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Clover Park Press publisher of books about life's wonders and wanderings |
Harmattan: A Journey Across the Sahara
, by Geraldine Kennedy| "For those in a hurry, here is the bottom line
on Harmattan, Geraldine Kennedy's new book: Get it. Beg, borrow or
steal it. Read it. You will laugh. You will learn. You will be inspired. Nothing
better reveals the spirit and courage necessary to create a new world for
the 21st Century."
Sargent Shriver, Founding Director of the Peace Corps
". . . affecting travel and spiritual adventure . . . Writing with a sense of immediacy, Kennedy . . . evokes the magic and awesomeness of the alternatingly hot and frigid desert lashed by the Harmattan wind and sand . . . The unpredictable, rugged, often dangerous conditions . . . served both to forge and strain bonds among the temperamentally diverse travelers . . ." Publishers Weekly |
"Harmattan is an utterly riveting narrative
and, in the stunning, seductive world of travel literature, an instant classic,
an unforgetable contribution."
Bob Shacochis, Author, Swimming in the Volcano
"This beautifully written book carries you across the Sahara. If you loved the film "Lawrence of Arabia", if you enjoy beautiful writing and yearn for a good book, if you are intrigued by the Peace Corps mystique, if you like good stories about courageous women, or if you want to relive the spirit of the early '60s in Africa, this book is for you. "Harmattan" is one of those rare books, written with such simple beauty it can be read and enjoyed by readers of all ages. Geraldine Kennedy's book is better written and better edited than most books today from much larger publishers. She knows how to write just enough to sweep the reader into the lives of herself and her four companions who make this epic journey across the Sahara in 1964. The story is gripping throughout because of the incredible boldness of this trek by five women and because of the dramatic interplay of the characters. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa in 1965 myself, and this book captures the spirit with shocking effect. I stayed up half the night reading it. Linda Donelson, Author, Out of Isak Dinesen in Africa: the Untold Story |
| "Their story is truly amazing as, thanks to
both naîveté and determination, they accomplish what few men
even dare to try . . . Kennedy transports us back to a time when America was
still innocent and five young women could rely on the kindness of strangers
in making their way."
Booklist, The American Library Association
"One of the most exciting books I've read. I savored it like Kon Tiki because both seem so wonderfully improbable as undertakings. Read it!" Carolyn Heilbrun, Author, Writing a Woman's Life |
"After Eisenhower and before Vietnam was a
lovely time to be young and American and on the loose in an optimistic world,
and Kennedy records her adventure lovingly. And honestly too - the five young
women were an unlikely grouping and got sick of each other . . . The depth
of understanding that grows in her is with the desert, with her place in
the human race, and with herself . . . now written down in this book full
of wisdom and heart."
Richard Lipez, World View Magazine
"Outstanding!" Brother Leo V. Ryan, Reader |
| "La época de la narración nos ubica en 1964 a muy poco
tiempo del asesinato del Presidente Kennedy. Cinco jóvenes americanas,
partes de los Peace Corps -Cuerpos de la Paz- parten hacia Algeria a desempenarse
como maestras. La travesía dura siete semanas y las hace recorrer
miles de kilómetros desde Liberia en el Sur hasta Algeria sobre el
Mar Mediterráneo.
Los Medios de transporte son varios, desde camellos hasta viejos camiones que las obligan a viajar en la caja entre animales domésticos, frutas, muebles y cualquier otra cosa que el conductor del vehiculo decida transportar. El libro no es una narración descriptiva del desierto sino un pormenorizado estudio do los personajes reales en condiciones extremas. Geraldine Kennedy es una extraordinaria escritora que sin ningún esfuerzo y con un riquisimo vocabulario inglés nos lleva por experiencias a veces cómicas y otras llena del dramatismo de las situaciones inesperadas y peligrosas que se pueden vivir en lugares desconocidos y entre pueblos do pensamiento y conducta totalmente diferentes al mundo occidental. Un libro ameno donde los franceses que habitan el desierto son dibujados en toda su fragilidad social. " C. A. Squire, La Informacion, Houston, Texas |
"This is a book for any woman who has attempted
or dreamed of a quixotic quest. It is through Kennedy's eyes that we watch
the desert test and forge the woman she will become. Her lyrical writing,
spiced with a wry humor, involves the reader from the first paragraph.
Zinder was the place on the edge of the Sahara where they kept and told the desert stories. They knew of the men lost - sixteen Arabs in three trucks swallowed last spring -and those spared, praise Allah, to return to Zinder. A strange sort of anticipation permeated life there, a foreboding of misfortune inevitable as the wind swirling dust through the alleys, against the ancient ageless mesquite, under skirts, and over piles of peppers and yams. The Harmattan blew. Resignation replaced hope. Endurance meant survival. Despite the wind, winter was the preferred time for travel in the desert. Death, the people said, accompanied the summer trips of fools. As a reader, I immediately signed on for this journey. When the five women leave the desert at Algiers, I felt an exhilaration, a feeling of accomplishment. My life also had been enriched by their journey. For I now too am the keeper of one of the stories told by the old men on the edge of the desert, the story of "desmoiselles formidables." Patty Perrin, Ashland Gazette, Ashland, Oregon |
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