Customer Reviews

Lost World of the Kalahari

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This was a wonderful book. Although, at times the author brought down the pensive, spiritual level with his complaints regarding the practical complications of his expedition, overall, this book is extremely moving. The only way you could get a better idea of life in the Kalahari is by going there yourself; he describes, in beautiful, vivid language, the plant and animal life of the desert, the variety of cultures, and the consequences of the European settlement. The book unravels like a mystery, with the mysterious Bushman always lingering just out of reach, a figure between reality and legend.

I enjoyed this book immensely. It really stirred and awakened my imagination. At the time, I was planning a trip to Southern Africa, and after reading his book, the Kalahari desert became a must see for me. As well as the Victoria Falls Hotel in Zimbabwe which Laurens Van Der Post mentions in his book, as the place where he joined the other explorers before and after his trips. Great historical book. Excellent vivid and vibrant descriptions of the desert and the bushman. I also recommend "The Cry of the Kalahari" by Mark and Delia Owens.

An older friend of mine met Laurens Van der Post in Australia and described him as "a wonderful man." A large part of the joy of reading "Kalahari," his best-known book, comes from the experience of his transparent honesty and honest heart. His writing style is as wonderful as the man was--unpretentious, without "side," and ever positive and life-affirming. Van der Post did a fine service in revealing how trivial and unconnected our modern traits of cynicism and meaninglessness appear before the Bushmen's selfless creed. This is one of the great books of pilgrimage.

I stayed up until three AM reading this book. It's both gripping, informative and inspiring. Van Der Post starts out telling us about the wild Bushman, untamed or corrupted by civilization, almost extinct in his time, certainly gone by now. Then he regales us with a wonderful story about his expedition into the deepest dessert areas of the Kalahari to find the last living indigenous Bushmen. There is magic in this book, in the panoramic, images he paints of nature scenes and spiritual moments of insight and mystic wonder. Part of the goal of the expedition was to create a documentary for BBC. I'd love to find a copy of that to view. The mixture of the gritty reality of mounting and carrying out a real safari expedition, blended with the wonder and surprise the author shares makes this a very special book. We have so much to learn from history's lost indigenous cultures. Books like these help remind us of the different, incredible ways one can be human. If you like this, you will most certainly also like Original Wisdom, by Robert Wolff.

Anyone who is thinking about reading this book should
know that VDP was a major BS artist. Very good at it too,
was a friend of royalty and also Jung. If you can find it,
read J.D.F. Jones "Storyteller: The Lives of Laurens Van
Der Post". VDP was constantly reinventing himself. Many
of his stories about everything from his war record to
his Bushman connections were exaggerated or just plain
invented. People loved to hear this stuff about the great
white hunter, the ancient heart of Africa, blah blah blah.
To his credit, he did oppose apartheid.

If you want an readable book on the Bushmen, try Elizabeth
Marshall Thomas' "The Harmless People". At least she actually
knew them!

BTW The film is called "The Lost World of the Kalahari",
BBC 1958. Don't know if you can get it on video. A better bet
would be "Kalahari Desert People", by John Marshall.

van der Post has put his soul into the making of every sentence of this beautiful book. His words are polished to the un-self-conscious ornateness of patterns of rock burnished by wind.

Even if Spode were half as odious as the author portrays him, he would be a real pain to deal with. What van der Post does not seem to realize, though, is the necessity of this counterpoise; if he had not existed, it would have been necessary to invent him. Spode's sourness sweetens van der Post's aim.

The book overpowers as a sunrise does. You may shut your eyes or turn away, but there are rich beauties to savor. My only regret is the lack of photographs.

Laurens van der Post is frequently and correctly cited for his effusive language and exaggerations, but this account of the Bushmen and their environs is fairly close to the truth and makes great reading. I ordered this copy to replace the one I lent to my professor of African Studies at the Air Force War College (which he kept). He thought it was one of the best expositions of the life and circumstances of the bushmen and based on my limited knowledge from classwork on the subject it seems to be on target.

It has been twenty years since I read this book, but it left a strong impression on me for its beautiful writing and images. In spite of what the one Amazon reviewer said, I would still recommend the book for its adventure and wonder, even if it is not an entirely true story. Just keep in mind that it might have a big dash of fiction. In a strange way, though, it makes the book even more interesting.

The one Amazon reviewer said, "Anyone who is thinking about reading this book should know that VDP was a major BS artist. Very good at it too, was a friend of royalty and also Jung. If you can find it, read J.D.F. Jones "Storyteller: The Lives of Laurens Van Der Post". To his credit, he did oppose apartheid."

Behind any book, there is often a very strange reality.

While he may have a nice command of the English language, and certainly shows talent in his imaginitive descriptions, this book is not about the Kalahari Bushmen. It's like the author needed a topic, and chose the bushman, so he could have a legitimate vessel to spew his philosophies and insights into the world. Does he truly care about the bushman? Half the book's story felt like it was just an excuse to talk about how the author is an outstanding person: fair, rational, logical, intuitive, expert marksman, friend, compassionate; then he also goes off for pages that are seemingly dedicated to demonizing one of the expedition's members, it's like Van Der Post was still holding a grudge from their trip, and somehow had to vent his anger and prove to everyone that he was "in the right".

I wouldn't recommend this to someone interested in learning more about ancient cultures or the Kalahari bushmen; I also wouldn't recommend it to someone looking for a book about adventure. While I'm not unhappy I read this book, I do feel like I could have read something with more substance. What I gained from this book is the experience of having read something I truly didn't care for. You know how people talk about not being able to put a book down? I had a hard time picking this one back up...

There's gotta be something better on the subject. This book isn't even that memorable of a spiritual journey; the books by Carlos Castaneda, the first few in the Don Juan series -- this is what I'd recommend for a "spiritual" journey.

Well-written and accurate, Laurens managed to meet one of the last truly "wild" bushman groups before this amazing people became overwhelmed by modern "civilization" (to understand how they were ten years before and 20 years after Laurens' visit, I recommend "The Harmless People"). By the time anthropologists and, later, dna-scientists became fascinated by Bushmen, they could no longer hunt as they could when Laurens visited them. Laurens describes the Bushmen and their way of life with intimate care, relating to them as one human being to another. Not like a scientist studying an "object". He is also a good writer, for example when he describes the eland-hunt. I loved to read this book while travelling through Southern Africa. Especially for travellers to Okavango & surroundings, this is a must-read.