Customer Reviews

The Tattooed Map

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

If you are interested in journal keeping, travel, art, photography, languages, people watching, collecting, or Nick Bantock, then this book is for you. Do yourself a favor, mark out a quiet time to sit down with this book and don't get up until you have finished it. It's wonderful, I loved it!!

...as someone who lives in Morocco, I found this little mystery a wonderful snapshot into this deep and sometimes closed culture. If you plan on visiting this special part of the African continent then I'd suggest you add it to your list of pre-arrival reading materials.

i was very excited to read the book. it was recommended as another author that is similar to nick bantock. also, it was about morocco and i am interested in travelling to morroco. in fact, i'm currently planning a trip in the fall.

the story started out interestingly enough with the heroine, lydia, and her travelling companion, chris describing themselves and their journey to and within morroco. the story was written in a journal entry fashion with collected material pasted along the side. i don't want to say too much about the story content for those who are interested in purchasing the book but i can tell you that the book does begin interesting and then lures you bit by bit and slowly with exotic mystery and intrigue. and then it snatches you with a sudden turn and you're left with excitement, thrill, and a bigger mystery. at least that was how i felt. the book almost had me at the edge of my seat. in fact, i didn't want to put the book down - i wanted to find out what happened, or what's going to happen.

well, to say the least, i was disappointed when i finished the book. the story began to lose interest for me after chris had taken over the journal - for reasons i won't give away for those who are still interested in purchasing the book. and the ending was just a horrible cliff hanger. maybe that was the author's intention - if it was, i was very disappointed.

also, this book is in no way comparative with nick bantock. his stories are more sophisticated and the sense of mystery and fascination is very well captured in his words. also, graphically, nick bantock is just amazing. although the art work is in 2-D, it feels 3 dimensional. i love his use of layers and materials in his graphic composition to create that extra depth in the story telling.

With ingenious artwork evoking the color and drama of the Orient, and with moody black and white photography, Barbara Hodgson's book oozes atmosphere and draws the reader into an interesting, but undramatic travelogue in Morocco by two disparate friends and former lovers.

But the tattooed map appearing on Lydia's wrist changes everything. It appears Hodgson, a writer whose talent is quite clear, had lots of clever ideas for this book. Too many of them, and the characters - including Allen and Layesh's family - remain undeveloped. There was a wonderful supernatural, time-twisting mystery and thriller on the boil which failed to fire. After Lydia's disappearance Christopher spends an awful lot of time in the library with beautiful old books sorting out red herrings from possible leads and too little happens after that.

Two stars for the artwork because it is an undeniably clever device, adroitly woven into what there is of a story.

An Amazon.com feature led me to this title, and it was a wonderful find. Journal entries make the reader feel like a silent third traveller on this trip; the shapes and textures and colors come as easily to my mind as they did to Lydia's eye. The scraps that Lydia accumulates on her trip through North Africa serve as excellent illustrations of not only the things that she is seeing, but of the way her complex mind processes those images into meanings, much like her photographs and maps.

but the story left us hanging and wasn't very thrilling. I keep expecting to see some good collage & assembalage with a good story - is that too much to ask or impossible to receive?

such a pretty book! if you like the gryphon & sabine series for it's art, you'll appreciate this book, too! a must read before you visit morocco, the desciption of scenery and the scrap-book style pictures make the reader want to jump on a plane to northern africa toute suite! the ending of story left me hanging and wishing it would continue, but the excitment of the main part of the tale and the beauty of the book itself makes The Tattooed Map a worthy purchase, especially as a gift for someone who is a gryphon & sabine fan...they'll love it! I do!!