Customer Reviews

Handful of Honey

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

 

 

"I return to the camp ... to find that a pair of vultures has come visiting. Enormous, horrible, bald-headed creatures as big as dogs that spread their wings when they see me, but are so sure of themselves that they can't be bothered to fly off ... Their wingspan must be double the span of my arms, their beaks are pointed flesh-ripping tools. My hair stands on end ... Suddenly I can't stand their beadily staring presence. I take a run at them. They still don't fly away, but stump a few lurching feet off on their scaly talons, flapping in slow motion. I try shouting and running combined. Several times. Same effect. Now I am hot and sweaty; the vultures, on the other hand, still look cool and sleek, taking it all in their stride." - Annie Hawes in HANDFUL OF HONEY

Previously, British-born Annie Hawes has written Extra Virgin: A Young Woman Discovers the Italian Riviera, Where Every Month Is Enchanted, Ripe for the Picking and Journey to the South: A Calabrian Homecoming, in which she sequentially finds a home, life and love in Italy's Liguria. All three are engaging, the first two especially so, as Annie has always struck me as a sweetheart.

In HANDFUL OF HONEY, published in 2008 but drawing on the memories of a 1992 journey of discovery, Hawes is off to the south of Algeria to the oasis town of Timimoun with two Frenchmen, Gérard and Guy. Why Timimoun? Because in the Prologue, which flashbacks twenty years to when the teenage Annie was tossed out of Portugal as a political undesirable, Hawes, on the way back to Britain, is given several nights' sanctuary in Paris by a generous family of North African immigrant workers from that exotic place.

The author's 1992 adventure begins with the ferry crossing from Spain to Morocco. After landfall, it's by road along Morocco's Mediterranean coast, across the Algerian border to Algiers, then south-southwest to Timimoun. Deplorably, the book includes no map of the region, however rudimentary. I had to fall back on that standby, Google Maps, to get my bearings. What were Annie and her editor and publisher thinking? Though I at least know where Morocco and Algeria lie on the globe, I'd bet a large percentage of Americans don't have a clue. And, not surprisingly, there are no photos. It's the truly extraordinary travel essay that includes such, and that is rare indeed.

Annie is at her most endearing when describing silly predicaments, as evidenced by her encounters with the intrusive sheep, the two vultures, and a desperate desert gerbil, as well as the small-town North African crowd that becomes menacing when it mistakes her for a Western moocher at the traditional alms distribution at the end of Ramadan. Such instances are reminiscent of her encounter with the garden snake in EXTRA VIRGIN. But what was the North African women's preoccupation with her breasts all about? She never says.

Occasionally, Hawes perhaps spends too much time getting bogged down in discussions relating to the region's political ferment, which apparently is, for all practical purposes, the ideological struggle between the militantly fundamentalist Muslims and those co-religionists of a more relaxed bent. However, her observations about the position of females in those societies are illuminating, and her brief description of the lush palm and plant environment of an oasis leaves one desiring more.

The conclusion to HANDFUL OF HONEY leaves the road wide open for a sequel. I hope she writes it.

Annie Hawes exhibits her usual insight into human nature in this memoir of her trip to North Africa. The culture and inhabitants of the towns and villages that she visited are described with humor and empathy. I enjoyed this book very much and hope she has one in the works about the second half of her trip.

Annie Hawes has become one of my favorite authors. She has an incredible ability to spin a wonderful tale from real life events. In this book she leaves Italy and writes instead of her travels in Morocco and Algeria. Her characters are no less colorful and her travels no less amusing.

There comes a time when I'm reading one of Annie Hawes' books when I realize I'm only holding about half an inch's worth of pages in my right hand -- darn, I'm nearly at the end of the book. Has she written another one yet? Do I have to make do with other authors until her next book comes out?

This book is a delectable series of impressions from a trip Ms. Hawes took in the early 90s to North Africa. I knew nothing about the region and found it as fascinating as she did. Her feeling for what is human-scale and the history of places and customs is mesmerizing. Her descriptions of food are always compelling to me.

Then, as she is about to embark on a trip across the Sahara, we run out of pages. Aiee. Will there be another volume? What happened next? Just as we're getting settled in, the book ends. There's something about her writing that is satisfying in a unique way, her observations or anecdotes she chooses to share.

I found her descriptions of Islamic customs to be fascinating and pertinent given the tidal wave of anti-Islamic media since 9/11/01. US media has certainly never featured any whiff of what Islam is or means, just a scary boogey-man type of entity which Israel would like the US to destroy IMHO. So ANY alternate view would be welcome. That it came from Annie Hawes based on a pre-9/11 trip she took elevates her descriptions and stories above propaganda. It's a fresh point of view for American readers.

She writes of being treated as an "honorary man" since women don't travel by themselves in the region. That leads to some hysterical complications as things unwind, most notably her inadvertantly embarrassing a host who is reduced to his wit's end by her innocent behavior. There's a charm and humor throughout this and her other books that I can't say reminds me of any other writer.

I can only hope that Annie Hawes will continue to write. This book is a joy. One of my favorite modern writers. Definitely worth buying and reading.

Not quite up to par with Annie Hawes other books. To me it had more background information than needed....or, didn't balance enough "story" with the information provided. I felt bogged down in her "information". She's a good writer and that was probably the saving factor for me. I've thoroughly apprecieted and enjoyed her previous books....Extra Virgin, Ripe for the Picking, and Journey to the South. From a bookworm)

This book was published in 2008. As you read it, it becomes clear that it describes a trip taken much earlier. Not until quite near the end is it possible through some basic detective work to discover the date as 1991-1992. What a time for a foreigner to be travelling in Algeria....and hitchhiking!!!!
This is one of the few books (in English) written about being a tourist in Algeria in the last 30 years, so why should I quibble about some ridiculous misinformation (especially about how to tell a Berber from an Arab) in the section set in Morocco.

(except this one). if i was curious about this area of travel (africa), i might have enjoyed it-but all the foreign names and places which i am not curious about put me off. i never finished this book. i hung in as long as i could. if you are curious about morocco, etc, it would be a good read--but silly me i never imagined she would write about anything but good old diano marina in liguria.