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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A journal for two,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Tattooed Map (Hardcover)
I chose this book at random in the library; one of
my favorite habits. This time, I was delighted with my find. Lydia's account of their travels through mysterious Northern Africa soon suck you in. As Christopher and Lydia are characterized, you identify with the traveler that you are; overplanned, with schedules coming out your ears, or laid-back, assuming that the plans will turn out all right.
I'm not going to bore you with a synopsis of the book; you can find that on the flap. What I do want to tell you about is the feeling of this book. It's an amazing adventure; you follow Lydia until she disappears, not fully understanding what's happening to her. In the second half of the journal, as Christopher tries to find out where Lydia went, the reader too is making discoveries with him. The last few pages will leave you breathless (how cliched, I know) with the parallels between Christopher and Lydia, despite their differences. This is a thoroughly creative book, reminiscent of Griffin and Sabine, but with an exotic, Mediterranean flavor.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
alienation and seduction and a disturbing ending,
By Lyle Hodgson (New England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Tattooed Map (Hardcover)
The readers who were disappointed in this book because the ending was not definitive (Jeeykim, Ms. Gaucher) clearly missed Ms Hodgson's (no relation) intentions. More clearly than any other author I have read, she imbued me with what it is like to BE in Morocco, to try to live a nice logical white-woman American life in this alienating yet seductive, poor and yet rich, land of mystery. And then Livia's own body becomes the mystery. The definitive ending which the readers were looking for would defeat Ms Hodgson's well-rounded taste not only for what it is like to travel in Morocco but what it is like to try to make North American sense of this very alien experience. You can't. So the book didn't. The lesson is to discard your North American cultural maps and learn to construct a new one you will use when you immerse yourself, lose yourself, as Livia was lost to those of us who don't have the map. Livia developed the map -- and developed the ability to be part of the mystery, not the mystified.This is one of my favorite books, part mystery and part travelogue and part work of art: it is beautifully constructed. It is a book to be savored, like fine foreign chocolate, or a savory foreign dish which you know you could never divine what the herbs and spices, let alone the meat, in it are. I never wanted to go to Morocco before I read The Tattooed Map, but it's been near the top of my list ever since I did.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Great atmosphere, ok art, not much plot,
By
This review is from: The Tattooed Map (Hardcover)
They tried to make it look like a real journal by including handwritten calculations and lists but then the rest of it was typed which destroyed the realism of it being a journal. The art is nothing compared to Bantock's.The story could have been interesting but you're totally left hanging with no explanation at the end. The Morocan atmosphere was a great setting and the writing wasn't bad but that can't make up for its short comings as a story.
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