The 15 last April he received an email that began like this (I hope the author forgives me confidence): “There you have it. About to leave the printing press. You are going to be my first reader. This is the definitive version of «Journey to the Sources of the Blue Nile. A route through northern Ethiopia », After the three hours I threw myself correcting in the publisher on Friday morning, With a remarkable hangover, after bed at three in the morning and get up at seven (one has to be faithful to himself until the end)”.
What I had was Ricardo Coarasa's book, my friend, My partner, on Ethiopia. I do not deceive anyone with this criticism for those who want to question it: He is my friend and is my partner. Then, We faced the reader and the writer who is what I speak now. Of a text, of a story. They do not make the mistake of believing that I speak from the heart. It is not true.
Talked about mud reverte, history, Journalism ... My feeling is that I spoke of forcefulness, Information, deep
I had to read it on my small computer screen, Without the smell and touch of paper. Fucked start. I started reading carefully what the teacher and also friend Javier Reverte said of this work, what does the prologue. Talked about mud reverte, history, Journalism ... My feeling is that I spoke of forcefulness, Information, deep. That is what I deduced that I wanted to say about Coarasa's book.
I must say after reading it that I share that point of view. This book is an essential for anyone who intends to meet that country, Not just travel it. Has a lot of history, of detailed and chosen information, of intelligent reflection selected among many reflections. Ricardo has read a lot and moves him to his manuscript. I will say it more directly: This is a very worked book.
Smart reflection selected among many reflections
I know, I know, that the author has been making it years. All that is in these pages. There is no frugality, Artifice games, Wikipedia ... there are a lot of information collected for months and a narrative of a well told trip. That is important, The book has a perfect conjunction between historical data, Personal anecdotes, The references of other authors, The route and thorough descriptions. It is a book that at the end leaves you with the feeling of having already kicked those dust paths, having been without being, wanting to be because you haven't been.
A travel rhythm has the narration, Attentive. There are travel books that the reader engulfs to compare them with their past or future experiences. Or I was there on a trip or I will be and I want to read what others of my longing for yesterday or tomorrow say. Como Dice Vikrahm Seth, In his wonderful "from Lake Del Cielo", "Sometimes it seems to me that the world only to accumulate material for future nostalgia". Travel literature has a lot of that, Read to read us, To try to discover us in the pages of others. This book seems interesting to those who don't even want, Don't even go, nor have they thought of a second in their life in Ethiopia. It is because the past and present of this place, I did not know by absolute, is fascinating. There has no Ricardo merit ... I think.
Travel literature has a lot of that, Read to read us, To try to discover us in the pages of others
«Trip to the sources of the Blue Nile» tells in detail the exciting and unknown history of a country and then confront it to its present. That is what I liked the most about this book. Do not talk about him, Talk about others. There are hundreds of authors spilling books from their exploits around the world. They turned into stars of their own stories. I like books narrated from the stomach and your own hands, First person trips, But without falling into the easy resource to become protagonists of everything, Even them. This today. It is respectable, But it's not my choice.
There are so many examples of that easy success among a mass that longs for heroes. So fashionable, so sterile, so of rapid consumption, With so much success ... to find a thorough work that is based on the previous reading of dozens of books, In observation, In rigor ... it's almost a feat. I have traveled with Ricardo, I have traveled Uganda and I have seen him correct guides who knew less about the history of his country than my partner who had just arrived. Ricardo has both scholar and passionate about drinking all the beers that offer him in the bar of a bar at dawn. It is a love of literature, of rites, of historical feats of others. He is not Stanley or Mallory or Shackleton. He wanted to be, but was born 150 years later. They form part of their genetics, of its roots, their skin. Richard travels to meet, with the curiosity of a journalist, Writer, which launches the world understand and explain.
He is not Stanley or Mallory or Shackleton. He wanted to be, but was born 150 years later
The last 15 pages of his book of Ethiopia seem an intelligent and brilliant reflection. “A nation with such a historical draft has the right to look out the future, even at the risk of dying of vertigo before the precipice ", Ricardo says. These last pages are also a reflection of the journalist's culture, accustomed to analyze and draw conclusions from the looks of others.
We are facing a fabulous text, The reader thinks. "I would have liked to be able to write such a book", The partner thinks.
P. D. Your friend and your partner is allowed luxury, in the last line, to take the floor and tell him a simple “congratulations friend, You wrote a great book ".
