The Routes of Man: How Roads Are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today

ok

Quick warning ... This is not the wide-ranging study youd think it would be from the title. Instead, its really just a series of vignettes set on the road somewhere throughout the world - a driving club in China, a truck route in East Africa, hiking a frozen river in Tibet, following the trail of mahogany from the jungles of Peru, riding along with an ambulance through the traffic jam that is Lagos, Israeli blockades in Palestine ... Now, these vignettes are mostly great. Conover is quite a gifted writer. He really gives you a feel for the places and people involved, and he does so without his own personality ever really intruding. (Some were better than others, though, with the Peru and Lagos ones seeming a little meandering.) That this book is presented as anything more than a random collection of tales, though, is a joke. Conover makes an effort, but its simply not there. I found his little intermezzos between stories especially annoying in this regard. Instead of relating another story, theyre mostly random musings and gatherings on some vague topic. One, called Double-Edged Swords, manages to discuss Napoleon, Baron Haussmann, the Trail of Tears, Bataan, J.M Coetzee, Dino Buzzati, Afghanistan, Eisenhower, Mad Max, and Cormac McCarthy all in the space of 5 pages. His métier is really just retelling his very interesting experiences. Along these lines, I highly recommed

I thoroughly enjoyed it; its well written and written like a George Orwell essay; clear as a window pane, letting the people speak without much authorial input; delightful. Ends up being very informative about China drivers, African truck drivers, Palestinian & Israeli army road issues etc.

We love roads, and we come to hate them. Anyone, writes Conover in his opening paragraph, who has benefited from a better road--a shorter route, a smoother and safer drive--can testify to the importance of good roads. But when humans strive, we also err, and it is hard to build without destroying. That contradiction, that tension underlies the book. A road from Perus Altiplano into the jungle allows access to valuable mahogany trees, but also threatens primitive people and an established ecology. In East Africa, a road that is a clear economic boon to many has also helped the spread of AIDS, via truckers and prostitutes along its length. Roads are integral to development, and development can look disastrous. There is nothing armchair about Conovers reporting. He clearly has a library and has read widely, but each of the six chapters is written from inside a culture, whether the author is zipping along the new highways of China or riding inside an ambulance through the teeming, chaotic city of Lagos, Nigeria. Its a book full of people, and the conflicts are inevitable. Why, a friend asks the author, would he go to Lagos, a city which Conover admits has few museums, not too many antiquities, only a handful of public spaces or buildings of note, and stunningly little natural beauty. It does, however, have a reputation for crime, and lots of lots of people. Because people are interesting, Conover says, and So is crime. So are the politics of Israel and Palestine--and the chapter on the roads of the West Bank is the best piece of journalism Ive ever read about that conflict. Conover explores the Israeli checkpoints in the company of both Palestinians and the Israeli soldiers who try to control them. Its degrading to both sides. The soldiers are looking for guns, explosives and suicide bombers, and most Palestinians are simply trying to get to work, or get home. Israels management of the West Bank often comes down to restricting the travel of the Palestinians, and when Conover is in line with them as they move on foot toward a pair of turnstiles, an exercise in gradual compression, the reader gets a visceral feel for their frustration and humiliation. The soldiers dont like it either. Innocent civilians...are inevitably damaged by the armys work in the territories, Conover writes. He spends weeks with an Israeli commander and his men, who not only run the checkpoints but sometimes tear up Palestinian houses in search of arms. Its bad for the families, the commander says, But whats not plain until the fifteenth time is that its bad for you. Six fascinating travels interspersed with engaging personal essays: a great book.

The subject is huge (roads, the biggest thing people have built) but the approach is specific, even intimate: Conover gets at the big story by telling smaller stories, and puts you right there-in the Hyundai, in the Humvee, in the Himalayan winter. Its an adventure story but its not macho, its human.

Very interesting and varied travelogue as travelogues go. The author should be commended for his selection of roads around the world and his accounts of how he traveled them. I only wish he would have included the road between Brownsville Texas and Guatemala through Vera Cruz with its hundreds of caravans of Central Americans transporting used pickup trucks and appliances back to their hometowns. As the author points out, roads are much more than a way of getting from one point to another. They lower the cost for farmers of getting their produce to markets. They facilitate access by isolated populations to enhanced life improving services. And then there is the negative - oil well and mining penetration roads almost always promote deforestation and as the author points out, the spread of vices and diseases such as HIV.

I am passing this along for your listening pleasure: [..] She is generally positive and does mention specifically the male dominated nature of transportation. She reviews the variety of international aspects of human mobility which the author discusses at length.

Ted Conover is right about one thing, the emergence of roads in places where they previously does not exist is changing our global environment, both natural and business. What he does not do is take a stand on whether or not this is a good thing, bad thing or a mixed blessing. We are given a smattering of anecdotes regarding how roads are impacting places around the globe where they previously had no impact. We are not told if this is really anything good, bad or other wise. For example, he tells us the story of mahogany export in the jungles of Peru. We hear a very detailed blow by blow description of the trip but no real description of how the road is impacting or bettering the world. The same holds true for the descriptions of roads in China and India. They all have colorful stories but dont really give any solid examples or prove a theme. All in all it is a weak work because it tries to tell several stories but ends up telling none.

There is no cover page or table of contents in the kindle version (there are both of these in the hard copy) so I cant easily move back to the notes or bibliography while Im reading. The maps are nearly illegible except when I get out a magnifying glass. this book needs to be read in hard copy.

it seems like the author was bending over backwards trying not to offend anyone which made for a shallow book. i much prefer paul theroux- at least hes honest.