William Langewiesche

There's a 400 page book that could have been written that explores the clean-up process in minute detail that I probably would have enjoyed more, but that's just my preference. I enjoyed this book, although the author did have a habit of talking extensively about how a particular person was super effective or super well known or super respected, but then doesn't do a great job of demonstrating how. I think that falls in line with the short length - you can't spend time giving a dozen examples explained in detail when there's only 200 pages to work with.… (més)

This book—really a collection of essays—reveals the world’s oceans in all their terrible power and lawlessness, despite nation-state efforts to subdue or at least effectively manage them. Langewiesche brings an immaculate reporter’s detail to these accounts, and adds a storytelling flair that made this book a quick, enjoyable read for me.

I’ve long been fascinated by the immense majesty of earth’s oceans, and the ships and stories its waters have borne across time. Even as modern technology has brought some mastery to man’s seafaring ways, the sea remains unconquerable. The world’s oceans do not yield to man in the same way that the elements do on land.

The first account is a primer on the international shipping regime and the efforts by nations and their navies to better manage its complexities and dangers. How does a country protect its coasts and ports? How does it manage the personnel and cargo coming and going in such unmanageable numbers and ways?

The shipping industry is largely an uncontainable shell game of multi-national, trans-national, and extra-national operators, moving furtively in the shadows and enormity of the space in pursuit of slim profits. Piracy is real, and large container ships are not immune. In a second story, Langewiesche tells the story of one such hijacking in Southeast Asia.

In a third and final story, we learn about the Indian ship breakers with welding torches who speed up the decomposition of decommissioned ships on the backs of poor laborers (who prefer this work over abject poverty) on the beaches of India in the face of international campaigns to stop them. The reality of this work is more complex than Greenpeace would suggest.

Langewiesche’s books have a poetic realism to them, where facts and characters are grittier than fiction. For those who love the mysteries of the ocean, and who want an introduction to the complexities and hazards of the global shipping industry, this is a fluid, eye-opening primer.

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I found this book in Pioneer Bookstore in Provo, Utah after enjoying the author’s book Sahara Unveiled a few years ago.… (més)

It is as vast as the United States and so arid that most bacteria cannot survive there. Its loneliness is so extreme it is said that migratory birds will land beside travelers, just for the company. William Langewiesche came to the Sahara to see it as its inhabitants do, riding its public transport, braving its natural and human dangers, depending on its sparse sustenance and suspect hospitality. From his journey, which took him across the desert's hyper arid core from Algiers to Dakar, he has crafted a contemporary classic of travel writing.

In a narrative studded with gem like discourses on subjects that range from the physics of sand dunes to the history of the Tuareg nomads, Langewiesche introduces us to the Sahara's merchants, smugglers, fixers, and expatriates. Eloquent and precise, Sahara Unveiled blends history and reportage, anthropology and anecdote, into an unforgettable portrait of the world's most romanticized yet most forbidding desert.… (més)

First published nearly thirty years ago, CUTTING FOR SIGN is a clear-eyed look at the continuing problem of our southern border and the unstoppable flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico and other countries into the U.S. Even in the 1990s the border was described by author Langewiesche as a "word game" -

"It is also grimy, hot and hostile. In most places it is ugly. The food is bad, the prices are high, and there are no good bookstores. The U.S. side is depressed by the filth and poverty in Mexico. The Mexican side is overrun by destitute peasants and roiled by American values. The border is transient. The border is dangerous. The border is crass. It is not the place to visit on your next vacation."

What? No good bookstores? Enough said - for me anyway. But seriously, not a lot has changed since the early nineties, except there are perhaps even more illegal immigrants looking for ways north. And it is still, despite the Trump era's ridiculous "Wall" etc., extremely easy to cross the border and evade the authorities. Langewiesche, an ex-commercial pilot who flew an air taxi in the border area, knows the territory and has done extensive research and numerous interviews with all concerned. His book makes excellent background reading for understanding the current problems at our southern border. Highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (més)