To the Moon and Timbuktu

Posted on 18 May 2017 by Nina Sovich

Nina Sovich had always yearned for adventures in faraway places she imagined herself leading the life of a solitary traveler Yet at the age of thirty four, she found herself married and contemplating motherhood Catching her reflection in a window spotted with Paris rain, she no longer saw the fearless woman who spent her youth travelling in Cairo, Lahore, and the West Bank staring back at her Unwittingly, she had followed life s script, and now she needed to cast it out.Inspired by female explorers like Mary Kingsley, who explored Gabon s jungle in the 1890s, and Karen Blixen, who ran a farm in Kenya during World War I, Sovich packed her bags and hopped on the next plane to Africa in search of adventure.To the Moon and Timbuktu takes readers on a fast paced trek through Western Sahara, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger, bringing their textures and flavors into vivid relief On Sovich s travels, she encounters rough and tumble Chinese sailors, a Venezuelan doctor working himself to death in Chinguetti, indifferent French pensioners RVing along the coast, and a close knit circle of Nigerien women who adopt her into their fold, showing her the promise of Africa s future. Read To the Moon and Timbuktu – kino-fada.fr Having been an adventurous foreign journalist, Sovich s new married life in Paris, with a monotonous job, conformist culture, and daily luxury, produces in her that kind of middle class depression and ennui only an extended trip to Africa could fix This is her part autobiography, part travelogue, mostly self indulgent writings on her experiences, which include some real moments of introspection but also a great deal of stupidity and outright ridiculousness Frankly, at times she got on my nerve Having been an adventurous foreign journalist, Sovich s new married life in Paris, with a monotonous job, conformist culture, and daily luxury, produces in her that kind of middle class depression and ennui only an extended trip to Africa c...I had very mixed feelings about this travelogue At times it was very engaging and interesting to hear about Sovich s trek through the western part of Africa Her encounters with locals are eye opening, appealing accounts of an oft ignored area and the detailed information about the different countries kept me listening It s with Sovich s personal journey with which I take issue Poor, poor ...I cannot remember why exactly I ordered this book and added it to my reading list, but I am sure it has something to do with Timbuktu I have always been fascinated with this dreamy African city, whose history and culture is just as deep, rich and heavy as the weight of its name on our tongues I loved it for its mouth filling name I even once said I would call my own daughter Timbuktu It is only when the author Nina Sovich started describing her own obsession with Timbuktu, that I started I cannot remember why exactly I ordered this book and added it to my reading list, but I am sure it has something to do with Timbuktu I have always been fascinated with this dreamy African city, whose history and culture is just as deep, rich and heavy as the weight of its name on our tongues I loved it for its mouth filling name I even once said I would call my own daughter Timbuktu It is only when the author Nina Sovich started describing her own obsession with Timbuktu, that I started to realize that there might bein common between myself and her Henceforth, I related to her in some odd and various things.In the first pages of To the Moon and Timbuktu , it gave ...Full of ennui after deciding that her former exciting life as a nomadic journalist which had been full of travel and adventure has been exchanged for one that is a dull, boring, and stressful 9 to 5 rut spent amongst the bourgeois of Paris, writer Nina Sovich decides to shake things up by traveling through Western Africa for some serious solitude and introspection Feeling stagna...I really enjoyed reading about her travels, all the different cultures and her journey both internal and outward I do think her writing strength is when she is describes the people she meets of the dialogue between herself and others I did find the journey itself a bit self indulgent, not to the extent of Eat, Pray, Love which I am sure this book is being compared to I like that she went to places one generally does not get to learn about and I have to give her credit because I do not believe I really enjoyed reading abo...Reading about Africa, travel, women, non fiction Seemed my most enjoyable genre Not sure if this measures up to what I expected Author is ambivalent over so many different things A bit foolhardy IMHO traveling to remote parts of the African contine...This is a travel memoir of an educated, intelligent American mid 30 s female journalist, who is married to a Frenchman with whom she lives in a Parisian apartment It is a Paris that she describes as being constantly rainy and always grey She hates her job which does sound a nightmare and she is unsettled in her marriage, about the future possibility of motherhood and in where she lives She seems to dislike the French for no other reason it seems than they are so Gallic and French To address This is a travel memoir of an educated, intelligent American mid 30 s female journalist, who is married to a Frenchman with whom she liv...I loved this travel memoir so much the author, Nina Sovich, describes the people and places of Africa not often written about or traveled to like the Western Sahara, Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, and Niger, and she does so brilliantly On every page you are suddenly transported to the small Sahara towns, to ghostly Mauritanian cities, and many a town or village darkened by poverty, inthan just a visual sense Her writing allows the reader to actually feel the places she visits and underst I loved this travel memoir so much the author, Nina Sovich, describes the people...What do you do when your life seems unfulfilling and staid, and wanderlust inhabits your core If you are Nina Sovich, you plan a cross Africa trip in an effort to drive your restlessness out and let you settle down in grey Paris.As she tells it, Sovich picked Timbuktu as her ultimate destination because it seemed tangible a place she had heard of but was far off the beaten path I m not sure she is ever really sure what she s looking for some kind of closure, or a next step, or something What do you do when your life seems unfulfilling and staid, and wanderlust inhabits your core If you are Nina Sovich, you plan a cross Africa trip in an effort to drive your restlessness out and let you settle down in grey Paris.As she tells it, Sovich picked Timbuktu as her ultimate destination because it seemed tangible a place she had heard of but was far off the beaten path I m not sure she is ever really sure what she s looking for some kind of closure, or a next step, or something undefinable I also am guilty of romanticizing Timbuktu, I suppose I came to Timbuktu for the name, and not I too am burdening the town I am bringing my baggage to this sunbaked end of the road town and asking it to provide beauty and meaning I am asking it to be something it is not. page 2...This book reminded me of Andrew Boland s book Dhaka to Dakar, which I read last month Both authors seemed to rush from town to town in Western Africa They would stay a night or two, then move on Staying only in one place long enough to procure the transportation for the next town Nina Sovich is lucky she married a husband that didn t mind her traveling in Africa for months at a time This book is well written, and she does give some interesting descriptions of the countries she traveled thro This book reminded me of Andrew Boland s boo...

English
18 May 2017

Nina Sovich