Just a warning be well-read before you read this book lots of references literary, Biblical etc. Worth the trip if you are. ( )

Do you remember that Simpsons episode where Grampa Simpson tells a rambling story about nickels (called bees at the time) and onions on his belt? This book reminds me of that.

It might be great and have some amazing kernels of wisdom, but his style of rambling made me quit before I was halfway through. ( )

It's been a very long time since I tried a Robert D. Kaplan book and I found that I was not happy with the style. Don't really know why but I put the book down pretty quickly. ( )

Robert Kaplan is the best selling author of Balkan Ghosts (1993), a book that Bill Clinton said shaped his perception of the war in Bosnia. In Adriatic, Kaplan returns to the Adriatic Sea, but this time covers countries on both the eastern and western shores. Traveling through Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, and Greece, he gives his impressions of what is happening there, and why it is still such an important region for the rest of the world. He covers the rise of populist politics, issues arising from migration, trading, and energy resources, observing how the region has changed over the three decades he has been reporting on it.

This is by no means an easy book to categorize—it is much more than a travelogue. Kaplan uses his location to ruminate on poetry (especially that of Ezra Pound), architecture, history, religion, and geopolitics. He also learns, and educates readers, through interviewing politicians, journalists, historians, and others as he travels.

Kaplan describes how the Adriatic over the last 1,000 years experienced a frequent shifting of the boundaries of three once powerful empires—Habsburg, Venetian, and Ottoman—and how that history still influences modern Europe. In particular, both Russia and China are making inroads in the region through significant investments in port facilities.

One criticism of Adriatic, voiced in a “New York Times” review by Thomas F. Madden in an otherwise very favorable article, is that Kaplan underestimates or gives short shrift to the role of the Venetian Empire in the history of the region. Maybe, but that can be remedied by reading William H. McNeill’s Venice: The Hinge of Europe, 1081-1797.

Evaluation: Adriatic is a highly readable and informative book on a fascinating part of the world.

(JAB) ( )

A rare 5. But Kaplan hits the mark again. His standard travelogue with history and foreign policy wrapped together. All focused on a trip around the Adriatic. This was also mixed with a bit of autobiography. A kid from the 50's and a lower middle class back ground setting out into the world to write about it and collecting books and meeting people along the way. Now that's a life. A couple paragraphs and sentences close to mine and dear to my heart. Hope there are many more. ( )