Tropical Classical: Essays from Several Directions

By Pico Iyer

Book Overview

In Tropical Classical the author of Video Nights in Katmandu and The Lady and the Monk visits a holy city in Ethiopia, where hooded worshippers practice a Christianity that has remained unchanged... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679454322
• ISBN13: 9780679454328
• Release Date: April 1997
• Publisher: Knopf
• Length: 314 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.3" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Imagine a pomegranate--juicy, pithy, tart and satisfying.

After hearing Pico Iyer speak I began devouring TROPICAL CLASSICAL only to discover it's not an easy read. There are many jewels of interest and pleasure in these essays, but I delighted most in Iyer's use of simple-looking words I don't quite know. The dictionary always revealed a definition so pure any other word would have missed the point. Like Barry Lopez, Iyer exposes his views of the world in rich detail and focus. He's so full of experience none of these pieces are throwaway blurbs, yet he ends celebrating silence.

A unique abilty to bring out what is truly fascinating

A "classic" look at Iyers work and his uncanny abiltity to seek out the fascinating. He is a travelers traveler, and makes proper leaps to the heart of the matter. He writes to the soul of those who travel, those who understand the paradoxical nature of the world today. With a fluid style and often giddy manor, i am often forced to test my own conclusions and my evaluations of places and spaces.