“A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World”, by Tony Horwitz

 

464 pages, Henry Holt and Co., ISBN-13: 978-0805076035

I found that perhaps the best thing about A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World is the fact that Horwitz actually took the quest himself and got to experience and see what it was like the best he could which, I believe, made him seem more credible and relatable to his readers. But this is more than just a travelogue, as Horwitz divides his time between an historical narrative of the Americas and a discussion of the current state of the localities that historical events and characters passed through, and his own experiences in those areas – which turns out being not so great.

Thus, we often find Horwitz in the middle of no-where but, because some famous figure camped there back in the 17^th Century or there was a huge Indian settlement there in the 16^th, he feels compelled to go stand there and tell you how boring it is and how bad the food was and how the motel had bedbugs. The reason that nobody goes there anymore is because there really is no reason to go there and most of the people he is following around didn’t want to be there either; add to that a lot of the time he can’t even be sure if that is the site he is supposed to be at in the first place, but Horwitz goes on and on about Podunk and BFE and doesn’t even bother to try to romanticize it…which, come to think of it, I actually rather appreciated, but it doesn’t make the book any more fun to read (really, you may think that L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, would make a great place to visit, until you read Horwitz’s description of his own travels there).

If you are someone who has a limited exposure to the history of the Americas, then this book is actually a pretty good primer. It will expose you to some interesting characters and some fascinating things about your own backyard that you never knew, which is always fun…but, if you are the sort of person who has a love for history (and you know who you are) then you will probably find this book as dull as I did.