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A review by scarletohhara
Falling Off the Map: Some Lonely Places of the World by Anthea Lingeman, Pico Iyer
5.0
What a beautiful book!!
With literature so beautiful that it makes you want to put the book down so you can go over the sentences in your mind again, and mention of intelligent references all over making you reach out for the encyclopedia and set in places so far removed from the world that they make you curious, this book is just perfect.
I've been a fan of Iyer's for a long time from his TED talks and essays in magazines but now I know it's for a lifetime. The man knows how to travel, what to look for in a new place and how to convey what he is feeling in that moment. How else will you make a book written about lonely countries in the 1990s still relevant 25 years later when the reader is well aware that the conditions mentioned in the book should long be over in that country!
At once I was in many places... Shuddered at the thought of Juche and Our Beloved Leader of the unfortunate Korea; amused and interested about Peronism and the pseudo-aristocracy of Argentina; excited at the possibility of visiting Cuba now that the doors are opened; amused by the structure of the society in Iceland; heart full of longing at the immense peace and beauty when Bhutan is mentioned; for the first time, read about Saigon and Vietnam and the differences; feel terrible and also weird-ed out for Paraguay and at last, get lost in the vast continent of Australia. All of this, from my couch, with rich words and sentences for company and the thought of one man living it all... Just brilliant!
With literature so beautiful that it makes you want to put the book down so you can go over the sentences in your mind again, and mention of intelligent references all over making you reach out for the encyclopedia and set in places so far removed from the world that they make you curious, this book is just perfect.
I've been a fan of Iyer's for a long time from his TED talks and essays in magazines but now I know it's for a lifetime. The man knows how to travel, what to look for in a new place and how to convey what he is feeling in that moment. How else will you make a book written about lonely countries in the 1990s still relevant 25 years later when the reader is well aware that the conditions mentioned in the book should long be over in that country!
At once I was in many places... Shuddered at the thought of Juche and Our Beloved Leader of the unfortunate Korea; amused and interested about Peronism and the pseudo-aristocracy of Argentina; excited at the possibility of visiting Cuba now that the doors are opened; amused by the structure of the society in Iceland; heart full of longing at the immense peace and beauty when Bhutan is mentioned; for the first time, read about Saigon and Vietnam and the differences; feel terrible and also weird-ed out for Paraguay and at last, get lost in the vast continent of Australia. All of this, from my couch, with rich words and sentences for company and the thought of one man living it all... Just brilliant!