liked this writer, untill she travelled the area that I personally know, Her style, her range and details were still impressive, but some of her quick judgements based on truly wrong facts, started me doubting, whether I could trust her as a travel writer.
Her division of good and bad runs very close to the line Black and White, A rather cliched approach and politics based I suspect on politically correct opinion books and popular articles, I can cope with that, I suspect that a lot of travel writers have do that, In a limited time one can only experience that much at first hand and personally, And in this case I myself can correct the faulty contents in my head, I am not talking about her opinion, I am refering to factual content, The way she thinks about South Africans, black white or purple is her full right,
But the big problem with this book is that I now have to distrust the contents of her other books, which I mostly enjoyed, Were they based on correct facts In a way I am truly sorry I read this book, It spoiled the others.
I can't get enough of Dervla Murphy, I admire her courage in travelling by bike through places often
dangerous in this case, South Africa, her neverfailing interest in people, her genuine quest for the "soul" of the place she visited, her desire to form her own views, and see things from different perspectives by talking to whoever wanted to engage.
I don't mind her talking about politics, that's partly why I like her books, and I always learn a lot from her travels and her observations.
Yes, sometimes she could be opinionated and slightly judgemental, and throughout her life, she held strong views on many subjects and was never afraid to vent them whenever the occasion arose and, in many instances, I think she had a point.
I enjoyed this book, but if she'd cut a quarter of it, it would have been brilliant, This one took me forever to read, I was about to give up at thepage mark, but it engaged me in a few tidbits that kept me going, I picked it up at the library when looking for travel guides to South Africa for our impending at the time trip,
It is a memoir of an Irish 'Granny' who bicycles through South Africa in three separate trips, First preelection March August. Second, during election April. Third, post election September December, Needless to say, each time was during significant social and political activity throughout the country as well as significant unrest and violence, Although maybe NOT as much tension as in the thick of the antiapartheid movement
She spent time with all types of people and spoke with them about how they were feeling and what they believed about their country in its current state.
She was able to cross the great divide and spend time with black and coloured people as a white woman, She defined at the beginning of the book that she used the term 'blacks' to refer to native Africans and 'coloured' to refer to those of mixed race.
A significant difference at the time, . . and maybe still. Because of this effort to engage everyone who was willing, it seemed that she was able to get to the heart of what real people believed and how they lived.
Obviously, not all of them, but it included the good, the bad and the ugly, This information is what kept me going, Currently, I can't imagine a scenario where I would be able to gather that information directly, Like Isabella Bird, she made this trek alone, In the process, she is warned a million and one times not to go where she was going due to the risk of violence, I'm not sure if that can be called bravery, but it is something,
There were two segments of the book of particular significance to me, First was a chapter where she spent an escorted week in one of the informal settlements outside of Cape Town, Again, I'd love to experience that, but I can't imagine how it would come about that I would be able to, I think it would be in line with the principle that from afar we could never accurately judge how us privileged people can truly help those that are living in extreme poverty in a useful way and how they want to be helped.
Second, was a description of her visit to the Voertrekker Monument in Pretoria, We had talked about going to it, but didn't, Now I'm glad.
Bottom line, I'm glad I stuck it out, because, again, it gave me insight I'm not likely to gain any other way, I wonder how much has changed in the lastyears since she has been there, It doesn't seem like much, I will continue to seek more info because my thoughts are now frequently engaged in contemplating what would help this young country keep moving forward, especially since I'm personally connected to it now.
As I've been saying since I returned, apartheid may not be law anymore, . . but there is certainly still significant segregation and limited opportunities,
The reason I found the book difficult to get through was that it needed some further editing, There was much ado about stuff of little significance, so if you are going to pick it up, . . be prepared to be dedicated to the topic, I absolutely loved Murphy's "Full Tilt" about her ride to India on a bicycle, so I really looked forward to reading "South from the Limpopo" about her bicycle trips in South Africa.
However, I found this book really paled in comparison to "Full Tilt, " She visits South Africa several times as Apartheid ends and Mandela is elected president, The focus on politics made the book extremely repetitive as she talks politics with most everyone she meets and generally encounters the same opinions amongst members of the same racial groups.
There is a bit of alphabet soup as she refers to political parties and assumes you have more knowledge about South African politics than I do, I think this would be a great book for someone who has studied South African politics, but for someone with more superficial knowledge, this book drags, Informative but dated it is another attempt by Murphy to capture a segment of time, It was too long for me but I did finish it, Dervla Murphy's journal of her cycle tours of South Africa ingives a daybyday view of that period, When Dervla first pedalled across the Limpopo she fancied that she "understood" South Africa's problems because for more thanyears she had from a distance taken an interest in them.
