Volume 27, Number 6 · April 17, 1980
Getting Away From It All
By Tamar Jacoby
The Old Patagonian Express
by Paul Theroux
Houghton Mifflin, 404 pp., $11.95
Arabia: A Journey Through the Labyrinth
by Jonathan Raban
Simon & Schuster, 344 pp., $11.95
African Calliope
by Edward Hoagland
Random House, 239 pp., $10.00
Most people who write about travel know the temptation to pass off, as a description of the place they are visiting, an account of another place it reminds them of—either home or another foreign spot, rarely more than superficially similar. In The Old Patagonian Express Paul Theroux describes passing through an Indian village in Peru with a group of American tourists. Each of them sees something different in the ancient stonework—Wyoming, Maine, Indiana, Ecuador, Africa, and Florence; but not one seems to look carefully at the Inca town. Driving in the sand dunes along the Persian Gulf, Jonathan Raban confesses in Arabia: A Journey Through the Labyrinth, he half-imagines that the rusty tin cans blowing across the desert are rabbits scurrying across an English country lane.
Review, 3142 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |