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A review by ehays84
Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz
5.0
Man, I love Tony Horwitz books. I believe I have read 4 now by him, and I think I have given them all 5 stars. He is so devoted to his task, and his research and then willingness to travel and face crazy sitautions is so unique. His writing is also quite fun to read. Mainly, though, it is his unique blend of travel and history that I love the most. The two other authors I know of that come the closest are Bill Bryson and William Dalrymple, but they aren't quite the same.
This book taught me so much about naval life in the late 18th century, the Pacific, and Captain Cook, all of which I knew next to nothing about beforehand, seemingly. I would have said that I knew something, but this book convinced me I really didn't. It also convinced me that I would dearly love to visit New Zealand and Hawaii someday.
I wonder if anyone besides myself has written about the similarities between Bryson's pseudonym friend and travel companion, Katz, and Horwitz's I assume true-named friend and travel compansion, Roger. Both are a bit (ok, a lot) bawdy, iconoclastic, overweight, alcoholic, and hilarious. Bryson and Horwitz aren't exactly playing the straight man in their travel works, but the duality with these two pairs certainly makes for more interesting reading. You end up seeing everything they visit through two sets of eyes and worldviews rather than just one (of highly educated and fairly well off white Americans).
Finally, I had a good friend in college from Unalaska, the spot way out on the Aleutians that Horwitz and Roger visit for a while because Cook did. We always kind of wondered, "how did you wind up at Wheaton College (in Chicagoland)?" Learning more about Unalaska makes me even more surprised at him surfacing there, but also much less surprised that he ended up flopping out of Wheaton because of a drinking habit and the sure knowledge that he could go back home and make a bundle of money on fishing boats (even if it's one of the most dangerous professions in the world). Poor Nathan, I hope you are well wherever you are, and that you haven't given up on God. Unalaska had to be an incredibly hard place to grow up, especially as a white evangelical Christian. Being from a place that gets over 150 inches of snow a year and has probably the most notorious barfights anywhere in the 50 states doesn't exactly set you up to succeed at Wheaton College.
I'm already looking forward to my next Horwitz read.
This book taught me so much about naval life in the late 18th century, the Pacific, and Captain Cook, all of which I knew next to nothing about beforehand, seemingly. I would have said that I knew something, but this book convinced me I really didn't. It also convinced me that I would dearly love to visit New Zealand and Hawaii someday.
I wonder if anyone besides myself has written about the similarities between Bryson's pseudonym friend and travel companion, Katz, and Horwitz's I assume true-named friend and travel compansion, Roger. Both are a bit (ok, a lot) bawdy, iconoclastic, overweight, alcoholic, and hilarious. Bryson and Horwitz aren't exactly playing the straight man in their travel works, but the duality with these two pairs certainly makes for more interesting reading. You end up seeing everything they visit through two sets of eyes and worldviews rather than just one (of highly educated and fairly well off white Americans).
Finally, I had a good friend in college from Unalaska, the spot way out on the Aleutians that Horwitz and Roger visit for a while because Cook did. We always kind of wondered, "how did you wind up at Wheaton College (in Chicagoland)?" Learning more about Unalaska makes me even more surprised at him surfacing there, but also much less surprised that he ended up flopping out of Wheaton because of a drinking habit and the sure knowledge that he could go back home and make a bundle of money on fishing boats (even if it's one of the most dangerous professions in the world). Poor Nathan, I hope you are well wherever you are, and that you haven't given up on God. Unalaska had to be an incredibly hard place to grow up, especially as a white evangelical Christian. Being from a place that gets over 150 inches of snow a year and has probably the most notorious barfights anywhere in the 50 states doesn't exactly set you up to succeed at Wheaton College.
I'm already looking forward to my next Horwitz read.