DESERT DIVERS (paperback)
Sven Lindqvist (Author)
144 pages
Publisher: Granta UK (April 1, 2002)
Language: English
Editorial review and description from amazon.com (see my comment below)
Review
'A polemical adventure in travel, criticism and autobiography, Desert Divers opens up a vast discursive territory. It is gripping from start to finish' Geoff Dyer 'A poem to the Sahara, and those whom it has obsessed; language as bare and hard as sand and gravel...Sensational' Guardian 'Sven Lindqvist is one of the most original and imaginative authors working at the end of the twentieth century' Richard Gott 'This is writing with a conscience that once again shows the enormous and provocative possibilities of the travel book' Sunday Times
Product Description
This book follows the author on a personal journey into the Sahara and examination into the racist assumptions of those writers who have gone before him. Taking as a metaphor the divers who cleaned out desert wells, Lindqvist drags to the surface the story of colonial slaughter and sexual exploitation which contaminate his boyhood idols.
My comment: For those of you who are traveling to Morocco, Western Sahara (occupied territory) and Algeria-or you who are simply interested in this region's (literary) history-this travel journal is a gem. The Swedish writer is furious, learned, curious, sad, witty... in six chapters-containing 100 short ones-which takes us to Tarfaya (present day Morocco), Smara (WS, occupied territory), Laghouat, Ain Sefra, Touggourt and Ouargla (all Algeria) respectively. Most are written in a personal "diary manner", whereas some are plain summaries of historical incidents and/or periods. The book has two chapters on the history of the Saharawis/Western Sahara (from around 1000 BC-1975 AD - when Morocco dived into the territory). It is a shallow rendition, but works well as a guide to some of the most important and fatal incidents in Saharawi history, and we are never in doubt about Lindqvist's sympathies and antipathies. The book is also available in Swedish, Italian, Finnish, Danish, German and Norwegian.
Where to get it: Few copies left at amazon.com and amazon.co.uk In Norway both Tanum and Norli have copies. Also Tronsmo (in Oslo). Be fast and get it before Christmas!
KC 27.11.2010
Updated 09.12.2010
