2 comments about Inventing Paradise: The Greek Journey, 1937-47.

1. An interesting book about Henry Miller/Lawrence Durrill and the "Generation of the Thirties"-Greek poets that include Seferis, and painters such as Ghikas.

   The book is exactly what the NY Times calls it--a combination of literary history/critique, and cultural history. It tries to provide a deep understanding of the poetry from the decade before World War 2. It dispells the notion that Greece only has offered the world Homer & Pericles. Seferis, for example, won the Nobel Prize in Literature.




2. A writer of outstanding repute in all his endeavors (translator, novelist, critic), Keeley has temporarily left aside all that academic stuff to write one of the five most beautiful books I have read in the past twenty years. Greek and Anglo literati like Seferis, Durrell and Miller come alive for us in these pages and special features of their work are examined with new depth. There are also some minor writers who serve as attractive backround to, and greatly enrich, the larger story. In his final paragraphs, Keeley hints that he might have a first person narrative in store for us covering a subsequent generation of philhellene writers. Let's hope he makes good on this almost-promise.

No comments about The Road to Jerusalem: Pilgrimage and Travel in the Age of Discovery (Material Texts).

4 comments about Book of Migrations: Some Passages in Ireland.

1. Rebecca Solnit has a unique ability to bring the nuances of place to the reader's imagination. This account of Solnit's solitary walk across the west of Ireland is at times haunting, beautiful,and wistful, yet I felt it had a tendency to get a bit bogged down in the language of academia and deconstruction. Her interior journeys are as compelling as her geographical ones, however, and anyone who is interested in the landscape of this very unique part of the world will enjoy her tales of the Irish west's land and people.



2. This is one of the best books I have ever read. For anyone who has ever been to Ireland or for that matter travelled anywhere at all this should be a marvelous book to read. I love the way she thinks and writes. If I were as well educated and as articulate as Rebecca Solnit, I would write as she does. In the book one minute I'm in Ireland and then back here in the Bay Area on Mount Burdell. I love the way one subject brings her to another and then on from there. She reminds one that we can be in many different places at once...not only the place where we actually are physically at the moment...but in all the places our minds, memories, hearts and souls have been (and have not actually been) and remember. I am going walking in the West of Ireland in two weeks and this is a book I shall carry with me and read for the third time while I'm there. Thank you Ms. Solnit for the gift of your intellect and your spirit.



3. I found this book to be an excellent read: not only is Ms. Solnit a clear-eyed and perceptive observer, but she's also a good researcher into the historical and personal dimensions of the places she visits, and she generally presents this material very well (although a few times I felt that the background information got between her and what she was seeing). Also, as a native Californian who grew up in the same rural-turning-into-suburban landscape as she did, I found her comments and comparisons very apt; I'm not sure that someone from a different background would find them as relevant, but the material is fascinating and the anecdotes well written. However, I was rather annoyed by the vehemence of her dislike for "New Age types" -- granted, some people who fall under that rubric are easy to scoff at, but in that case I wondered why such a gifted and perceptive writer was wasting her time on cheap shots. Maybe it's that she feels threatened by anyone who doesn't agree with her "political activism is the ONLY way to change the world" viewpoint, in which case I think she needs to examine her own biases! Otherwise, the book is a beautifully written description of the West of Ireland (as a recent visitor to many of the same places, I greatly enjoyed her perspective) as well as a meditation on the nature of travel itself, and I feel it's well worth reading.



4. Solnit knows a lot and wants you to know it too, as well as reminding you that she knows it! The weight of research, speculation, and interpretation she loads upon her ostensible travelogue does make for a dense collection of interrelated essays about her migrations circa 1993. In light of the past decade, her observations that only once in her stint had she seen a "hurried motion" and how the Irish kept their stereotypically casual pace up and flaunted their easygoing nature against the sin of efficiency now make for an epitaph about this vanishing (as is always the case in Ireland's west it seems) way of life--before cellphones, motorways, and yuppies.
   
   She blends her own background, neither Irish nor Jewish but just American, and Marin County Californian at that being a rarified species, into her reflections intelligently. I do sense much of the time that as an intellectual rather than the more usual adventure-based travel writer, she tends to look down her nose at the locals and the blow-ins both due to her more elevated level of education and scholarship. This does not weaken the insights she often makes, but it does cast her as rather a cool customer, rather removed from her environs.
   
   But such distancing and detachment works to her advantage as she resists the stereotypical itinerary. Tellingly, she makes no effort to visit the Aran Islands, an "indigenous cultural reservation" in her estimation; she eschews the touristed haunts. If you like this, try James Charles Roy's "The Back of Beyond" for another American scholar's account a few but momentously altered years later of his days as a tour guide in the same Irish regions.

No comments about Ireland Revisited.

2 comments about Enchanted Ireland.

1. Paul Lay's informative text is a perfect accompaniment to Richard Turpin's stunning, lovely, full color, tour-de-force photographic excursion through the appealing beauty of Ireland's landscape, cities, architecture, and people. Enchanted Ireland is an outstanding compilation of Irish images and a pure celebration of the natural wonder and folk charm of a vibrant people in a land bustling with vigor and cultural legacy. Highly recommended!



2. Having just returned from a 2-week visit to Ireland I was eagerto get my hands on anything related to the places I saw. So, I took alook at several photography books on Ireland and was losing hope of finding the "right" one, when I started flipping through "Enchanted Ireland." I was stunned by the wonderful photographs, and the great range of both landscape and city/town pictures. There are also some beautful people pictures, including--to my astonishment--Paddy, an accordion player and resident of Inishmor, whom I saw on my trip to the Aran Islands. If you're looking for a wide range of photographs and a good idea of what parts of Ireland look like (and they're stunningly beautiful) then this is *the* book to have. You'll want to leave for Ireland tomorrow!

