Between Extremes [Paperback]

Brian Keenan (Author), John McCarthy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000

For four years, Brian Keenan and John McCarthy were incarcerated in a Lebanese dungeon. From the blank outlook of a tiny cell, with just each other and a few volumes of an ancient American encyclopaedia to sustain them, they could only wander the wide open spaces of their imagination. To displace the ugly confines of their existence, they imagined walking in the High Andes and across the wastes of Patagonia. Five years after their release, Brian and John chose to travel together again to see how the reality of Chile matched their imagination and to revisit their past experiences. Between Extremes is the story of that journey.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The authors, who spent four years in a Beirut prison together, wrote separate accounts of their shared incarceration: Irish poet and writer Keenan published Evil Cradling and British journalist McCarthy (with Jill Morrell), Some Other Rainbow. With nothing but old American encyclopedias to distract them from their boredom and suffering, they dreamed of travel. Years later, they fulfilled this dream by journeying to the "long skinny," geographically extreme land of Chile. The result is this joint travel memoir, told in alternating voices and filled with both humor and surprises. Traveling southward from Arica to Tierra del Fuego, they provide vivid descriptions of stark geographic contrasts: deserts by the sea, flamingos on salt flats, geysers, "lunar" landscapes, and gigantic volcanic mountains. As the acrophobic authors traverse the Andes by horseback, ascending and descending narrow paths and hairpin curves from Death Ridge to Mal Paso, armchair travelers will experience sheer terror. Recommended for public libraries. Margaret W. Norton, Oak Park, IL
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

For four years Brian Keenan and John McCarthy were incarcerated in a Lebanese dungeon. To displace the ugly confines of their existence, they imagined walking in the High Andes and across the wastes of Patagonia. Five years after their release, they undertook the journey together to see how the reality of Chile matched their imaginations and to revisit their past experiences. Between Extremes is the moving and amusing story of that journey.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 419 pages
• Publisher: Transworld Publishers (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0552145955
• ISBN-13: 978-0552145954
• Product Dimensions: 1 x 5.2 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,096,135 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #30 in Books > Travel > Middle East > Lebanon

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Pleasure and Pain of Chile, July 2, 2006

By 

BettyLou (NZer, in Chile) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Between Extremes (Paperback)

I found this a funny, emotional, fantastic and honest description of a unique country. I have lived and worked in Chile now for 8 months and similar to the style of the two mens writing; (of Chile) I love it and loath it. It is not an optimistic over the top view of all things amazing and beautiful about Chile, and for this, I feel it is more real and honest. As they say, there are things that disappointed and annoyed them about Chile and the people, yet so many times things that happily exceeded any of their expectations. Which is exactly my sentiments about Chile and their people. At times the two writers do seem emotionally overdescriptive, dragging on about how they dreamed it would be and how Neruda described is beloved country, or how their minds were blown by something seemingly unimportant. But again, the amount of times I find I can't pinpoint well enough why these seemingly minor things move me so much, these two rather differently styled writers have perfectly articulated my sentiments.

Different strokes for different folks. Just as I understand why some people wouldn't/don't like Chile and others who would rave about it. I can see some people loving this book and others not.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A bit unsatisfactory,, September 14, 2007

By 

Hugh Claffey (Co. Kildare Ireland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Between Extremes (Paperback)

The authors - one English, one Irish - have a certain celebrity status, having been kidnap victims in Lebanon in the late eighties. This was the reason I bought the book, I probably won't have bought the book for its content alone. The central conceit of the book is that, while in Lebanon, they had imagined the landscape of Patagonia and this had kept them going. The book is a description of their actual journey through Chile to Patagonia, its delights and disappointments, with some stray reflections on their captivity and the comradeship which it induced in them. From what I knew of them before I read the book John McCarthy is a quick-witted Englishman from whom I would have expected many jokes, but not much insight, while Brian Keenan seemed to me to be quite reflective and serious.
The journey starts in Northern Chile, a barren region, with significant mining interests and border tensions with Peru. The book consists of intertwined pieces from each man's journal - sometimes describing the same incident; its possible to get some idea of each personality from the contrasts between their entries. As expected McCarthy is more straightforwardly descriptive, and he comes across as the organiser, planner of the pair. I warmed to his personality though, as he was both realistic and generous in his descriptions of Keenan, and of his admiration of ,and debt to, his friend. Keenan, on the other hand, I liked less as I read more. Keenan adopts a conceit that he has `spiritual guides' on the journey - one being Bernardo O'Higgins an revolutionary founder of Chile in the 1800's, the other being Pablo Neruda, a famous Twentieth Century Chilean poet , three volumes of whose work Keenan quotes from through the book. I felt his speculations about these `guides' were overdone, it seemed to me that Keenan was trying to affect an intellectual air and the overall tone was contrived. In the flesh, he seemed to snore and swear and be generally disorganised and somewhat boorish, so I thought this was too much of a contrast.
In general, neither man seemed to have warmed to the journey. Keenan seemed the more inspired by Chile, but both journals emphasized the tedium and hardship of the travel arrangements - McCarthy gently emphasized Keenan's snoring. I was quite disappointed that neither man mentioned much about what happened to them in the years after their release; while I could understand their need for privacy, there is the fact that the book is trading on the public's curiosity about them, as much as it is a travel book. They actually mention meeting someone who has read Keenan's book about his captivity, who criticizes him for not putting in a afterword describing how he adjusted on this release, Keenan makes the point that he needs privacy. In particular the campaign to seek John McCarthy's release had been run by his then-girlfriend Jill Morrell, a campaign which lasted five years. Yet there is a silence about this, McCarthy refers to `Anne' periodically, who I presume is his partner now.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars What happened to Chile, the country?, April 3, 2002

By 

E. Capurro (England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Between Extremes (Paperback)

I am a Brit currently living in Chile - and this book was a disappointment to me. It failed miserable to convey the beauty of the country. I felt it was a book more about the friendship of these two man rather than about the country they were exploring.

I found it was a refreshing change to see the different view points of the authors - set out section by section rather then the thoughts of the two mingled together. However - Mr Keenan was annoying the heck out of me by the end of the book. He obviously didn't want to be on this trip. He made miserable reading and I felt sorry for Mr McCarthy and his more upbeat endeavours. Someone should explain to Mr Keenan that Pablo Neruda's poety is worth reading - there is no doubt - but there is so much more to Chile this one man. In addition - he is not the only chilean poet to have achieved international recognition. Gabriel Mistral ring any bells?

This country is incredible - from the driest dessert in the world to the icy ridden south. It is breathtakingly beautiful - it's people so different in each region - the scenery so distinct from north to south. I felt that none of that came across. You should only read this books if you are interested in the friendship of these two men. If you want to know about Chile - there are better books out there - books which convey something of the country and all its people.