Robert Martineau (3)

Having gone through the trauma of seeing someone he loved suffer serious illness followed by protracted recovery in hospital, Robert Martineau felt moved to undertake a life-changing adventure. He drew up some new rules for life, including limiting the number of his possessions and imposing somewhat Spartan parameters for what he should eat and drink. He also undertook to do a lot of walking. He also decided to undertake the challenge of a long (very long) walk through Ghana, Togo and Benin, ending at an ancient spiritual centre at Ouidah.

I found his approach initially appealing, and enjoyed reading about his trek through Ghana. I did, however, find my interest waning as the book progressed, and I started to wonder what the point of it all was – both with the walk itself, and with the book. I have read a lot of accounts of people’s wanderings, and even when the journey may have been aimless, in the stronger examples there has always been a sense of mission to the book. That was wholly absent here. When I have enjoyed a book, I often feel that reader’s quandary, caught in the dilemma of wanting to find out how it is all resolved, while not wanting the enjoyment of the book to finish. With this book, finishing it almost came as a relief, like being let out of school early.… (mehr)