Between Terror and Tourism: An Overland Journey Across North Africa - Softcover

Mewshaw, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1582434344 ISBN 13: 9781582434346

Publisher: Counterpoint, 2010

Synopsis

For his 65th birthday, acclaimed novelist Michael Mewshaw took a 4,000-mile overland trip across North Africa. Arriving in Egypt during food riots, he heads west into Libya, where billions in oil money have produced little except citizens eager to flee to Europe or join the jihad in Iraq. In Tunis, Mewshaw visits an abandoned Star Wars movie set where Al Qaeda has just kidnapped two tourists.

Ignoring U.S. Embassy warnings he crosses into Algeria, traveling through mountain towns and seething metropolises where 200,000 people have died during more than a decade of sectarian violence. Searching for the tombs of seven monks murdered by Islamic fundamentalists, he reaches a village where six more people have been beheaded the day before. When he interviews a repentant terrorist responsible for 5,000 deaths, the man praises the Boy Scouts for training him.

By contrast, the Moroccan city of Tangier seems almost tame. But then he meets the last literary protégé of Paul Bowles who accuses Bowles of plagiarism and murder. In the end, the reader, like the author, is immersed in a fascinating adventure that’s sometimes tragic, often funny, occasionally terrifying and always a revelation of a strange place and its people.

About this title

Review:

Praise for Between Terror and Tourism

"Mewshaw, an intrepid travel writer and prolific novelist (Year of the Gun; Shelter from the Storm), celebrated his 65th birthday by taking an astonishing but somewhat hapless journey across North Africa. Sprinkling his account with literary allusions, he starts in Alexandria, Egypt, heads west through Libya, backtracks to Egypt, and continues on to Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco, revealing his dogged determination, edgy fearlessness, and knack for faithful dialog. Seasoned travelers will sympathize with the cultural misunderstandings and bureaucratic troubles encountered in various places, particularly Libya. Mewshaw admits that "travel is a need as urgent as oxygen." That urgency is evident in each well-turned phrase and incisive observation.
Verdict: Recommended for Arabists and libraries with larger travel collections. Readers who enjoyed Michael Benanav’s Men of Salt will appreciate this book." Library Journal

Mewshaw wonderfully engages the travel reader’s vicarious demand for history, cultural insight, and unexpected incident.” Booklist

"Michael Mewshaw takes the reader on a journey most can only dream of. He
scares, thrills and informs on his gritty tale of solo travel through a
region little understood by the outside world. His hilarious accounts of his
quixotic experiences underplay the dangers he faces. If you want to feel the
warmth of the Mediterranean sun, the chill of north African rain and the
bumps in the road this is the book to read. Mewshaw is one of the finest
travel writers of our time." Nic Robertson, CNN

Praise for Michael Mewshaw

I have been an admirer of Michael Mewshaw’s writing for some thirty years. Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay Mewshaw is to admit that I was once fired from a job for reading him, or more accurately, for being unable to stop reading him.” Professor Richard J. Golsan, Texas A&M University

Perhaps the best American writer you never heard of.” The San Francisco Chronicle

From Booklist:

Travel writer and novelist (Lying with the Dead, 2009) Mewshaw has been to North Africa often; he reflects on prior experiences and contrasts them with present observations in this account of his 2008 passage through the region. Choosing a transportation altitude and route—on the ground from Alexandria to Tangier—that carries a degree of risk, Mewshaw depends on his wits, his French, and sometimes a guide to make his way. After giving an unflattering portrait of Alexandria, he detours to the Siwa oasis en route to Libya. His opinion of Qaddafi-land is lowered by a snafu at the border and boredom with Roman ruins. Mewshaw proceeds more optimistically to Tunisia to revisit places he saw in the 1970s; however, time and an overbuilt tourist industry have not improved them, so he presses on to violence-wracked Algeria. There, his driver Ahmed rises to all occasions, including finding Camus’ apartment and rescuing the author from arrest. Mewshaw wonderfully engages the travel reader’s vicarious demand for history, cultural insight, and unexpected incident. --Gilbert Taylor

About this edition

• Publisher: Counterpoint
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1582434344
• ISBN 13: 9781582434346
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384