Travels with Herodotus (Vintage International)

This book , only made me want to read other titles by the author. As I read more, I could evaluate how deeply knowledgeable the author is on every subject he writes about . Countries, facts , people, nature ! All is covered. Specifically this book sparked my curiosity on reading the book that inspired this one . On the ancient traveller , Herodotus .

I am celebrating the first day of 2009 by reviewing the best book I read in 2008. And the winner is -- "Travels with Herodotus," by Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski, who died of a fast cancer in early 2007. This book, along with "The Other," was published posthumously.Here is a man, landlocked and controlled by communism, whose greatest dream was to cross the border, just go over and return. A couple of years later, his editor sent him to India (!) with a copy of Herodotus's "Histories." This book was to accompany Kapuscinski for the rest of his life. And profoundly direct him."Travels" is a compilation of commentaries on some of his travels, Herodotus and his book, and its application to his own stories on the road. It is framed in memorable language--clear, vivid, and pictorial."He had a gray, ravaged face, covered in wrinkles. A musty, cheap suit hung loosely on this thin, bony frame....Tears were flowing down his cheeks. And a moment later I heard a suppressed but nevertheless distinct sob. "I'm sorry," he said to me. "I'm sorry. But I didn't believe that I would return.""It was December 1956. People were still coming out of the gulags" (38).On Amazon's Product Page, RK's friend Tahir Shah tells the reader that RK kept two notebooks on his trips. One was for his news stories; the other kept his travel notes that lead to his books. RK reveals his journalist's mind early on to ask all kinds of questions about Herodotus. What kind of toys did he play with? Who did he sit next to in school? Did his mother hug him goodnight? Where did he die? Under what circumstances? He reveals the journalist's propensity to ask questions.When RK visited China for stories, he came to see the Great Wall as a metaphor...."to shut oneself in, fence oneself off" (59). This is the second assignment, the first being India, where RK discovered himself as The Other, which became the title of the second posthumously published book.In his chapter on memory RK ruminates on what memory is and why Herodotus undertook his vast traveling plans. Because memory is elusive, he wanted to "prevent the traces of human events from being erased by time," so he set out on his "enqueries," which RK terms "investigations." He wanders the world, meeting people, listening to what they tell him, or as RK terms him: Herodotus is the first globalist. But he is also "a reporter, an anthropologist, an ethnographer, a historian" (79). Herodotus is "the first to discover the world's multicultural nature" and that we must know and embrace "others" (80).When RK first set out to "cross the border' of Poland, he had no idea he would cover news in Africa, India, China, Malaysia, Central and South American. And in reading and studying Herodotus, he learns much about the world. In places where he had to wait, he spent it pouring over Herodotus's words and retells many of the stories therein.If you saw the movie "300" with Gerard Butler, you may remember how huge Xerxes was--a literal giant. Herodotus makes no mention of such size, but does describe Xerxes in terms writ large. In other words, Xerxes was larger than life. This story is just one of many that RK retells from Herodotus, each more fascinating than the one before."Travels with Herodotus" is rich with details, observations, anecdotes, stories that require crackling fires. It is the story of Ryszard Kapuscinski's travels, it is the story of Herodotus's travels. It is must reading and will enrich your life more than you can imagine."His [Herodotus's] most important discovery? That there are many worlds. And that each is different. Each is important" (264). We could say that about RK's work, as well.

good condition prompt arrival

RK's big dream as a young man and aspiring journalist in post-war newly communist Poland was 'to cross the border', by which he meant in first place Czechoslovakia (which, as some may know, does not exist any more). He got what he wanted and then some. His paper sent him to India, in the mid 50s. He was totally overwhelmed and understood next to nothing. Next came China - even worse: the great wall of the language being insurmountable. His exposures to India and China were failures for his world view, but they taught him humility.I wish every journalist and world traveller would be intelligent enough to react the same way to cultural divides. This humility defines RK as a great reporter and as a decent human being.He diverted his attention to more accessible places, as far as understanding was concerned.He travelled 'with Herodotus', but not in the sense of trying to follow his steps. He seems to have carried the Histories with him on most of his trips and he seems to have learned how to investigate, ask questions, listen, report.The result is a lovely mixture of memoir, travel snippets, and reading experiences summarized from Herodotus. The big question in the book in the book, ie in the Histories, is: why is there the big conflict between East and West? Herodotus is full of allusions, and RK makes full use of them. The Polish translation of the Histories, the edition that RK carried with him, was ready for publication in 51, but no publisher dared bringing it out before 55, for fear of Stalin's censors. After all, are those stories of antique tyrants not possibly meant to be hidden anti-communist propaganda?RK speculates about the man Herodotus, trying to make deductions about the man from his methods. He criticizes the usual book title: it should not be 'Histories', but 'Investigations'.Two chapters have special meaning for me:one is his visit to Algeria during the coup in the mid 60s, when independance hero Ben Bella was deposed by Boumedienne. For RK it was a pivotal time: he began to understand H's way of investigation and began to try and work like him.For me, the chapter has an illuminating reflection on Islam: RK distinguishes 'desert Islam' from 'sea Islam', ie the fundamentalist version that goes back to the times of the origin in the Arabian peninsula, vs the modernized, open, flexible version that lives on the Mediterranian shores and tries to adjust to times.Another chapter that rings a chord with me is his visit to the Congo in civil war times, in the footsteps of his great compatriot Korzeniowski.It was scary in the heart of darkness, and RK found true loneliness fce to face with absolute violent power. Scary.

