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Some days, you can’t get out there and have an adventure. On those days, adventurous stories are just the ticket.
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Going Dutch BY OBIE OBERHOLZER
Obie Oberholzer is a man of a singular vision. He quotes a psychologist friend in the pages of this, his 16th coffee table book: ‘He did once say that through all my flaws, faults and failings, I can sometimes find cohesion in the haphazard beauty in the imperfect and make something out of nothing.’ And that’s the kernel of it: beauty in the imperfect. He has an extraordinary empathy with his subjects, who are often people on the periphery; people most of us don’t even see. But Obie gives them dignity by showing that their stories are important, that they are important. Objects are treated with as much respect – a street, a building, a statue, a bridge, a dusty, forgotten little town. There is a handy explanation on the cover of this book: Nine towns with Dutch names in South Africa and their namesakes in The Netherlands. He wanders across the tale of South Africa, from VOC refreshment stop to Dutch colony to British colony to today, but this is not a whitewashing of history. His images explore the contrasts between the Dutch cities and the South African towns, often with nothing to link them but their names.
My First Frozen Adventure BY RIAAN MANSER
Most people would consider Riaan Manser a madman. But then, most people would not consider going on such epic adventures. It means they won’t get to experience the beauty and wonder and sheer magnificence of Earth or test themselves to the limit. But Riaan is a different kind of human. This is really good for the rest of us because we get to live his adventures through him, without staring death in the eye. His newest book is all about his latest adventure: kayaking around Iceland. Told you he was a madman. He takes a friend, Dan Skinstad, along for the paddle. Dan has cerebral palsy, but he was up for the challenge. And he crushed it. The two of them spent six months in their kayak, battling huge waves, massive blocks of ice, brutal weather and falling overboard. Strictly, the book is for children, but frankly, it’s enthralling for everyone. As with Riaan’s first two, My First African Adventure (around the outer edge of Africa on a bicycle) and My First Wild Island Adventure (around Madagascar on a kayak), this one is filled with interesting bits of information about Iceland, its geography, animals, people and food. So it’s educational, too.
Odyssey BY STEPHEN FRY
This is the final chapter in Stephen Fry’s retellings of the Greek myths, coming after Mythos, Heroes and Troy. And as you can gather from the title, it’s about Odysseus, a warrior hero and king of Ithaca. After 10 years, the war is over, Troy has fallen, and the victorious Greeks get back on their boats and make for home. Agamemnon must return to his wife, Clytemnestra, who is not pleased with her husband since he sacrificed their daughter to the gods for a favourable wind. And she has had a decade to plan her revenge. And what of Odysseus? He has been dreaming of returning to his wife, Penelope, and their son, Telemachus. But nothing worth having is ever easy. Odysseus has angered Poseidon, God of the Sea, who has cursed him to wander the oceans for another 10 years. This is not your average Mediterranean cruise. He crosses paths with one-eyed giants, six-headed monsters, storms, whirlpools, seductive witches and sirens, as well as jealous goddesses. It is a story for the ages, told and retold by many writers over the millennia – it has been dated to 725-675 BCE and attributed to the poet Homer. Stephen’s tale is a contemporary version, but no less enchanting.
Memoirs of a Geisha BY ARTHUR GOLDEN
This is a historical fiction novel by an American author and published in 1997, and so is a Western gaze on the East. It is about Nitta Sayuri, the narrator, and the trials she faces on the path to becoming a geisha in Kyoto, Japan, before, during and after World War II. It is a lyrical story, beloved by many, that has engendered a passion for Japan. It starts in 1929 when nine-year-old Sakamoto Chiyo and her sister are sold by their poverty-stricken father. Chiyo is taken to the Nitta okiya (geisha boarding house) in Gion to become a geisha, and her older sister is taken to a brothel in Kyoto’s pleasure district. As loved as the novel is, it is written by an American man as a Japanese woman in one of the most secretive communities in Japanese culture, which has brought a lot of criticism. And Arthur was sued by Mineko Iwasaki, a retired geisha he had interviewed for background information. She said he had agreed to protect her anonymity if she told him about her life as a geisha, but he named her in his acknowledgements. She later wrote an autobiography, Geisha of Gion, which shows a very different picture of 20th-century geisha life.
Content originally published in Getaway print.
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