Less travel book and more reportage as Theroux engages with the problems of race in America’s south. There’s real insight into the systemic problems that mean many poor families struggle to survive. Theroux talks to farmers, social workers, pastors and authors – all the while debunking some of the myths of the south. Anyone interested… Read More
Category: North America
In 1947, French philosopher, novelist and feminist Simone de Beauvoir left her native Paris and spent four months in the United States. She had never been to the US before, and as she travelled from coast to coast she kept a diary. Re-published in English 50 years later it offers a fascinating view of America… Read More
I like this book. Partly, it’s true, because it brings back memories – uncomfortable and chuckling alike – of my own Greyhound exploits. But mostly because it is so simple. It is a straightforward unpretentious account of a middle-aged American expat travelling across the US in that most democratic of vehicles: a bus. A quick… Read More
I’m not a nautical person; and I had worries early on in this book that it would be too technical, and too boring for me. I was very wrong. Severin’s attempt to prove that Irish monk Brendan could have crossed the Atlantic in the 6th Century in what amounts to little more than a leather… Read More