Book Review - Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski

 Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski, translated from the Polish by Klara Glowczewska

London: Allen Lane, 2007 (first published in Poland in 2004)     ISBN  9780713998481

This is a wonderful little book. Written toward the end of Ryszard Kapuscinski's life, it's a memoir: a memoir of himself, of Herodotus, and of The Histories themselves. Kapuscinki weaves a description of The Histories around his postings in India, the Middle East and Africa as a reporter for the Polish newsagency PAP.

Like Herodotus himself, Kapuscinski had an urge to see what was over the horizon. Eventually, through his experiences, and through the guidance of Herodotus, he realises that the important information to gather is not necessarily about the great events of the day, but the information that lasts is that you gain from talking to ordinary people, wherever they might be.

He wonders in his book about the lengths Herodotus went to in gathering his information, wondering what drove him, what experiences he had in his life, and how his stories were received by those who (Kapuscinski guesses) initially heard his work rather than read it. Kapuscinski also wonders about the people described in the book: the Persians, the Athenians, the Spartans, the Scythians, and so on. He muses, as Herodotus did as well, about what it is to want world domination, and what it is to fight for freedom. He does this in a way that obliquely reflects the struggles of his own country in his lifetime.

And I think that is one of the main things Kapuscinski finds in his relationship of a lifetime with The Histories - that there is nothing new in the world.

As well as discussing Herodotus (if you haven't read The Histories, this book is a great introduction), the reader gets a taste of the life of a foreign correspondent during the great era of de-colonization. He sees at first hand the blooming of African independence, witnessing great things without fully understanding them. He uses his experiences to muse on the experiences of those who suffered under the yoke of the Persians, and to try and imaging the fervor of the Greeks for their own liberty. He also finds times and places where he can almost reach out and touch his "friend" - for that was what Herodotus had become for him - by the end of his life.

I initially picked this book up after reading a review of it in The New York Review of Books, intrigued by what the reviewer wrote. I'm so glad that I hunted it out. It's now sparked an urge to re-read Herodotus after many years, for as Kapuscinski writes, "one must read Herodotus's book - and every great book - repeatedly; with each reading it will reveal another layer, previously overlooked themes, images, and meanings. For within every great book there are several others." and one of those others is Travels with Herodotus.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell