Customer Reviews

The Fearful Void

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

 

 

Moorhouse is masterful in describing his travails traveling across North Africa in the mid-1970's. Reading this, you share his frustrations and occasional joys, see "Timbucktu" thru the eyes of a westerner arriving from the desert on camelback. Highly recommended.

I first came across this book after being entranced by the burning desert of the film Lawrence of Arabia. Many years later while at a study group in Claremont-McKenna College, I was hugely disappointed by the nearby desert in Southern California and was only mildly struck while visiting Las Vegas. But that is another story.

My younger son brought my attention back to this book while researching a project for social studies. Taking it back off my library shelves after so many years, I found myself becoming completely transfixed as I reacquainted myself with his travels across the Sahara.

This certainly is a compelling book not only to a young reader but also to someone treading nervously into middle age. You can almost feel the wind in your face, the sand in your mouth and the smell of the camel as you share the author's arduous journey across most of a continent.

Even now I find the text easy to read and the empathy one develops with the author is a marvellous testament to his powers of communication. At the end of one evening when I finally laid the book to rest, I applauded Moorhouse for his guts and tenacity and his sheer vision required to begin a project like this.

I would highly recommend this book to everyone as one book they should certainly consider reading at least once in their life.