Tahir Shah

The description/summary of this book actually gave away a lot of what was going to happen, which is always disappointing. This book also required some pretty heavy suspension of disbelief, and I'm not talking about the whole eating eyeballs thing. For example, OF COURSE Dr. Kaine has his own hazmat suit, let's just gloss over why that would be true! I'd liken it to a big-budget action movie, like one of the Mission Impossible films where just every single possible obstacle occurs, and every single time the protagonist just happens to have the perfect gadget/perfect plan/unlimited money to overcome it.

So why four stars? Because I could not put this book down. Completely engrossing.… (més)

I didn't know what to think of this book when I first started reading it. It was recommended to me by a friend who I think knows the gist of what I like to read and she definitely got it right.

It is a lot travelogue, some history, a lot of adventure, some politics, a bit of religion and, at times, very funny. Shah is a good writer and he has the kind of sense of humor that I like...somewhat inappropriate and not interested in being overly politically or religiously correct. He also like to poke fun of ridiculous people and situations and is somewhat self-deprecating.

Ethiopia is one of those countries that I know through stamp collecting. Of the African countries, Ethiopia is one of the more popular collecting areas, especially the earlier stamps which are colorful, exotic and somewhat elusive. As it turns out, it also seems to be a beautiful country, at least as described by Shah in this book. And it also turns out it is a dangerous country to live in...crime, political strife and poor living conditions are rampant in parts of the country and, my guess is if it were anyone else but Tahir Shah making this same trip, they would not have survived.

I am not going to go into the substance of the book because that is what everyone else seems to do and there is already a brief overview in the Goodreads synopsis. I will say that it had me going to Wikipedia and Google maps to look at the various sites and locations he visits in his search for King Solomon's Mines and there were times his encounters with various people along the way were genuinely odd and funny.

I don't think a non-Muslim could have made a similar trip and survived, especially in the years after this trip was made and the book was written. Shah's travels and forms of transportation are hair-raising and some of the tribesmen and situations he gets himself into are just plain dangerous.

In the end I really like the book which is why I gave it 4 stars and I especially like when I get excited about something...I wanted to learn more about Ethiopia so I used google images, maps and wikipedia to look at and learn more about the places Shah visited. It was interesting going to the State Department's webpage and looking at what they had to say about visiting various areas of the country. The border areas with Eritrea, Somalia and Kenya are places to avoid. I also did a search of current archaeological digs/sites in Ethiopia...like Kenya, many of the earliest human ancestors have been found there.

What's more, Shah is funny and I appreciated the humor and it made me smile. I have said before that many supposedly funny books leave me wondering where the humor is...not this one. Trust me, Tahir Shah had to have a good sense of humor to put up with some of the circumstances he found himself in.… (més)