Customer Reviews

Equator: A Journey

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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!

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.

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.

This is a difficult book not to like. I was worried at first that Clarke's tour of the equator might be a sort of weak gimmick, but he sticks to his plan only in so far as it helps bring to life the people and the cultures that he visits along the way. This is a very human book, with many stories of lives along the equator that are at once quite finely drawn but still pointing to the larger issues of environmental degradation overpopulation and disease. I think it is this very humanness that prevents it from seeming overly depressing or

A surprisingly human look at a line of longitude. Clarke takes us on a journey along the equator, bringing life to what could be considered just a line on a map. Learn about the people, countries, and history surrounding 0 longitude. A good read

If you like Paul Theroux, you'll like this book. It's a little dated, but still very interesting. The author mixes general cultural, specifics and anecdotes perfectly. Well worth the read.

Although written in a kinder spirit than Paul Theroux's book; The Happy Isles of Oceana,Paddling the Pacific, this is a great account of someone traveling what is quite possibly the hardest area in the world to travel and understand. Criss crossing the Equator as best as he can, impeded only by geopoilitical obstacles and impassible section, he manages to pretty much circumnavigate the globe. And as my favorite writter paul Theroux has pointed out, he finds some very nasty areas along with the occassional jewels. Great travel book.

A fascinating look at one man's journey around the world at (or very close to) the Equator. Clarke takes the reader through obscure countries and tropical cities. His description of the heat is almost worth the price of the book alone. He starts off in French Guiana, with the idea of crossing into Brazil, then heading east to circle the globe, landing in cities closest to the Equator. Problem is, after some 90 pages, he's still in French Guiana, where officials at the remote border crossing, unaccustomed to seeing anyone not from the immediate local area, refuse to let him pass.

Once he escapes French Guiana, however, the book takes off and is at once funny and depressing, a reminder of how tropical countries lag way behind the developed world.