The Pillars of Hercules: A Grand Tour of the MediterraneanPaul Theroux (1995) |
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THE A5 BOOK REVIEWThe Pillars of Hercules is a travelogue by Paul Theroux describing a long and wide-ranging tour he made around the Mediterranean in 1993-1994. Generally Theroux travels to exotic locales rarely explored by Westerners, so writing about a much more popular destination made for a bit of a different challenge. The acerbic and perceptive style however is still pure Theroux, with rich detail, unquenchable curiosity, and numerous interactions with the waiters, villagers, shopkeepers and other random local people he meets along the way. He starts at one of the pillars in Gibraltar, ultimately returning to the other pillar in Ceuta, in Morocco, eighteen months later. He travels by boat, train and bus, sticking close to the ocean generally, making his way through Spain, the French Riviera, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, the Greek Islands, Albania, war-torn Croatia, Turkey, Syria, Israel, Egypt, and then Morocco. We don’t recommend this book as an introduction to Theroux, but it is a good read for Theroux fans and for those planning to make their own trip to the Mediterranean.
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A FEW OTHER A5 RECOMMENDED TRAVEL BOOKS FROM PAUL THEROUX (click here for more)
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Paul Theroux is certainly one of the world's prominent travel writers. See more from Paul Theroux here.
LEAVE YOUR OWN REVIEW HEREGREAT QUOTES FROM THE PILLARS OF HERCULES"There was a time when I wanted to see only wild places, and was reluctant to go to place that had been written about extensively. But then - it is so funny about travel - I would go to a place that everyone had written about and it was as though I was seeing something entirely new. I felt that when I was writing about Britain. My Britain was different from anything I have read. It made the going good because I was unprepared for what I saw. That was always the best part of travel, the sense of discovery. When there was none and it was all predictable I wanted to go home."
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