Crossing the Heart of Africa

November 22, 2010
Smith, who writes for Outside and National Geographic, offers a perilous saga of commitment and cannibals in this travel memoir. Saying farewell to his bachelorhood, Smith prepares for his trip to the altar with a trip through Africa, retracing a little-known 4,500-mile route from the Cape of Good Hope to Cairo first traveled on foot in 1899 by explorer Ewart Scott Grogan. In Grogan, Smith sees a man who tackled the arduous for love and fortune, one with answers for his own self doubt; in Smith, readers find a thoughtful, observant commitment-phobe who uses Grogan's adventures as both reference and inspiration for a picturesque narrative. In Malawi, just south of where Grogan hired intrepid Watonga helpers, Smith finds Madonna and adoption the hot topic. Grogan knew isolation; Smith has a cellphone. Integral but less compelling is Smith's romance with his girlfriend, Laura. His happy moral—"compared to making a marriage work, crossing Africa is easy"—may seem more a reprieve than a revelation.

September 1, 2010

An award-winning travel writer embarks on an African expedition to prove his love.

In 2007, Smith began a monumental trek walking the length of Africa, mirroring the trail that British explorer Ewart Grogan had taken more than a century ago. Grogan's purpose was to prove his worthiness to the stepfather of his wealthy sweetheart Gertrude, who saw him only as an unemployed university dropout. Smith's mission was to assess the current state of Africa—and to satisfy his obsession with Grogan—and also to alleviate a few last-minute, nagging reservations about his upcoming marriage to fiancée Laura. For both men, the exhaustive march from Cape Town to Cairo offered a physical token of commitment. Smith creatively dispenses Grogan's history—parentless by age 19, he traveled the world while harboring an obsession with Africa. In reimagining the uniqueness of Grogan's solitary journey up the Zambezi River, Smith dexterously interweaves it with his own turbulent courtship of Laura and the life-changing odyssey he hoped would quell his feelings of ambiguity about marriage. He sought to discover "some kind of equanimity in the tangle of self-doubt and hesitation I've woven in my head." The author's troubles along his journey—a "stifling" private cabin while crossing a massive lake, flirty locals, mountain gorillas—hardly compare to Grogan's, who had limited and comparably antiquated means to battle swarming insects, frequent fevers, parasites, malaria, larceny and cannibal tribes. Employing an affable, conversational tone and including generous photographs, Smith provides an engrossing story that runs parallel to Grogan's history. Most impressive is the author's stark honesty. Even after completing the 4,500-mile journey, marrying the girl of his dreams less than a month later and fathering a daughter, Smith still admits to the sadness of "old freedoms fading" and realistically ponders the longevity of true love.

Smoothly written chronicle that's part travelogue, part contemporary relationship commentary, and all heart.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

November 1, 2010

Feeling anxious about his impending marriage, award-winning journalist Smith went on an extreme version of a last bachelor road trip. He attempted to follow the route of Ewart Grogan, an Englishman who traversed the African continent from south to north, starting in 1898 and ending in Cairo in 1900. Grogan undertook his journey in order to prove himself worthy of the love of his intended, and the author essentially set out to do the same for his fiancee. Of course, Smith's two-month trip was the easier endeavor (fewer encounters with cannibals, anyway), and he writes thoughtful impressions of present-day Africa as he contemplates Grogan's trip. Drawing heavily on published sources, he tells Grogan's story in vivid descriptions of the hardships and grave danger he faced from animals, humans, and the landscape. VERDICT Like David Grann's best-selling The Lost City of Z, this is two stories, of an explorer and of the author's search for him, and both are compelling. Recommended for travel readers and anyone who has ever been or wants to go on a quest.--Megan Hahn Fraser, Univ. of California Lib., Los Angeles

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2010
Smiths strong interest in the forgotten, nineteenth-century Victorian explorer Ewart Grogan compelled him to attempt a similar journey in 2007. Both walked across Africa, covering more than 4,000 miles through eight countries, though Grogan attempted to become the first person to walk across Africa. Both men had something to prove: Grogan wanted his fianc'es family to know that he was more than a gold digger, and Smith wanted to experience the journey before his own marriage. The interwoven stories contrast an early adventure with a modern Africa, with the remnants of Burton and Spekes search for the source of the Nile running through it. Grogans adventures in Africa are carefully researched: from dodging cannibals, wild animals, and multiple illnesses to his death, when he was virtually forgotten. Smith, an award-winning journalist, tells his own story nearly a century later, as well as revealing a modern continent going through constant change.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)