From: danny@cs.su.oz.au (Danny Yee)
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 1995 20:45:01 +1000
Subject: Book Review - The Place Where Souls Are Born

     title: The Place Where Souls Are Born
          : A Journey to the Southwest
        by: Thomas Keneally
 publisher: Simon & Schuster 1992
  subjects: travel, United States
     other: 249 pages, US$20.00

Keneally's _The Place Where Souls Are Born_ is, ostensibly, an
account of a trip to the American Southwest, a counter-clockwise
circuit through Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.  The focus is
on the wilderness areas, the history and the American Indians, with
the Anasazi as a kind of keystone.  Although entertaining and easy
to read, I found it rather unsatisfying.  The narrative is vaguely
chronological, but contains so many historical and ethnographic
digressions and abrupt jumps that one never has the feel of being
on a real journey.  Keneally is also extremely selective about the
way in which he appears in his own narrative: we read about his awe
at the immensity of the Colorado canyons, but we never find out how
much time he actually spent on his trip; his wife and daughter, who
traveled with him throughout the trip, make only cameo appearances;
he mentions in passing that he was commissioned to write the book,
but doesn't mention whether his trip was paid for or not; and so on.
He seems to be trying to combine the authenticity of personal
experience with the objectivity of history, while at the same time
catering to readers with short attention spans; he is arguably more
interested in impressing his audience than in doing justice to his
subject material.

I suppose that this sort of criticism can be leveled at most travel
writing, and perhaps I'm being unreasonably harsh (or perhaps I've just
been reading too much postmodern criticism of ethnographic writing).
In the end it is a matter of taste: as far as books on the Southwest
go, I'd rather read either Tony Hillerman's novels or Edward Spicer's
history, and as far as Keneally goes I greatly prefer his novels.

--

%T	The Place Where Souls Are Born
%S	A Journey to the Southwest
%A	Thomas Keneally
%I	Simon & Schuster 
%C	New York
%D	1992
%O	hardcover, US$20.00
%G	ISBN 0-671-76104-8
%P	xx,249pp
%K	travel, United States

Danny Yee (danny@cs.su.oz.au)
14 January 1995

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