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34 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One man's journey..., January 24, 2001
THE PILLARS OF HERCULES by Paul Theroux is a record of one man's journey around the Mediterranean. The journey took several months and included two separate phases. Theroux tells of days of hiking, traveling by train, sailing a night steamer in a storm-tossed sea, and crusing through the sunny Greek islands on a fancy yacht. He travels light with a change or two of clothes in a backpack. He washes his clothes out by hand in the B&B's and cheap hotels he frequents. He grabs meals here and there. Along the way he notes the writers who have passed before him, Robert Groves who lived at Deya with his WHITE GODDESS, Lawrence Durrell who knew Gaul well, the ancients including Herodotus. He stops to talk with living writers and reflect on the conditions of the areas he visits. Theroux has written about his travels in many parts of the world, and though I've read some of his other works, I enjoyed PILLARS the most--probably because I am familiar with some of the places he describes along the coast of the "sea in the midst of the land" and I maintain a connection to the area. Beginning in Cadiz Spain, founded by the Phoenicians 4,000 years ago on the Atlantic--where the real Pillars of Hercules probably existed--Theroux follows the coast from Spain to Italy to the Dalmatian Coast onto Greece the Levant, Egypt and then across North Africa. He relates his pleasure with one of the modern pillars of Hercules--Gibralter--the huge limestone rock jutting from the coast of Spain into the Straights of Trafalgar. Hundreds of British sailors and marines from the Napoleonic Wars are buried on this little spit of land England bought with blood and Spain wishes to reclaim. Theroux takes the train up the Spanish coast, catches a ferry past the islands of Mallorca and Corsica and onto the Italian coast. He continues by train along the Italian coast which he notes becomes progressively more sordid as one travels southward toward Naples. On the Dalmatian Coast, he travels by car (taxi) for a while and notes the thriving stolen automobile business. He passes by the pillboxes built for war and abanoned that now serve as housing for the poor Albanians. He comments on Hoxha's ruthless abuse of the Albanian people. He passes through Thessalonika, an ancient Greek city where hundreds of Jews lived for centuries before the rise of facism in Italy and the creation of the death camps. He leaves the Mediterranean for a while at this point, and when he resumes his journey he is on a yacht to Istanbul--the fabulous port once known to the Romans as Constantinople. Finally, he is on land again, in the Levant, traveling by bus through god-dominated and god-forsaken areas fought over since the dawn of time. On his long trek through Turkey, Lebanon, and other war-torn terrain he notes a huge Crusader fortress that still stands almost a millenium after it's constuction, Palestinian refugees, Israeli roads paved with U.S. taxpayer money, and the grinding poverty on all sides in spite of oil wealth. His journey through the Muslim dominated countries of Western Asia and Northern Africa are difficult and at times dangerous. He skirts Libya and moves onto Tunisia. Theroux's writing is reflective, even sardonic at times. He a critical observer, but not untruthful. Most travel books are designed to advertise the countries, places, cities they describe--and therefore by nature dishonest. Theroux is not selling the places he visits. No, this is not a travel book in the strictest sense, but it is a book for the armchair traveler who wants to know the world a little bit better. Given the ancient history of this area and the relevance of this part of the world this is not a book to be missed.
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by Paul Theroux
by Paul Theroux
by Paul Theroux
by Paul Theroux
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