most wildly intriguing places on earth. On an expedition that will last three months, he takes us deep into a remarkable world of swamp and jungle, from the hideouts of runaway slaves to the vegetation-strangled remnants of penal colonies and forts, from "Little Paris" to a settlement built around a satellite launch pad. He recounts the complicated, often surprisingly bloody, history of the region--including the infamous 1978 cult suicide at Jonestown--and introduces us to its inhabitants: from the world's largest ants to fluorescent purple frogs to head-crushing jaguars; from indigenous tribes who still live by sorcery to descendants of African slaves, Dutch conquerors, Hmong refugees, Irish adventurers, and Scottish outlaws; from high-tech pirates to hapless pioneers for whom this stunning, strangely beautiful world ("a sort of X-rated Garden of Eden") has become home by choice or by force. In Wild Coast, John Gimlette guides us through a fabulously entertaining, eye-opening--and sometimes jaw-dropping--journey. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)918.81History and Geography Geography and Travel Geography of and travel in South America French Guiana; Guyana; Suriname GuyanaClassificazione LCVotoMedia:
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