Customer Reviews

Blue Nile: Ethiopia's River of Magic and Mystery (Adventure Press)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

... when he expressed disappointment about Morrell's constant complaints about the tour guide, Mike Speakes. The book-long litany of criticism for Speakes is what stands out for me - more than the scenery, the people, the history, etc. Morrell suggests that she chose not to address her concerns with Speakes directly out of deference to others in her group. Instead, with the exception of one instance late in the game, she saved all of her venom to share with thousands of readers. I don't know Speakes; I never heard of him before reading this book. I don't know Morrell; I never heard of her before reading her book. I did not read any of the Amazon reviews of the book until after I read the book. What I do know is that Morrell's mean-spirited jibes at Speakes so permeated the story that my opinion of Morrell's character is perhaps as low as she wanted the reader's opinion to be of Speakes.

Virginia is a nice person indeed, as I met her one time in person, but her book is not full of passion for Ethiopia but rather a bashing of the trip leaders, Mike Speaks and Mike Borcik. I know them both as well, and know them to be truly professional boatmen who took it upon themselves to pull this expedition off themselves (with the help of Maurizio Melloni for logistics) and run a safe trip on a river that had nver been run successfully before.

I know this because I am mentioned in the book, as I worked for MTSobek at the time and was the Director of International River Trips during this project. Should Virginia had wanted to run this trip without any liabilities, she should have run the trip herself in innertubes! She was truly a poor sport and completley ungracious for all the effort and work we put into the expedition. She was willing to take unecessary risks and when she could not because of smart and prudent decisions by Speaks, she crie like a baby and turne her disgust into a book that is less than marginal, except for the beautiful photographs which she did not take.

As I mentioned at the beginnins of the review, Virginia is a wonderful person, she just missed the target on this book as well as the expedition.

I have been interested in the River Nile, and particularly the Blue Nile for many years. The history of the Nile, the natural dynamics of the rivers pulses, and the exotic setting of the Blue and White Nile Rivers, are custom made for daydreamers and armchair adventurors. I was excited to find, and then to read Morell's book when I found it through a web search.

The descriptions of the countryside, and the natural resources of the country of Ethiopia are very good, but too limited for one like me who wants to know so much more about the geology, the soils, and the vegetation of the country. This is perhaps understandable, given the author's greater interest in anthropological resources as opposed to natural resources.

The photos accompanying the text, mostly if not all by Nevada Wier, are excellent, and help place the reader in the context of the arduous journey.

Descriptions by the author of the interactions with many groups and individuals along the 500 mile + trek are most interesting. These descriptions extend to the reader a very good mental picture of the sounds, sights, and smells of rural Ethiopia.

Unfortunatley, the author injected personal opinion and personality bias concerning the leader of the expedition, Mike Speaks. Having done so, the author, perhaps unwittingly, significantly dimishied the quality of her own accomplishments.

The Blue Nile is a perfectly told travel adventure by a smart, interesting person who writes with complete honesty and empathy. Reading her book is like sitting down with a fascinating friend who tells of her experience in details that make you see what she saw and feel what she felt, with the political history of Ethiopia put into context. Morell is observant, insightful, and open-hearted. Especially for those of us less adventurous types, Morell brings the experience of traversing the rarely travelled path along the Blue Nile right to us. She is a thoroughly engaging travel companion. Her book inspires understanding of a culture and place quite distant to most of us. I love her clear, intelligent writing.

The one star this book earns is due to its wonderful photographs of the Ethiopian people and their land taken by photographer Nevada. The story line written by Morell earns no stars in this reader's opinion.

The main weakness of the narrative is the paucity of descriptions of the Ethiopian people, the river and its majesty. Instead, the story-line focuses on the group's dynamics. This reader found these descriptions to be mean-spirited distractions to what could have been an interesting and important book.

That strangers thrown together in close quarters for a month get on each others' nerves is not surprising. What is surprising is that a person with Morell's fragile sensibilities was chosen to participate. Instead of feeling privileged for this unique experience, the author uses this book as a bully pulpit to denigrate those who took control and kept her safe during an arduous journey.

Morell's most vitriolic diatribe is reserved for the lead boatman--the person primarily responsible for the safety of the group, including equipment, food and people. The author shows no insight into the possible stress this measure of responsibility may induce. Yet, from her own description, the head boatman maintains his professionalism throughout the journey despite her admittedly undisguised negativity.

Over time, the author describes the lead boatman as athletic, keen-sighted, professionally competent, brave and flexible; yet, her view of him does not change. Even though she chooses to ride with him each day because of his keen ability to spot wildlife, the author cannot bring herself to integrate these positive traits into her initial perception of him.

Not only does Morell show a lack of insight into her own issues of power and control, she also lacks the grace to keep them to herself. Near the end of the journey, instead of showing some regard for this man who kept the whole group safe while running rapids, battling crocs, protecting the food and supplies from bandits, keeping the rafts intact and afloat, and finding safe campsites that minimally impacted the environment, Morell describes having an uncontrolled tantrum. Despite getting no support from the group, she still gains no insight into her own narcissism. Unfortunately, the book ends with no resolution to her rancor. Instead, it ends with the author oblivious to the fact that, due to the skills of the boatman she continues to despise, she survived a journey that many before her had not.

This is one of those books where you read it, and while it's about what you think it's about, it's also about something that's really surprising. The main part of the book is predictably about what the title and introduction says it's about: an account of an expedition into the heart of Ethiopia, to travel down the length of the river known as the Blue Nile, which spans the Northern portion of that country. They left the river at the border with the neighboring nation of Sudan.

