Customer Reviews:
 A small, sharp, lovely thing April 6, 2006
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
The writer's year in Marrakesh was not about seeing the sights and learning the history - rather, it was about his engagement with the real people of his neighbourhood as he gets drawn into their lives. A clearer picture than you get from the pompous, passive travel writing that casts an eye on a culture and tells you what to visit there. Thoroughly engaging.
 Fear and Loathing in Morocco May 21, 2003
68 out of 70 found this review helpful
Alright, so the title of this review is a little disingenuous, but this is a lost gem of leftfield travel writing with more than a little in common with 'beat' authors. Taking the North African hippy trail before it was even established, Mayne (NOT A Year in Provence's Peter Mayle) rented a room in Marrakesh's Medina (old town) with the aim of writing a novel. This novel has not survived but his journal of the time has, and it makes a brilliant read. Funny, self-deprecating, beautifully descriptive and packed with pungent characterization (but without any syncophantic obsession with his locale - Mayne loves his environs and Moroccan friends but that does not stem criticism if he feels it deserved).I cannot recommend this enough. For anyone with any interest in travel, North Africa, Kerouac's On the Road, Hunter S Thompson or a good tale well told.
|
