Equator: A Journey [Hardcover]

Thurston Clarke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1988

Thurston Clarke needed twelve visas to travel along the equator and this book is the culmination of the journey. The countries he travelled through include Borneo, Sumatra, Singapore, Nairobi, Quito, Somalia, tha Maldives and Galapagos and Kenya. It is a mixture of humourous anecdotes and political observations.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From a three-year trip around the world, crisscrossing the equator over three continents, from South America east to Africa, Asia and back to South America via Pacific equatorial islands, Clarke, author of Dirty Money , etc., returned with tales and impressions to delight even the most jaded armchair traveler. In wonderfully evocative prose, he relives his adventures in steaming jungles and in overcrowded, polluted Pacific atolls, some of them WW II battle sites. He traversed primitive villages and teeming cities with slums masked by modern facades and relics of colonial grandeur, and after a narrow escape from being buried alive in an earthquake, he climbed an Andean volcano in a snowstorm. He traveled by river pirogue to visit Albert Schweitzer's hospital and grave at Lambarene, in rattletrap buses and ancient bush taxis driven by speed demons over track-like roads, as well as on unpredictable railroads, and resorted to planes only to cross otherwise impassable terrain or to reach remote islands. Clarke's astute observations on the politics and society of each country visitedsome newly independent or, like Uganda, ruled by a terrorist regimeserve as background for sharply drawn, empathetic portraits of human beings who admittedly interest him more than do fauna and flora. Literary Guild featured alternate.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In 1984 Clarke ( The Last Caravan , Dirty Money ) set out on a three-year trip around the world along the equator. Since there are no direct land routes connecting all the towns on the equator, Clarke had to zigzag north and south to reach specific points. He traveled from South America east to Africa, Asia, and the equatorial Pacific islands, eventually returning to South America. Clarke describes the political, economic, and social conditions in the areas he visited. His colorful, vivid, and witty style brings the people and the places to life. A down-to-earth, compelling work that often shows the more gritty aspects of life. Literary Guild featured alternate. Kathleen Farago, Lakewood P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 463 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (October 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688069010
• ISBN-13: 978-0688069018
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #900,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect travel writing, August 31, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Equator: A Journey (Paperback)

I read this book years ago when it first came out. I keep going back and reading it again. I don't generally enjoy travel writing, but this book is simply one of the best I've ever read. Not just interesting, but witty and interesting, which is something much better.

The kind of book that you regret having read the first time because you'll never get to read it again for the first time!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic and unique, January 28, 2006

By 

Anna Lindgren (Tiburon, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Equator: A Journey (Hardcover)

Though I may be naive, this was a fantastic book. There is something so appealing about following an indiscriminate line while traveling, even if it only highlights the absolute irrelevance of manmade lines and borders that the powers that be have drawn across the globe.

However, this book was not just a cynical statement about those lines; it was a heartfelt and honest tribute to the places and people found along the way. The kindness and compassion which Clarke writes with is not condescending, but genuinely respectful and curious.

Though it was perhaps an unintended consequence of linear travel, the variety and newness (at least to me!) of places he traveled to was outstanding. This is certainly not just another boring, cliché travel book about Tuscan suns and cozy cafes in Paris - it took me to places I'd never understood really existed.

Thank you for this book - I hope to shake your hand someday.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great travel book, July 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Equator: A Journey (Paperback)

Intelligent, insightful, and not at all patronizing of the cultures he visits. He did manage to hit some of the world's hell-holes along the way. The sections on French Guyana and the South Pacific were particularly interesting.