Over the Lip of the World: Among the Storytellers of Madagascar

By Colleen J. McElroy

Book Overview

Gifted travel writer, poet, professor of English, and insightful observer of human nature, Colleen McElroy journeyed to Madagascar to undertake a Fulbright research project exploring Malagasy oral traditions and myths. In Over the Lip of the World she depicts with equal verve the various storytelling traditions of the island and her own adventures in trying to find and record them. McElroy's tale of an African American woman's travels among the people of Madagascar is told with wit, insight, and humor. Throughout it she interweaves English translations of Malagasy stories of heroism and morality, royalty and commoners, love and revenge, and the magic of tricksters and shapechangers.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0295978244
• ISBN13: 9780295978246
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Univ of Washington Pr
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.8" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

A personal account, but interesting and well-written

Yes, I fully agree with the previous reviewer from Louisiana. This is not a book for those who want to get to know Madagascar and Malagasy culture or history. At the most, in that direction, it provides some 'atmosphere' of Africa for those who have never been there. The book is indeed a personal account of the reader's feelings, as she rediscovered herself during her trip to that wonderful Indian Ocean island. Yet, this is a good subject, and the book is well-written, filled with thrill. I liked it. As long as it is presented as what it is and not something else, I recommend it to those interested in the former.