No comments about AAA 2001 Spiral Guide Florence (Aaa Spiral Guides).

2 comments about MTV Ireland (MTV Guides).

1. I recently took a trip to Ireland, specifically Galway, Cork and Dublin areas. This was the only guide book I brought with me and it let me down on several occassions. In Galway we were looking forward to checking out Padraig's Bar since it was listed as one of the best in the area. Too bad no one has ever heard of it and the bar's phone is out of service. I was surprised that the book was off on some things since it was a recent edition - 2006. I wouldn't recommend this guide book. I should have known better since it was funded by MTV.



2. I recall that the "Let's Go" guidebooks for young travelers were started by Ivy Leaguers on summer break. They mix a commendable exposure to culture with practical tips on decent, affordable digs and eats. Their ethos speaks to a generation who combined a budget with a brain. By comparison, the title of MTV perched above all else proves the power of branding for the current demographic. They may not have come out of the Ivy League, however, and from the contents I've perused appear more likely to party all night down the pub, cruise for a genial hook-up, and crash the next day at the recommended hostel.
   
   If you are wanting guidance on pick-up spots, internet cafe rates, gay-friendly hangouts, shopping sprees, or surfing or kayaking, this book, on the other hand, appeals to the young visitor more eager to chat up new friends for a night or a fortnight rather than take in another cathedral's nave or a dull display of a famous writer's scanty memorabilia. It does give helpful advice on ice-breakers for meeting folks in Belfast, how to turn down firmly but gracefully a persistent come-on from the next barstool, or how to tap with a coin your freshly poured pint of Guinness to know when it's best to hoist the glass. Nuggets of such information, often as blue-printed sidebars, make up for the rather mundane layout and lack of pictures. The book opens easily, the type is readable, and stars, "best," and "free" mark particular entries. Specific (a good touch for foreigners) credit card info, URLs, and phone numbers are included.
   
   Unlike many competing guidebooks such as Rough Guide or Lonely Planet, there's no colorful illustrations to leaven the pages of text. Unlike the Moon Handbook (reviewed by me on Amazon), the maps are few and poor in detail. Unlike the Footprint guidebook (also reviewed by me), there is a paucity of attention given cultural or historical contexts. Surprisingly, however, the editing even for Dublin, for example, compresses too much. Only three bookstores are recommended for all of Dublin, while the well-chosen stock (with a generous emphasis on gay topics) at Books Upstairs receives no mention, contrasted with the rather fustier (but still it's often overlooked, and so deserves a mention too) Greene's. The county map at the back endflap is useless, indicating only the borders and 32 county seats. The space could have been used for a decent, if again minimal, highway and major cities and market towns map on this crucial portion of any useful guidebook.
   
   The tone tends towards the glib, no surprise if you watch MTV. This is not a Frommer's (which however spun-off this via a John Wiley distribution with this guide!) for the mature and more affluent tourist, or a Fodor's with its calm recitation of the finer places to lounge and dine. The choices for both horizontal and reclining activities here tend to be ranked as Cheap, Doable, and Splurge, but all for a far more vibrant hipster crowd. Sleeping, Eating, and Partying (Bars/Lounges, Pubs, Clubs, Gay Scene, Live Music, Comedy Clubs, Performance Venues: subheadings in Cork City!), replace the more terse lists of a few pubs or cafes most competitors provide.
   
   Basics, Getting There & Getting Around, Sightseeing, and Road trips from hub cities are featured. This follows a sensible design that I recommend given the reality of how most visitors get to know a corner of the country for a few days. What to do lists if you have a day are also helpful. Maps however, may need to be supplemented by those in other guidebooks, or free maps from tourist offices. I do like, perhaps since the snarky attitude comes as a refreshing if soon annoying antidote to my usual preference in both armchair and actual use of Irish guidebooks, the honesty. The lack of pretense, after all, remains a certifiably native trait.
   
   This would not be my only guidebook, but if you happen to be under 35 or so, or accompanied by younger folks on your visit, I'd give the target demographic a look at this guidebook with an eye towards packing it along. In the rural areas, many counties only earn a handful of sites or towns for detailed mention. This book covers the major cities better but skimps on the market towns and scenic but perhaps half-moribund (for the ravers' tastes) hamlets. It does cover the Aran Islands, yes, but it tells of the boredom that readers with a short attention span may find along with the beauty. Granted, you can tell the younguns to read the appendix, "History 101" that does give a few quick pages to necessary background for even the least scholarly member of your travelling road show to comprehend during the flight over.
   
   I know this is meant for an audience that no previous guidebook has catered fully to, and more power to it if it draws its readers into a more sustained immersion in the craic and the warmth that even tawdry consumerism cannot totally eradicate. We hope. Its persistent lack of depth regarding the Irish heritage (one page total for books, films, and music recommended, and many of these poorly chosen!) can be countered by a Blue Guide at the other archaeological extreme, or the New Age-Celt pilgrim might choose Cary Meehan's Guide to Sacred Ireland (also reviewed by me). Let's Go combines brains with frugality. Footprint & Moon are both commendable one-writer introductions that convey a single sensibility well while exhausting the island; Lonely Planet & Rough Guide stick to the path once less-travelled if no longer off the beaten track, and Fodor's & Frommer's do carry a gravitas that balances the tipsiness in MTV's p-o-v.

No comments about Fodor's See It Ireland, 2nd Edition (Fodor's See It).

No comments about VENETIAN VIEWS, VENETIAN BLINDS.English Fantasies of Venice.(Internationale Forschungen zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft 37) (Internationale ... & Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft).

No comments about Historic Views of London: From the Collection of B.E.C. Howarth-Loomes.