Volume 28, Number 21 & 22 · January 21, 1982
Now, Voyager
By Jonathan Raban
Halfway Around the World: An Improbable Journey
by Gavin Young
Random House, 473 pp., $16.50
Halfway Around the World tells two tales in parallel. The first is the official story, of Mr. Young's adventures on and off the high seas as he tried to make his way by cargo boat, launch, and ferry from Piraeus to Canton. The second story (just as engrossing) is about his adventures (almost as hazardous) with the travel book as a literary form. The two intertwine to make a vivid, flawed, revealing book whose botches and lacunae are as interesting as its flights of brilliance.
Review, 2441 words
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