No Man's Land

by John Heminway, John Hemingway

One of America's most distinguished travel writers and the PBS-TV host of hisown program presents a fascinating look at the world of white Africans today.

Genres: Africa, Travel

320 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1989

Reviews

[Mitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

William F. Buckley said this was the best book on Africa he'd ever read, and I have to concur. It doesn't seem like it would be, because it's a series of chapters that take a close look at various white ex-patriots' lives in Africa- a land they've come to love and realize they will never truly be a part of. Naturally this makes it melancholy at times, but it's so well written. The black perspective is missing, but that isn't this book's goal anyway. Instead it focuses on a time that was fast disappearing- gone now, in fact- and how the people who saw it going coped with its loss.

[Lavelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a bit dated - forty years old at this time. I enjoyed his writing but it felt like a history book..

[Bookguide · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed some of the essays in this book more than others. I wanted to know more about a couple of the people who John Heminway spent time with, and I was fascinated by the idea of game ranches, which I had never heard of before; I suspect they are difficult to set up cooperatively because of man's usual obsession with owning everything oneself and fencing it in.

For more comments and quotations, see my Bookcrossing review (journal 4): www.bookcrossing.com/journal/7849467