Wild Coast: Travels on South America's Untamed Edge

What a delightful book! John Gimlette writes with verve, wit and clarity, effortlessly imparting knowledge about a little-known corner of South America, the three Guianas. A travelogue combining history and present-day encounters, it is a charming tour de force.

Wild Coast: Travels on South America's Untamed Edge is a contemporary travel account mixed with history. It is a phenomenal book, some of which reads like good, old-fashioned travel narratives of earlier eras. Told over the space of nine chapters, the story alternates with the author's travels through Guyana, Surinam (or Suriname), and French Guiana. He's in good company: these regions were visited separately at one time by literary greats V.S. Naipaul (along with his brother Shiva) and Evelyn Waugh, whose sojourn through Guyana played a part in the creation of his most excellent novel Handful of Dust, as well as his own narrative of travel in Guyana and Brazil called 92 Days.

The author's travels are interesting on their own, but his show more extensive knowledge of the history of the three countries adds another dimension to this novel. One of his working ideas throughout the novel is that although "slavery seemed to have disappeared completely," it is "everywhere, even in the food and the way people lived". He notes that "every strand of Guianese life somehow led back to this point". To understand this concept, he takes his readers back in time, place to place, discussing not only slavery, but events leading up to the revolts of 1763 in the Barbice and again in Surinam of 1769, and what happened with the slaves who managed to escape afterwards. Truly fascinating stuff, but the book also incorporates the effects of colonization, racism, and immigration, as well as the geography, all of which have had a hand in making these areas what they are today. The history is quite necessary to the book, and there is the added bonus of all of the quirky people he happens to meet along his many journeys.

I very highly recommend this book -- one of the joys of reading it is that there is no sense that the author is trying to show us how interconnected our cultures are -- quite the opposite. Those types of travel narratives I can live without. In Wild Coast he shows that there are, inevitably, places in which the modern world has encroached, whether for good or for bad, but for the most part, there are still some mysteries left in these countries, vast areas of which are still dark and inaccessible. A truly fascinating read. show less

I have come to expect intriguing and humorous works from John Gimlette, and "Wild Coast" didn't let me down. I have been a fan of Gimlette since picking up "Tomb of the Inflatable Pig" some years ago and "Wild Coast" could be his best year. Gimlette takes us on a journey through Guyana, Surinam and French Guiana, introducing us to its people, its dark history and its uncertain future. To most people, the most one knows of the three countries is that Guyana is part of the West Indies cricket team (and the location of the Jamestown massacre), Surinam won a gold medal in swimming at the 1984 Olympics and French Guiana has a rocket launching site. This book gives you so much more.

And, yes, the book has increased my desire to visit these show more countries even more. show less

I am a traveler, and was thrilled to find a book about a part of the world that is rarely written about. My expectation with this book was to really get a sense of the three countries - the culture, a little history, the people...and some reasons to follow the author's lead in visiting them. So I guess I was using Gimlette as an advance team. To his credit he did a very nicely detailed job, it's clear that he spent the time and did his homework. That said, there's something about his style that doesn't compel me. With Theroux it's a love/ hate relationship...I'm always intrigued, am often irritated with his perspectives, am surprised by my agreement, and almost always want to take the same journey to see how I feel about it. With Bryson show more I laugh, I am satisfied that he has done his homework, and I want to go and meet the people he has met. With Gimlette, though, I found myself not wanting to do any of those things. What comes across as detailed, yeoman-like reporting really turns into a long slog through some apparently god-forsaken places. There is little to no humor. Anecdotes and compelling storylines are absent, and what we're left with is reporting and cold travelogue. Perhaps this is not much more than "Joe Friday's" trip report. I am sorry for being so critical, yet the more I think about it the less compelling the book is to me. Perhaps, though, as Gimlette illustrates, these three countries really are god-forsaken messes. I suppose I will have to go and see for myself, and for that I thank Gimlette. show less

Excellent. Travel writing as it should be. Interesting, inquiring, informative and entertaining...without being contrived.

This is an intriguing look into the three Guianas. It emphasises Guyana and Surinam far more than Guyane. Gimlette integrates the history into the present quite well.

Great stories....the only complaint is that there is too much information in the books. Tis difficult to keep everything straight. Very interesting, though!