Customer Reviews

The Traveller's Tree: Island-Hopping Through the Caribbean in the 1940's

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I love Patrick Leigh Fermor. His book "A Time of Gifts" about his travels in the 1930's across Europe mostly walking was what got me interested in travel writing in the first place. And "A TIme of Gifts" is still the best travel book I have ever read.

This is not his best, though since it is Fermor, it is still very, very good. One of the problems is that Fermor is travelling to check off places visited. There is a little of the "If it's Tuesday, I must be in Belgium" frame of mind. Too many islands, in too little time. There are excellent descriptions of a few things like the history of some of the islands and voodoo. But this book lacks the depth of "A Time of Gifts" or "Between the Woods and the Water".

Also, Fermor is travelling with companions rather than alone like the above books. This means that he doesn't meet and get intimately acquainted with the people in the places he visits. When you are travelling with people, you converse with them and bounce ideas off of them rather than the strangers you come in contact with. And the interesting person who might invite you to his home if you were alone won't if you are with a group.

Part of the problem lies with the Caribbean islands themselves. This was a time when there were no cruise ships, tourism or Club Meds. Also, World War II had meant years of no involvement with the wider world.

Anyway, this book read slowly and was not as insightful as Fermor's other books, and I really did not find much other than the history that really seemed to have anything to do with the Caribbean islands I have experienced.

Warning: this book is so good that it will make you want to visit the Caribbean, even if you didn't want to before. Especially noteworthy are the book's detailed descriptions of Haitian voodoo ceremonies.