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Spiriti Guerrieri. Viaggio Senza Mappa Nell'Africa Nera (2011)

by Tim Butcher(Favorite Author)

4.01 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

8863802556 (ISBN13: 9788863802559)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Corbaccio

review 1: Having read Butcher´s first book ”Blood River”, I set to reading his further adventures in Africa with great interest.Right from the beginning of the book, I was happy to note that his writing had evolved to a more emotional style, compared to his first book, hence making the reading experience richer for me. Butcher´s writing seems more relaxed on this book - i guess not being his first book, he has nothing to prove to anyone anymore and as such is more free to convey through his emotions too? On the first chapter he sets the scene for his upcoming trip to Sierra Leone and Liberia, and leaves the delighted reader thirsty and impatient to read the upcoming adventures, this time following the footsteps of Graham Greene and his cousin Barbara (in contrast to those of S... moretanley in the Democratic Republic of Congo in his earlier work).While informatively shedding light to the dark history of aforementioned Western African countries, Butcher is constantly comparing the experience of Greene (an author that I adore) from the 1935 to that experienced by him some seventy years later. As such, besides learning about the history of these countries, the reader gets to experience two travel stories simultaneously; that of Graham Greene and Butcher´s own. This constant comparison, fruit of extensive research by the author, makes interesting reading and gives the book, and Butcher´s adventure, a clear lifeline that it follows. Butcher refers to Greene´s books and observations in his novel, and myself having recently read G.Greene´s “Heart of the matter”, a fiction novel also taking place in Sierra Leone, it was interesting to see some of the observations. I also realize, that I could have read Greene´s non-fiction work”Journey without maps” before reading Butcher´s work, in order to get a more complete reading experience.As Butcher´s first novel “Blood River”, “Chasing the Devil” was a shocking read, a great combination of adventure and history and a truly educational experience for me. Butcher is a courageous reporter who managed to write an informative and well researched thrilling travel book on these two Western African countries, and I look forward to reading his future travel adventure work.
review 2: Reading through Butcher's account of travelling through part of West Africa, I was often confused, thinking that we were back in the 80s. It was always a bit of a shock to remember that he was talking about the 21st century. No easy fete, to travel as the Greenes' did. I unfortunately didn't enjoy the journey as much as I had wished, except for the splashed of Ghanaian culture and people at the end which took me back.The parts I did enjoy were the reminders of cultural traits, attitudes and actions that were just so typically West African - it was great to see how these traits had travelled overland into other parts of West Africa. less

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