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Elephant Complex: Travels in Sri Lanka, by John Gimlette
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No one sees the world quite like John Gimlette. As The New York Times once noted, “he writes with enormous wit, indignation, and a heightened sense of the absurd.” Writing for both the adventurer and the armchair traveler, he has an eye for unusually telling detail, a sense of wonder, and compelling curiosity for the inside story. This time, he travels to Sri Lanka, a country only now emerging from twenty-six years of civil war. Delving deep into the nation’s story, Gimlette provides us with an astonishing, multifaceted portrait of the island today.
His travels reveal the country as never before. Beginning in the exuberant capital, Colombo (“a hint of anarchy everywhere”), he ventures out in all directions: to the dry zones where the island’s 5,800 wild elephants congregate around ancient reservoirs; through cinnamon country with its Portuguese forts; to the “Bible Belt” of Buddhism—the tsunami-ravaged southeast coast; then up into the great green highlands (“the garden in the sky”) and Kandy, the country’s eccentric, aristocratic Shangri-la. Along the way, a wild and often desperate history takes shape, a tale of great colonies (Arab, Portuguese, British, and Dutch) and of the cultural divisions that still divide this society. Before long, we’re in Jaffna and the Vanni, crucibles of the recent conflict. These areas—the hottest, driest, and least hospitable—have been utterly devastated by war and are only now struggling to their feet.
But this is also a story of friendship and remarkable encounters. In the course of his journey, Gimlette meets farmers, war heroes, ancient tribesmen, world-class cricketers, terrorists, a former president, old planters, survivors of great massacres—and perhaps some of their perpetrators. That’s to say nothing of the island’s beguiling fauna: elephants, crocodiles, snakes, storks, and the greatest concentration of leopards on Earth.
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Here is a land of extravagant beauty and profound devastation, of ingenuity and catastrophe, possessed of both a volatile past and an uncertain future—a place capable of being at once heavenly and hellish—all brought to vibrant, fascinating life here on the page.
From the Hardcover edition.
- Sales Rank: #404359 in eBooks
- Published on: 2016-02-16
- Released on: 2016-02-16
- Format: Kindle eBook
Review
"It is hard to think of a more astute and sympathetic companion for a journey around the island and into Sri Lanka’s episodic bouts of madness. . . . He writes beautifully, all freshness and verve. And he is also very funny. . . .�Mr. Gimlette is as astute as ever, and lyrical." --The Wall Street Journal
"Brilliant." --The Telegraph�(UK)
"Gimlette brings a brisk barrister-like inquisition to proceedings, allied with amiable good humour and a searching interest in the history of peoples and places. . . .�Gimlette has assembled a splendidly eclectic cast of characters to illuminate this complicated nation . . .�Rich in humour, full of insight and humanity,�Elephant Complex�is a very fine tribute to this enigmatic island nation." --The Spectator (UK)
"An intrepid journey to the famously reclusive island unearths a paradise amid trauma and obfuscation.�. . .�An exuberant, eye-opening travel quest." --Kirkus
"Gorgeous evocations of landscapes, sharp-eyed thumbnails of characters and eccentrics, and an endless font of amusing anecdotes drawn from [Gimlette's] own picaresque adventures and from the follies of royals and imperialists. . . .�Gimlette’s blend of dry wit, entertaining reportage, and perceptive insights makes for another tour de force of travel writing and history, lushly green but edged in darkness." --Publishers Weekly
About the Author
JOHN GIMLETTE�has won the Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize and the Wanderlust Travel Writing Award, and he contributes regularly to The Times (London), The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, and Cond� Nast Traveller. When not traveling, he practices law in London.
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Too many details for its own good, but well worth the time.
By DanD
With an eye for the unusual, and an impressive insight for culture, John Gimlette's ELEPHANT COMPLEX is an interesting read, chronicling the author's journeys through Sri Lanka. Gimlette's cast of characters is truly interesting--be they comic, tragic, or unsettling--and his prose is laced with humor and a certain wit.
What keeps this book from getting that fourth star, however, is its heavy-handed use of detail. ELEPHANT COMPLEX may have been better served as two, maybe three books, each with a more narrowed focus. That said--this is certainly an interesting read, and one of those books that, after you put it down, you feel like you gained something from the experience. That doesn't happen very often, at least not to me.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Interesting but difficult to read.
By Carol C.
I was very excited to have an opportunity to preview this book, as I generally enjoy travel books and learning about different cultures. I was particularly interested in learning more about Sri Lanka and its history. I muddled through this, a few pages at a time. This book was very difficult for me to read. Gimlette used language I was not familiar with and many words I did not know. I felt like the writing was very academic rather than conversational, and it took me some time to get a sense of what Sri Lanka is all about. It was difficult to make sense of some of the contradictions -- Sri Lanka is described as so beautiful, but many of the scenes described seemed decrepit and chaotic. It was also difficult to sort out and make sense of the issues with the Tamil and the Sinhalese.
This book might be more accessible to someone with more foundational knowledge about the history of Sri Lanka. For me, I think it will take some time and perhaps a rereading to grasp the full import.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Another great book by John Gimlette
By nuffsaid
Gillette is simply a terrific writer. Sly, Witty, hard-nosed, learned, with no annoying tics or bouts of self-infatuation. He obviously does a great deal of research before he begins his travels and is therefore able to weave cogent comments of other writers into his narrative.
He's just incapable of writing a boring word.
His book on WW2 , Panther Soup, is also very good but not quite as much fun as this one, given the somber subject matter.
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