Title: A disappointing hodge-podge
Product review: The book splits evenly into two halves. The first half recounts Joris's travels in Senegal and Mauritania (the book's high point), and introduces us to Mali. The second half, also dealing with Mali, is an account of her friendship with the singer Boubacar Traore, and her efforts to delve into his personal life. Traore comes across as an abrasive and tempermental character; it's very odd that he should be the focus of the book. Joris's writing style at the beginning of the book relies on indirect quotations instead of actual dialogue, which makes it quite dry; later in the book the writing quality improves markedly where dialogue is concerned. This is more the memoirs of Traore than a travel narrative. It's a sad oversight (but emblematic of the book's flaws) that her only visit to Mali's Dogon region is one day-trip, recounted in a few pages that highlight Traore's role as her guide rather than the Dogon people.
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