To Timbuktu

Rating:
Summary: A great mix of adventure and history
Review: I have read the book twice in the past year and enjoyed it both times. With 3 different storylines (doing the Niger River source to sea, a boyhood trip to Europe and Africa, and the history of European attempts to understand the Niger and visit Timbuktu) this book is a joy to read. You experience the trip and the mental thoughts that go through the author's head, as well as some of the philosophical issues that are encountered in the trip (guns, pregnant wives, etc). My recommendation: Buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Man goes to Africa, Wastes our time
Review: I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nigeria, 1963-65. Jenkin's adventure along the Niger (before it reaches Nigeria) reminds me very much of those two years. I was never as adventurous as Mr. Jenkins and friends, but the highs and lows of his trip echo my modest African travel. Nigeria is now a dangerous place to visit, and Jenkins fleetingly encounters similar West African threats. He finds a formerly prosperous town in decay, also a Nigeria problem. He also meets wonderful, helpful Africans, as I did. The book interleaves three stories: the struggles of early Europeans to reach Timbuktu; post-high-school adventures of Jenkins and friend Mike in Europe and North Africa; their recent trek to the Niger's headwaters and kayak trip along some of it. I would never attempt the trip Jenkins took, but I'm glad he did and told me about it. The color photos are great; I'd like more. I enjoyed To Timbuktu so much I re-read it immediately, something I've not done before. I recommended it to all my Peace Corps cronies and bought copies for friends. It may appeal most to "guys," because it is about our occasional need for adventure, and to people who've visited West Africa.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful West Africa adventure
Review: I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nigeria, 1963-65. Jenkin's adventure along the Niger (before it reaches Nigeria) reminds me very much of those two years. I was never as adventurous as Mr. Jenkins and friends, but the highs and lows of his trip echo my modest African travel. Nigeria is now a dangerous place to visit, and Jenkins fleetingly encounters similar West African threats. He finds a formerly prosperous town in decay, also a Nigeria problem. He also meets wonderful, helpful Africans, as I did. The book interleaves three stories: the struggles of early Europeans to reach Timbuktu; post-high-school adventures of Jenkins and friend Mike in Europe and North Africa; their recent trek to the Niger's headwaters and kayak trip along some of it. I would never attempt the trip Jenkins took, but I'm glad he did and told me about it. The color photos are great; I'd like more. I enjoyed To Timbuktu so much I re-read it immediately, something I've not done before. I recommended it to all my Peace Corps cronies and bought copies for friends. It may appeal most to "guys," because it is about our occasional need for adventure, and to people who've visited West Africa.

Rating:
Summary: To Timbuktu has all that a travel book should
Review: To Timbuktu combines the three things necessary for a great travel book: adventure, history, and humor. The central theme of the book is Jenkins search for the source of the Niger River, but that is merely the rack from which Jenkins explores issues such as friendship, humanity, and cultural differences. That said this book is not dense or slow. In fact it is an extremely quick read. Jenkins writing is sometimes boastful and sometimes self-effacing, but always efficient and entertaining.

Some people here have criticized the "machoism" in this book. Maybe I fail to understand, but if they have problems with him carrying a gun or dancing with "100 naked women", I submit that their criticisms are quibblesome. Carrying a gun may or may not be necessary, but it is beyond a minor part in the book. As for the naked women, my question is: Is it true? If so, why not write it. At heart though, these criticisms miss the greater part of the book which is the interaction between people (Jenkins w/ his fellow travelers, the travelers w/ their guide, previous explorers w/ the indigenous population). It is here where To Timbuktu shines.

If their criticism goes deeper then I believe that they fail to understand what travel literature is all about. It is about the quest. The quest to do something you are not quite sure that you can accomplish. The quest to learn about those different than you. If this is "machoism" I hope it lives in us all. To criticize it is to deny the validity of all grasps for greater knowledge about ourself and others. Maybe these people would rather read about my travels from refrigerator to couch to restroom to bed, but I don't think that would make a very interesting travelogue and, while it may be revealing about me, I doubt that it would tell us much about the diverse peoples of the world.

Getting off my soapbox, I can sum up, in short, by saying that this book turned me into a connoisseur of travel literature and I am thankful for the experience.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't disagree more with those in here
Review: who chastise Jenkins for his "machismo" and affix to him the "Ugly American" label. In a genre literally *filled* with unself-critical machismo, with authors who suffer from bloated senses of their missions and themselves and with ordinary wanderings striving unsuccessfully toward the Epic, this book stands apart.

The author, while guilty of selfishness (which he criticizes himself for) and boyish stupidity (ditto) is hardly the testosterone-addled and unself-conscious dunderhead some have here made him out to be. He is, on the contrary, self-effacing, humorous, and humane (his praise for the people he meets and the people who aid him in his adventures is sincere, uncondescending). The book, moreover, is masterfully wrought: it is at once a chronicle of West Africa's colonizers (whose follies throw the author's own into relief), a first-person account of the explorer's lunacy in the late 20th century and an incredible portrait of a friendship (whose coda concludes the book and transforms an already successful travelogue into something altogether more moving than you expect upon opening its covers).

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't disagree more with those in here
Review: who chastise Jenkins for his "machismo" and affix to him the "Ugly American" label. In a genre literally *filled* with unself-critical machismo, with authors who suffer from bloated senses of their missions and themselves and with ordinary wanderings striving unsuccessfully toward the Epic, this book stands apart.

The author, while guilty of selfishness (which he criticizes himself for) and boyish stupidity (ditto) is hardly the testosterone-addled and unself-conscious dunderhead some have here made him out to be. He is, on the contrary, self-effacing, humorous, and humane (his praise for the people he meets and the people who aid him in his adventures is sincere, uncondescending). The book, moreover, is masterfully wrought: it is at once a chronicle of West Africa's colonizers (whose follies throw the author's own into relief), a first-person account of the explorer's lunacy in the late 20th century and an incredible portrait of a friendship (whose coda concludes the book and transforms an already successful travelogue into something altogether more moving than you expect upon opening its covers).