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Elizabeth Gilbert
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Broken Spears: A Maasai Journey Hardcover – August 28, 2003

by Elizabeth L. Gilbert (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 16 ratings
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$19.94
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  1. Print length
    192 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Atlantic Monthly Press
  4. Publication date
    August 28, 2003
  5. Dimensions
    9.75 x 0.75 x 13.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0871138409
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0871138408
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An American war photographer based in Nairobi for most of the '90s, Gilbert abandoned the carnage of Rwanda, Somalia and the Sudan in 1998 and set out "to get back to the richness of the land and its heritage." For her, that meant the 5,000-square-mile tribal reserve of the Maasai in Kenya and Tanzania via a four-year sojourn sponsored by Kodak and Corbis, the photo archive owned by Bill Gates. Famous fighters who grace countless "postcards, T-shirts, safari advertisements, and hotel logos" in Africa, the Maasai and their way of life are simultaneously overexposed and subject to "[e]ducation and the demands of a modern economy" that are driving the remaining 400,000 or so members apart. In the text, Gilbert yearns after "something purely African," and her treatment of the Maasai is a mixed bag of nostalgia, understanding, incomprehension, glorification and attempts at cultural relativism that are sorely strained by the "female circumcision" (ritual removal of the clitoris) that is compulsory for Maasai women, as well as other practices. But if one takes the text as secondary, many of the 120 b&w photos and 40 historical illustrations emerge powerfully. Beyond the expected elders sitting proudly for portraits, warriors roaming the plains with spears raised and lion-hunt carnage, Gilbert, with serious reservations, manages to get inside the hut where a woman is "circumcised" (she documents the circumcision of a man as well) and reveals a few emotional chinks in the Maasai armor. While she does not succeed in making their way of life fully comprehensible to outsiders, she does set it in dramatic relief.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Atlantic Monthly Press (August 28, 2003)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0871138409
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0871138408
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.35 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.75 x 0.75 x 13.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 16 ratings

About the author

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Elizabeth Gilbert

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Elizabeth Gilbert is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love, as well as the short story collection, Pilgrims—a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and winner of the 1999 John C. Zacharis First Book Award from Ploughshares. A Pushcart Prize winner and National Magazine Award-nominated journalist, she works as writer-at-large for GQ. Her journalism has been published in Harper's Bazaar, Spin, and The New York Times Magazine, and her stories have appeared in Esquire, Story, and the Paris Review.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
16 global ratings
5 star
63%
4 star
25%
3 star
11%
2 star 0% (0%) 0%
1 star 0% (0%) 0%

Top reviews from the United States

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful book about the Masaai tribe
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 30, 2017
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alan goldman
5.0 out of 5 stars To me it's the art.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 15, 2012
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John Clarke
5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating record of an exceptional nomad society that proudly ...
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 17, 2018
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Trevor A Jerideau
4.0 out of 5 stars Broken Spears
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 28, 2013
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Carolann
3.0 out of 5 stars Not in Color
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 25, 2012
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R. Mills
3.0 out of 5 stars Broken Spears: A Maasai Journey
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 11, 2009
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Jo
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 1, 2015
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Julian Lyne-Pirkis
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 18, 2017
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Melanie Gulliver
4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful photos
Reviewed in France 🇫🇷 on December 30, 2012
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