- Paperback: 268 pages
- Publisher: University of Minnesota Press; 1st University of Minnesota Press Ed edition (31 Aug 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0816639825
- ISBN-13: 978-0816639823
- Product Dimensions: 22.7 x 14.7 x 1.6 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 745,477 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Book Description
In September 1947, long before mass tourism and with no knowledge of Spanish, Christopher Isherwood and his lover Bill Caskey left for a six-month tour of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. Isherwood's account of this journey, The Condor and the Cows, is one of very few classic travel books on South America and was among the books Isherwood considered his best.
Based on his trip journal and loosely structured by the vagaries of his travels, these pages give us an Isherwood who dreams of voluntary exile in the tropical paradise of Curaçao and dines out on stories of Nazis in Berlin, missionaries in China, and movie stars in Hollywood. He describes the surprising and sometimes unnerving people and places he encounters through telling, cinematic details-of Inca drinking vessels, the Spanish colonial city of Cuzco (which he calls "one of the most beautiful monuments to bigotry and sheer brutal stupidity in the whole world"), a bullfight in Bogotá, the towering ruins of Machu Picchu. Unsentimental, rich, and wonderfully rendered, this expanded edition includes additional photographs by Bill Caskey and a new foreword by Jeffrey Meyers.
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1 review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Reluctant traveller, good book
11 Oct 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I saw Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy's house featured in The World of Interiors magazine, thought their story sounded interesting, and so decided to try one of Isherwood's books. I decided on this one because I wanted something about him rather than a fictional work, it's about South America and it's short.
The book covers Isherwood's trip to South America (Columbia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina) in 1948. It is presented in diary format (though there are many days unaccounted for) with photos by William Caskey, who accompanied Isherwood.
If you like your travel writing to have a grand narrative, or your travel writers to have an intense connection to their subject, this may not be the book for you. As the helpful introduction points out, Isherwood made the trip and wrote the book because he was commissioned to. He didn't enjoy himself and there are times when it shows. The travel was hard, being at altitude was draining, and he found himself overwhelmed by the landscape. But as a succession of anecdotes and vignettes - of places, people met along the way, and political situations - I really enjoyed the book for its insight, however patchy, into South America at that time and the touches of Isherwood's own personality. The prose is tight, yet impressively evocative and readable.
I'm in no position to judge this book in comparison to Isherwood's more famous works, particularly his novels. All I can say is that it has a similar feel to his diaries, which I've since begun, yet is more polished and just as readable. The photos are excellent (black and white only).
The book covers Isherwood's trip to South America (Columbia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina) in 1948. It is presented in diary format (though there are many days unaccounted for) with photos by William Caskey, who accompanied Isherwood.
If you like your travel writing to have a grand narrative, or your travel writers to have an intense connection to their subject, this may not be the book for you. As the helpful introduction points out, Isherwood made the trip and wrote the book because he was commissioned to. He didn't enjoy himself and there are times when it shows. The travel was hard, being at altitude was draining, and he found himself overwhelmed by the landscape. But as a succession of anecdotes and vignettes - of places, people met along the way, and political situations - I really enjoyed the book for its insight, however patchy, into South America at that time and the touches of Isherwood's own personality. The prose is tight, yet impressively evocative and readable.
I'm in no position to judge this book in comparison to Isherwood's more famous works, particularly his novels. All I can say is that it has a similar feel to his diaries, which I've since begun, yet is more polished and just as readable. The photos are excellent (black and white only).
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