Travels with Herodotus is an engaging book but not one of its author’s best. Reminiscences about his early travels in Asia and Africa are meshed with reflections on Herodotus, whose personality, goals and methods impressed Kapuscinski a lot. This technique works fairly well but the Herodotus sections tend to outstay their welcome, especially if the reader doesn’t share Kapuscinski’s enthusiasm. He speculates rather too freely about Herodotus and takes his hero’s fantasies far too seriously. While the young Kapuscinski comes across as sympathetic and humanely responsive to new surroundings and people, Herodotus emerges as a misogynistic eccentric. Also, Kapuscinski’s stylistic tic of posing a string of questions, none of which he answers, becomes annoying in this book. 3.5

Ryszard Kapinscinski was made Poland's journalist of the century in 1999 and judging by his writing must have been truly deserved. He wrote thrillingly of his travels as a foreign correspondant in the worlds toughest countries. Sadly 'Travels' is his final book due to his death in January this year.Having recently read Shadow of the Sun I was eager to seek out more of his writing and was therefore delighted that this publication from 2004 has been translated. It does not disappoint.This non fiction book covers three areas. His youth in post war Poland, his travels as a reporter for PAP in the 50s and early 60s and through out the book it is bulked up by his musings on the travels of the 3rd Century BC Greek Herodotus. All of this make fascinating and gripping reading.RK always writes with humility and understanding of the hardship and bleak poverty he encounters. His empathy clearly stems from his childhood in Poland and he relates a moving story about himself at 10 years old with no shoes trying to fund a new pair for the cold winter by selling green home made soap door to door with very little luck. His stoicism in these harsh circumstances must have helped to give him his unique and intrepid personality. He goes forth with a sort of naive bravado setting foot in countries where there is civil war, disease and unbearable climate and in the begining at least unable to speak any language but Polish and Russian.The stories of Herodotus are interspersed thorughout and are not always obviously relevant. Nevertheless it has made me want to read more about the Greek and I will be seeking a copy soon.RK has perfected a simplicity of writing which is always interesting. He give the reader gold nuggets of information and insights into other worlds. His slightly gullible nature often leads to near misses including a close shave after being lured to the top of a ramshackle disused minaret in Egypt by a dodgy character.This is a lovely final work by a great journalist.From his thought of Herodotus - 'His most important discovery and that one must learn about them, because these other worlds, these other cultures are mirrors in which we can see ourselves. Thanks to which we understand ourselves better - for we cannot define our own identity until having confronted that of others as comparison'.

Ryszard Kapinscinski was made Poland's journalist of the century in 1999 and judging by his writing must have been truly deserved. He wrote thrillingly of his travels as a foreign correspondant in the worlds toughest countries. Sadly 'Travels' is his final book due to his death in January this year.Having recently read Shadow of the Sun I was eager to seek out more of his writing and was therefore delighted that this publication from 2004 has been translated. It does not disappoint.This non fiction book covers three areas. His youth in post war Poland, his travels as a reporter for PAP in the 50s and early 60s and through out the book it is bulked up by his musings on the travels of the 3rd Century BC Greek Herodotus. All of this make fascinating and gripping reading.RK always writes with humility and understanding of the hardship and bleak poverty he encounters. His empathy clearly stems from his childhood in Poland and he relates a moving story about himself at 10 years old with no shoes trying to fund a new pair for the cold winter by selling green home made soap door to door with very little luck. His stoicism in these harsh circumstances must have helped to give him his unique and intrepid personality. He goes forth with a sort of naive bravado setting foot in countries where there is civil war, disease and unbearable climate and in the begining at least unable to speak any language but Polish and Russian.The stories of Herodotus are interspersed thorughout and are not always obviously relevant. Nevertheless it has made me want to read more about the Greek and I will be seeking a copy soon.RK has perfected a simplicity of writing which is always interesting. He give the reader gold nuggets of information and insights into other worlds. His slightly gullible nature often leads to near misses including a close shave after being lured to the top of a ramshackle disused minaret in Egypt by a dodgy character.This is a lovely final work by a great journalist.From his thought of Herodotus - 'His most important discovery and that one must learn about them, because these other worlds, these other cultures are mirrors in which we can see ourselves. Thanks to which we understand ourselves better - for we cannot define our own identity until having confronted that of others as comparison'.

Just a comment on my own 'before reading' expectations, which were that Kapuscinski would follow similar routes to those described in Herodutus, that is, covering the same geographical ground. That would have been a bit fruitless, yes, as the world has changed beyond recognition in 2500 years, and even human nature seems to have been jacked up to generally more decent levels than of yore. Rather, the Greek classic accompanied a Polish journalist on travels over a much wider range, including Africa, China and India and over a time range of 30 years. There are some nuggets of understanding and observation of the 20th century world that are really worth reading and the parallel world of Herodutus offers a context in which to put it. Nice book, you won't regret it if you share my tastes.

I think when you've read a lot of Kapuscinski the bar is automatically very high. I did enjoy reading "Travels with Herodotus" but not quite as much as some of his other books hence 4 rather than 5 stars. I really enjoyed the parts of the book that were purely Kapuscinski's travels and accounts but found it harder to get into the Herodotus parts. Still all up an excellent book.