Between Terror and Tourism: An Overland Journey Across North Africa
Travel writer and novelist (Lying with the Dead, 2009) Mewshaw has been to North Africa often; he reflects on prior experiences and contrasts them with present observations in this account of his 2008 passage through the region. Choosing a transportation altitude and route—on the ground from Alexandria to Tangier—that carries a degree of risk, Mewshaw depends on his wits, his French, and sometimes a guide to make his way. After giving an unflattering portrait of Alexandria, he detours to the Siwa oasis en route to Libya. His opinion of Qaddafi-land is lowered by a snafu at the border and boredom with Roman ruins. Mewshaw proceeds more optimistically to Tunisia to revisit places he saw in the 1970s; however, time and an overbuilt tourist industry have not improved them, so he presses on to violence-wracked Algeria. There, his driver Ahmed rises to all occasions, including finding Camus’ apartment and rescuing the author from arrest. Mewshaw wonderfully engages the travel reader’s vicarious demand for history, cultural insight, and unexpected incident. --Gilbert Taylor