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Bezig met laden... AA Gill is Away (editie 2005)door A.A. Gill (Auteur)
Informatie over het werkAA Gill is Away door A. A. Gill
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. I first heard of A.A. Gill through his acerbic restaurant reviews so naturally I needed to read his travel tome "A.A. Gill is Away". Here Gill exercises his travel writing skills, covering places and events like the long delayed funeral of Haile Selassie, the "murder" of the Aral Sea and Gill even takes the time to write a script for a pornographic film shot in California, where he meets the legendary Ron Jeremy. Sadly Mr Gill passed away a few years back so there will not be more books authored by him in the future but his oeuvre is as strong as anyone, and I'll certainly be reading anything of his that I can bet my grubby hands on. This is a series of articles about AA Gill's travels around the world. The stories range from extraordinary, bitter and funny depictions of parts of the world that are often little known, to rather better known areas observed just a bit differently. The quality of the stories varies from 5 star to 3 star, but are almost always interesting. This is another book I used to flick through during the endless tedious hours at my bookstore job. AA Gill is a British columnist, ostensibly a travel writer, but not the kind with a tagline at the end which says "the writer was a guest of X Travel." Gill is as much a political and social writer as he is a travel writer, and this compendium of his columns for the Sunday Times ranges across topics from a Sudanese famine to the California pornography industry to one of the worst environmental disasters of all time - the drying up of the Aral Sea by Soviet agriculture. This one in particular struck me with its ending, because I've noticed at my current job how British journalism is typically incapable of wrapping up a story without some kind of neat ending: A story like this, a story of such unremitting misery, ought to end with a candle of hope. There should be something to be done. Well, I'm sorry, but there isn't. Plenty of better men with clipboards and white Land Cruisers have been here to put it back together again, but they've retreated, dumbfounded and defeated. Gill is notorious for his scathing criticism and "rapier wit," but in the prologue he says: "Like many writers who resort to humour, really, I want to be taken very, very seriously." He succeeds at both, with a distinctive writing style that's both funny and thought-provoking, and I definitely intend to buy his other books. I received this book for Christmas having never read Gill before. It is a collection of articles written for the Sunday Times and GQ magazine arranged geographically into chapters South, East, West & North. I think the book started well with the articles on Africa - the one on Uganda was outstanding. Throughout he challenges the reader: we all know the problems faced by people of Africa but how much do we really care? Do we get up and actively do something or do we turn the page and read about something else? 'East' had an eye-opening chapter about Japan, a country I now realise I know very little about, and an excellent one about the Aral Sea highlighting an ecological disaster that very few people know about. Towards the end of the book I began to get annoyed with Gill. He is scathing about the lifestyles of the wealthy in his articles on Milan and Monaco and points out that these lifestyles are about posing, parties and living the high life whilst, actually, the participants are lonely individuals who aren't really happy at all, despite their wealth. This brings me to my objection - Gill states in his introduction that he wanted to 'interview places', that's fine but in doing so he has watched the people and formed his own judgements without out appearing to speak to these people. Does he look at them and decide that they can't be intelligent or happy or that they're all the same - try speaking to them, they might surprise you! I liked this book and enjoyed Gill's writing and humour. The whole point of journalism is to inform and spark debate. Simply not liking him because you don't agree with his views or background is missing the point. I didn't agree with everything he wrote but it certainly got me thinking. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
'Theatre, food, refugees: in Adrian's writing they're all linked up ... If you haven't read his book AA GILL IS AWAY, read it now. It was when he was away that he was at his best' Stephen Daldry A. A. Gill was probably the most read columnist in Britain. Every weekend he entertained readers of the SUNDAY TIMES with his biting observations on television and his unsparing, deeply knowledgeable restaurant reviews. Even those who objected to his opinions agree: his writing is hopelessly, painfully funny. He was one of a tiny band of must-read journalists and it was always a disappointment when the words 'A.A. Gill is away' appeared at the foot of his column. This book is the fruit of those absences: twenty-five long travel pieces that belie his reputation as a mere style-journalist and master of vitriol: this is travel writing of the highest quality and ambition. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)910.4History and Geography Geography and Travel Geography and Travel Accounts of travel and facilities for travellersLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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Traveling with Gill isn't to everyone's taste. He's got a razor sharp tongue, but he's so funny and often surprising. ( )