Mark Scherz’s Reviews > The Gardens of Mars: Madagascar, an Island Story > Status Update

So much of this book is Gimlette recounting books by other (probably better) writers. While I appreciate the insights into histories I’ve not personally read, at this point I think an annotated bibliography might have been more useful to me.

I have mixed feelings on Gimlette’s writing on the west and south. On the one hand, some of the language used still has pretty condescending, colonial vibes. On the other, it does do a tolerably accurate job of relaying the atmosphere and environment of that part of Madagascar.

Gimlette’s writing is surprisingly disjointed. Some thoughts span a couple pages, and then end abruptly and are interrupted by completely unrelated ones. It’s like an 18th century travelogue, only less well written. Some word choice also smacks of 18th century, like the constant ‘African’ vs ‘Asian’ paradigm he uses to describe the people.

I am really not enjoying this book. Gimlette’s word choice, especially referring to Malagasy people and their skin colour, is particularly uncomfortable. He consistently calls Malagasy people ‘Malagasies’, a term I have never heard in over a decade working in Madagascar. He even mentions that Malagasy has no plurals, then pluralises the word for them. And that’s honestly the least of the offences.