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A review by honnari_hannya
Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane
3.0
3 1/2 stars
Probably my fault for not reading the summary closely enough, but I was expecting this to be more of a history of the various places—both real and fictional—that comprise the underland of various human cultures. And we do get a bit of that, through Macfarlane's tour through the Paris catacombs and his chapter on the nuclear waste disposal sites.
I wasn't expecting, however, how much of this would be actual travel writing. Not to say that it was poorly written—Macfarlane has such elegant prose, that even though it wasn't what I was expecting, I enjoyed many parts of this book—but I didn't get what I was looking for in it. Would be interested in reading some of his other books keeping this in mind. If you like either nonfiction travel writing or even memoirs, this might be a good read.
Probably my fault for not reading the summary closely enough, but I was expecting this to be more of a history of the various places—both real and fictional—that comprise the underland of various human cultures. And we do get a bit of that, through Macfarlane's tour through the Paris catacombs and his chapter on the nuclear waste disposal sites.
I wasn't expecting, however, how much of this would be actual travel writing. Not to say that it was poorly written—Macfarlane has such elegant prose, that even though it wasn't what I was expecting, I enjoyed many parts of this book—but I didn't get what I was looking for in it. Would be interested in reading some of his other books keeping this in mind. If you like either nonfiction travel writing or even memoirs, this might be a good read.