Tracks

Tracks has been sitting on my TBR mountain
for over a year; I finally decided to start
it yesterday when a book, From Alice to
Ocean: Alone Across the Outback, arrived
from the library. From Alice is composed
of pictures taken by National Geographic
photographer Rick Smolan accompanied by
exerpts from Davidson's book. The pictures
were awesome, but reading Tracks and trying
to keep my place in From Alice was difficult;
the writer and the photographer, though
together for most of the trip, seemed to be
miles apart in recording aspects of the trip
that were intriguing. My favorite part of
Tracks was the leg of the trip in which
Davidson traveled with Aborigine elder Eddie.
Davidson appeared to change dramatically
during the time she spent with Eddie,
becoming a more substantive person.
Overall, I would say that I found Glamour's
assessment of the book (“the women's Zen
and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”)
exaggerated, but the book, for me,
provided a fascinating (and safe) look at
a perilous part of the world.