In the footsteps of Columbus: review of Tony Horwitz’s non-fiction book A Voyage Long and Strange
The Jerusalem Post, July 25, 2008
For many readers, hearing the words “history” and “book” in the same sentence invokes groans and nightmarish memories of high school. Tony Horwitz’s A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World not only changes that, it also irrevocably changes the way you view the New World – past, present, and future. No small tasks, but this is no small author. Horwitz masterfully and gracefully steers us through the annals of early American history and his own travel narrative, keeping us fascinated all the while.
And he even manages to make us laugh along the way.
The prologue begins on a humorous note. Horwitz spends a night in Plymouth while on a road trip, having chosen the Plymouth exit only because he didn’t want to pull off the interstate before a baseball game on the radio ended. The following day he goes to see Plymouth Rock, which he likens to “a fossilized potato.” While at the site, he speaks with a park ranger who observes, “Americans learn about 1492 and 1620 as kids and that’s all they remember as adults… The rest of the story is blank.”