Twelve hours later that illusion was shattered, This text reflects her moods of confusion and elation, hope and disappointment as she tries to come to terms with a country even more complex and fractured but also more flexible than she had expected.
The journey of more thanmiles took her through all nine provinces of the new South Africa, As the months passed she came to realize how simplistic it is to see South Africa's conflict as only "black versus white", From March to Augustand then from Septemberto JanuaryDervla made two bike trips through South Africa commenting on the land and the people she met.
The first trip was prior to Mandela's win and the second was following it, So this is a commentary on two different South Africa's,
Parts of this I enjoyed much of the travel and people, But there were large sections that got bogged down in political commentary, I'm not one who can skim I read every word, I think there are parts of thepages that could have been edited down,/stars. "Often my experiences here have been emotionally grueling some verging on the traumatic, . . ", Dervla Murphy states as she closes out her novel, I think most reader's will feel close to the same after experiencing herpage journey through South Africa before, during, and after Apartheid has been struck down during the early's.
I went into this book expecting a travel book, but in reality it's a story about a country divided, coming together amidst massive political changes.
By the end, I was somewhat exhausted trying to keep track of all the different cultures, political factions, tribes, ideologies, racism, violence, and vocabulary to describe all of it.
The situation there at that time seems hopeless and many times I felt as if South Africa is succumbing to anarchy, It's apparent from this book that despite a positive change in political climate for a country, not all is right or functioning well, Placed next to any other country on the planet, this book is a mirror of the struggle for people's independence against a greedy, oppressive political landscape, While there's hope conveyed, overall, I found this book to be quite depressing,
I will say this Dervla Murphy has some major "cajones", as I can not imagine myself traveling by bicycle through that region, let alone an elderly woman by herself.
A large portion of all of Murphy's travel books deal with the physical nittygritty details of travel itself, parts of her books show an insight into people's struggles that is not always seen in travel books.
unbelievably bad ass old granny who rides her bike from limpopo river up in the northeast corner of SA and down and around all over to capetown in the southwest.
the audacity of that alone is pretty cool, but then of course in south africa you don't only have to deal with weird ass bugs, awe inspiring landscapes, and electric fences, but also the people, which will pretty much blow anybody's mind.
official languages, huge, tragic geography of race, huge tragic poverty, huge tragic wealth,
and this lady pretty much rides her bike unassisted through it all, she's one bad hombre irish lady, and a good writer. I liked the book but it wasn't as evocative as her book on Ethiopia, I found the diary entries a bit hohum occasionally, Still I learned a lot, I wish she'd cut it by ten percent and it would have been brilliant, I read this book before, during and after a threeweek road trip through South Africa in, I enjoyed her style of travelling and travelwriting, She seems a human being who empathises with people everywhere, and especially with the downtrodden please pardon the overused word, This is a remarkable work and one that should be widely read for its on the ground observations of the transition from deKlerk to Mandela, Murphy's determined, but foolish really in her quest to bike the southern African countries in the year before, during and after the end of legal apartheid, Inquisitive, fit, incredible. Dervla Murphy cycles several thousand miles around South Africa on the cusp of the vote that made Mandela president, She's an engaging character, writes well, and has an interestingly balanced take on the end of the apartheid era,
I really enjoy Delva Murphys approach to travel writing she rides a bicycle, drinks beer with the locals, talks with all sorts of people, and is very tolerant of different opinions and approaches to life.
This book is about her travels around South Africa at the very end of apartheid in, She returns for the elections and returns again to see what has happened a few months after the election of Mandela in,
I nearly stopped reading afterpages so many acronyms and an entire socialpolitical system I knew so little about that I could almost not follow the text.
But, then the real Delva showed up, After she begins talking with people and telling their stories, I really enjoyed the book and felt I learned quite a bit about the history and the life of many different people in South Africa.
I enjoyed her stay in the black “slum” of Khayelitsha, I also was impressed that she genuinely liked many of the Afrikaners she met, even though she differed greatly from them in her political views, And, of course, her bicycle adventures and her great appreciation of nature are always of interest, I liked learning just a little bit about her personal life when she visits her daughter lives in Mozambique, I was also a bit shocked when she admitted to not knowing how to change her own bike tires or I suppose tyres since she is Irish.
An unexpected treat was a bit of history about Redvers Buller during the Boer War, My father always told me that my Uncle George was going to be named Redvers Buller because he was born on the day Buller led the relief at Ladysmith February,.
I think my grandmother insisted on George instead, I need David McCullough to write a book about the Boer Wars,
I think the book is a good place to start learning about South Africa today, I am not sure what my next book should be in that area,
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