Saturday, September 3, 2011

Journey without Maps



I've just finished reading Journey without Maps, British author Graham Greene's account of his four-week trek through the nation of Liberia. Greene seems to have sunk an awful amount of whisky during his journey, and he has a predilection for describing the scantily-clad native women met along the way.

He traveled with his 27-year old cousin, Barbara Greene, and appears to have owed her a great deal. It's a fact she nursed him back to health during a near-fatal illness he incurred in the jungle, yet she gets scant mention in this book.

All the same, it's an interesting read for its take on Africa in the final decade of Western Colonialism. I think there are more than a few scenario ideas to be found in these pages, both for the high Colonial era and for later Between the Wars/Pulp games, possibly even modern "bush war" games. Recommended.  

2 comments:

Bluebear Jeff said...

I gather that Greene's cousin also wrote a book about this journey . . . and that the two accounts do not agree on a great many points:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_Without_Maps


-- Jeff

Cindy A. Matthews said...

Yes, Jeff, Barbara seems to diverge from her cousin's account to such an extent, one critic even wondered if they were in the same country. Her book is said to be easier to read though, and a lot more humorous.

 

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