Given the subject, the book is of course about people to a large extent. The author meets and enjoys the company of many Ethiopians, and they are lovingly described in these pages. The author appears to have a strong affinity for the nation of Ethiopia, and at least a rudimentary knowledge of the various tribes that make up the population. She even speaks a little of the majority language.

So what's the downside of tbe book? Well, when it starts, the expedition leader is a guy named Conrad Hirsh. Your first hint that this isn't going to work out comes when you remember the name, turn back to the beginning, and see that it's dedicated to his memory. Before they even got started, he fell ill and had to back out of his part of the expedition. Instead, someone else took over, and that's where the problems began. The replacement, a guy named Mike Speaks, sounds like he's from the militant wing of Greenpeace, constantly giving orders and insisting they be followed to the letter. While you can understand something of this attitude--rafting down this river had *never* been done before successfully, and the dangers were real--he also had a series of rather silly attitudes about other things. For instance, he insisted on the Star Trek version of interaction with the Natives: the least amount of contact possible, and especially no trade or charity. If they want things, they should go buy them, but paying them a little bit of money to move bags or whatever was right out.

This turns the book, at times anyway, into a rather petty power struggle between the author, the photographer who was nominally in charge of the expedition, and at times one or two of the other members on the one hand, and the guide and his employees on the other. Speaks especially bickers with them contstantly, trying to control everything and generally making a nuisance of himself (though the author also makes it clear he was a good boatman, and that he handled all of the physical problems during the expedition competently) and trying to push everyone around. While I enjoyed the book, I found this part a bit jarring. I perhaps think I'm grading Mr. Speaks rather than the book, here, but I still didn't enjoy it as much as I otherwise would have.

That being said, there's a lot here that's interesting, and the book is really well-written. Recommended.

I truly found this to be a wonderful book with a far more human and intimate view of Ethiopia: her people and her jewel... The Blue Nile.
From the more mystic/historic background surrounding the still mysterious river... to the individuals and unique stories that live along her banks and canyons. I found Virginia Morell's voyage to be refreshing in its focus... and successful in putting a human face on a country and a people that are soo much more than famine, war and isolated despair.
Truly a wonderful book.

My interest in Ethiopia has been piqued recently by my son working on a report about Ethiopia for school and a friend's involvement helping an Ethiopian orphanage which has inspired two trips to help the boys at the orphanage in the last year with a third one planned in the near future. I picked this book up because I have developed an interest in reading travelogues, and really enjoyed the last National Geographic book I read to my kids, _George Washington, Spymaster: How the Americans Outspied the British and Won the Revolutionary War_.

The first part of the book, which focuses mainly on Ethiopian history, the history of Blue Nile expeditions and her personal history in Ethopia is excellent. Her description of the team members is brief in the beginning and really, the only members who receive focused attention are Mr. Speaks, the leader of the tour guides and their main interpreter, Zelalem. Once the trip begins, the narrative becomes more disjointed. The trip barely begines and Ms. Morell speaks of a "daily routine," making me wonder if I missed something. She doesn't speak much about crocodiles, the primary animal threat to past expeditions, and yet, Mr. Speaks had a bucket full of rocks to throw at the crocs, discouraging them from taking a nibble at their boat. This would seem to indicate that they were more prevalent than her initial account indicated or that Mr. Speaks was always prepared to keep the boats and his passengers safe. On several occasions, it seems as if she skips days or even a week in her account. She seems to bounce from brief descriptions of the flora, fauna and river, to descriptions of the people the team encounters, haphazardly adding interactions with other team members and team illnesses with very little context or follow up. I really enjoyed reading her narratives of the people they met on the Blue Nile and how they viewed the river. The conflict between Ms. Morrel/Nevada and Mike Speaks would have been better left out of the book because it contributes to the disjointed feel of the narrative--yet another thread that is added seeminglingly haphazardly to the story. Even the pictures, as beautiful and wonderful as they are, are thrown in two different places in the book without any real connection to the story.

I think the main problem with the book is found in the beginning chapters when Ms. Morell describes how the trip begins and progresses: The main members of the National Geographich team are trying to squeeze in a project between other projects and have very little time to really plan and communicate their needs to the boat tour operation. The result is that the tour is rushed because of other commitments made by the boat tour company and the boat tour leader doesn't initially understand the purpose of the trip is to both navigate the river AND explore the surrounding area and people until sometime in the middle of the trip. The uneven pace and disconnected narration seems to be a reflection of this. However, even with the faults, I am glad that I read it.

This book read more like a grade school culture capsule than a 500 mile wild river adventure that had never been accomplished before. However it did provide some insight into the Ethiopian culture and some good words to try out on my Ethiopian friends. Virginia Morell came across to me as a bit of a middle aged Drama Queen who was just absolutely overflowing with prattle and contrivance. It seemed to me that Morell rather fancied Captain Speaks and was frustrated that he was a real professional boatman and summarily ignored her attempted manipulations. There was no "Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" on this trip for Virginia. The book tells an even better story about the Author than the Blue Nile.

I am informed that the review appearing on this page by the "reader from Denali" is not Michael Speaks, the chief boatman on the river adventure described in this book. I sincerely regret the error, which was based purely on an assumption, and apologise to Speaks. The review was written by a friend of Speaks who lives in Denali.