Customer Reviews

In The Land Of Alexander

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This is a fascinating and most curious work, a kind of time-capsule for the study of the period. It is a journal-like report of Hale's travels in 1989 taking him from Vienna to Hungary, south through Yugoslavia, into Greece and then Turkey, and then back to Greece. I read it with great interest as I lived in this part of the world for about 5 years. It was a pleasure to see it again from the eyes of another. But at the same time, we realize that a lot of what he saw and recorded is now no longer; with the collapse of the Soviet system and the renewed independence of the Balkans and Turkey it has all changed. In the 1980's, for example, it was often not easy to cash a traveler's check; now credit cards abound both here and in Greece. So the book has an added attraction as a reminder of where they all were in 1989 and how far they have come.

And in addition, Hale has done his homework and checked the sources so provides a helpful bibliography. He has, I thought curiously, an unusually long section on Rupert Brooke, the Engish poet who died en route to Gallipoli. I later learned that this preceded further scholarly work Hale did in preparing for the publishing of a long-neglected correspondance between Brooke and

J. Strachey. The only caveat I might mention, and it is not a major one, is Hale's seeming hostility to Christianity (at least the Greek Orthodox expression); at one point he calls a religious ceremony "silly" but does not tell us why he felt that. And his editor should blush allowing the rash statement that Hippocrates the famous ancient physician, lived 25,000 years ago (p. 237)! Surely not! But these small points aside, it is a delightful piece of work and a glimpse at a past era so near us.

I've never seen a travel book quite like this one. I enjoyed the adventures and the writer's voice.