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Mijn Mercedes Is Niet Te Koop (2010)

by Jeroen van Bergeijk(Favorite Author)

3.27 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

9046702774 (ISBN13: 9789046702772)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Olympus

review 1: Armchair traveling, for sure! A Dutchman describes his trip driving a 16 year old Mercedes from Amsterdam to Burkina Faso. Armchair traveling in that this is not something that I would ever attempt and the whole book is from a traveler's point of view--road conditions, border crossings, auto repairs, accommodations from a tent to an upscale hotel. Van Bergeijk throws in some tales of early trans Saharan travel, the background that he can find out about his car, and some of his own musings on Africa and attitudes toward the auto. A quick, fun read.
review 2: I liked this quite well - the Dutch author's laconic narrative was fine for me, although it might drag for some folks. He intersperses a bit of history of the Mercedes and the previous owners of the agi... moreng D-190 that he is driving to sell in Burkina Faso, but not such that it detracts from the main narrative. And really, there is something funny about how some countries are associated with particular used car makes - a New York Times article in the last few days talks about the popularity of Toyota Corollas in Afghanistan.I was surprised though that he reveals at the very end that he lost some of his notes from the first trip (the one he earlier claimed to be writing about) and did the whole thing again with his wife and child and that this book is actually an amalgam of the two trips. Oh-kay, I guess. This sort of thing happens a lot (a single trip for a book project ends up taking multiple trips) but usually the authors point this out in the introduction, not on the last page. less

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