MICHEL THE GIANT: AN AFRICAN IN GREENLAND by Tété-Michel Kpomassie #TuesdayBookBlog

5 GOLD stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: Birthday present from my sister.

In a Nutshell: Teenage boy in Togo, West Africa, in the 1950s, becomes obsessed with the idea of visiting Greenland after reading an article about it.  Eight years later, he arrives there.  This is the story of his adventure.

What a story!  

This is not a tale of picture book Inuit folk beaming by sledges as they break ice to fish and build igloos; the author discovered that Greenlanders are not the hardworking, innocent people of his imagination, either.

The memoir begins in Africa, showing Kpomassie's life in Togo. He explains his fascination with Greenland and determination to get there.  The first village he visits, Qaqortoq, on the southern coast, is friendly, yes, as the people drift in and out of each other's houses, are always happy to put up a visitor in colourful houses where the coffee pot is always on - but he also details the drunkenness that is as much a part of their life as the cold, and the casual attitude to sex: 'Greenland morality was beginning to disgust me'.  He is disappointed by the lack of adherence to their native culture, which is down to the influence of the Danish, who owned this enormous island at the time.  Since then, there has been a move to reassert their own cultural identity, self-rule has been established, and the country has been slowly moving towards complete independence from Denmark.

Qaqortoq, recent photo

Kpomassie eventually reaches the far north and discovers the hunters, the kayaks - the frozen world of which he'd dreamed.  Everywhere he is shown great hospitality, except in one village in the north where his only option is to stay with the poorest family in disgusting conditions (seriously, don't read it while you're eating).  He is clearly something of a celebrity, due to his colour and height, and I gathered that he's a rather charismatic man; everyone appears to like him, and he is very popular with the ladies.  In the far north, wife-swapping is a recreational activity, with public 'dances' especially for this purpose.

I love that he finally reached the far, far north, and played a full part in the lives of the people he met, hunting and fishing.

This is an honest, graphic and often funny account, as much about the day-today social life and people as a descriptive journal about the landscape and culture - it's not a pretty travelogue type of memoir at all.  Greenland is somewhere I've often wanted to visit; now, not so much.  Highly recommended to anyone who loves this sort of story - unputdownable!

Article about Kpomassie, now 80 years old, HERE

FARING FORTH AGAIN ON THE SHOE by Valerie Poore @vallypee

5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book:  I love Val Poore's travelogues, so always buy them when a new one comes out.

In a Nutshell:  Non-fiction, though Belgium to France on the author's barge

I read a big chunk of this book yesterday, in the bath and then whilst drying my hair (it's a long task).  When I'd finished, I stood up and realised that I had been completely immersed in Val Poore's world for the past couple of hours. To the extent that I just wanted to get back there.

This is a lovely book, detailing a trip from the Netherlands, where Val and her partner Koos live, through Flemish Belgium and then Val's beloved Wallonia, into France and back again.  As ever, I adored reading the snippets of historical interest, hearing about the people she meets, the simplicity of their life on board, her outlook about life in general (which I totally relate to), and her contentment just from being on her boat and enjoying the beauty of her surroundings.  Though it's not all bliss and country idylls; Val is a self-confessed worrier, especially when faced with the possibility of having to moor up too near a rough town.  There are many moments of humour, like when she went into a shop to buy sheets, not realising that, in her less-than-fluent French, she had asked the shopkeeper for flags.  😄

At the end of sections of the book there are links to Val's photos on Flickr; they took to long to load on my tablet, so I looked them up afterwards instead.  The link is HERE (yes, Val, he does look like a young Gerard Depardieu!).  I was most interested to see the enormous Strépy-Thieu Boat Lift - on the cover - as I couldn't imagine it, and also the enormous white scifi guillotine thing (you need to read the book!).

The only downside was that (again, as ever), reading this made me long to be on the Hennie Ha, too, faring through rural Belgium, on a sunny afternoon that lasts forever.  Thank you again, Val, for allowing us to enter your world for a while.

Please Don't Ask For Extra Glasses by Barb Taub @barbtaub

5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

On BookBub

How I discovered this book: I read the last book about Barb, Janine and Jaya's travels, loved it, so had to get this one too!

In A Nutshell: Humorous travel account, India

I've read excerpts on Barb Taub's blog of what would become this book, so was most pleased to see that they, and so much more, had arrived in Kindle format (and paperback).  When I first opened it on my tablet, I thought 'what's going on here?' because it seemed to be in PDF rather than Kindle style, but I soon understood why - it contains masses of fabulous photos of the trip, which add so much to the whole book (particularly the ones of Barb trying to mount and get down from a camel).  By a little deft fingerwork on the screen, you can not only make the text bigger, but the photos too.  There's so much splendid detail in the pictures; I very much appreciated this feature.

From the camel trip in the desert, to the elephant rides (and the avalanche of elephant-themed souvenirs), from Mr CallMeSami's transparent coffee, to masala papad (apparently the most wonderful snack food on earth) and a desert resort that I long to visit, this book is a total winner.  Not only is it beautifully presented, it would also be of use to anyone wanting to tour this part of India.  Other main attractions include many stories and legends attached to places Barb, Janine and Jaya visited, but, most of all, it's funny.  And I mean funny.

Well done Barb, well done Janine and Jaya for the photos, and I hope you manage to get back there again before too long!

THE SHADE UNDER THE MANGO TREE by Evy Journey

3.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

  

How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.  I couldn't resist that gorgeous cover, even before I read the blurb!

In a Nutshell: Romance and family dramas, set in Hawaii, California and Cambodia

This book was not as I expected from the blurb.  I did enjoy much of it, even though I was expecting to read about human relationships in general, travel, adventures in and the cultures of countries far away; however, this aspect of it does not start until Part 5, at 72% in the Kindle version.  For the most part, this book is a romance.

Luna and Lucien are two rather humourless, intense young people, both so introspective that I felt the powerful love between them was more about seeing a reflection of themselves in each other.  They meet because Luna leaves her journal in a café they both frequent, and Lucien finds and reads it.  I liked the beginning of the book, when Luna is young and spends her summers with her beloved grandmother in Hawaii; this came alive for me, making me feel nostalgic for a place I had never been to, which is always a good sign.  The grandmother was lovely, and I enjoyed reading about the life there.  As Luna grows older, falls in love for the first time and discovers secrets about her family, her naïveté is a little irritating, and I found Lucien's obsession with her and her journal a little creepy.

I could easily have skipped the drawn-out detail about their love affair to get to by far the most interesting part of the book: Luna's experiences in Cambodia.  I had limited knowledge about this country, and what I read made me want to find out more, so this certainly ticked a box.  

As for the writing itself, it flows very well, and the author writes nicely, though I found the dialogue rather unrealistic, particularly between Luna and Lucien. Much of the book is written in journal entry and letters between the two main characters, a structure I like, and alternates between their two points of view.  I found the main characters too bland to care much what happened between or to them, but this is only personal taste; other readers may see this story as a beautiful romance.  Had there been more about Hawaii and Cambodia and less about Lucien and Luna's self-absorption, I might have loved it.