Boundless Unenthusiasm

I mentioned The Boundless Sea on this blog back in 2021 – and wasn't too complimentary about it, since I felt it didn't quite live up to the over-the-top plaudits published on its cover.

At that point I was only 200 pages in... but now I've finished the other 700...

It was a close run thing, since David Abulafia's water-based great tale is distinctly, er, dry.

It's a remarkable – if ultimately rather dull – book. But it does do a good job of chronicling humanity's greed, violence and selfishness – all, sadly, the drivers of so much of the nautical exploration and adventures catalogued here.

Abulafia often speeds through complex and momentous events, but for some reason he always finds a little time to rubbish Thor Heyerdahl. He discounts the Norwegian adventurer's theories about westward migration across the Pacific from the Americas – and then dismisses him as a "self-publicist".

I know only a few things about Heyerdahl. But they include the fact that he put his life on the line more than once to test his theories... and he was a bloody good writer...

And Heyerdahl's books have all the passion that The Boundless Sea lacks.

The Goat Man's Tale

 

I've been away... I'm back... A lot of work and a lot of music has kept me from blogging for a while... But the surprise appearance of a wonderful new book has kicked me into writing something about it.

In all my travels over the decades and among all the amazing people I've encountered, one has to stand out... Tommy DiMaggio (aka the Goat Man).

Having hiked across the Arizona desert with him and his pack goats, I knew he was a master of many things. But I didn't realise he was such a damn fine writer.

Maybe that's because he has such great stories to tell... but it's also because he has a no-nonsense, cut-to-the-chase way of telling them. In fact, he writes like he speaks...

All My Employees Are Animals is part-autobiography, part-cookery book and all heart. There is laughter – and food – on just about every page as Tommy takes us from a warm but gritty childhood along the somewhat crazy road to his development as a cook and an extraordinary character.

I had just been re-reading The Real Frank Zappa Book when All My Employees Are Animals arrived unexpectedly. And I have to say there are some similarities on the page between Frank and Tommy... They are both honest American voices telling it like it is... 

Sadly, Tommy's book doesn't get as far as his Arizona goatpacking days... so surely there has to be another volume... or two?

All My Employees Are Animals is available here.