Between Extremes: A Journey Beyond Imagination

Keenan, Brian; McCarthy, John

ISBN 10: 0593042646 / ISBN 13: 9780593042649

Published by Bantam Press, 1999

About this Item

larger 8vo cloth pp344 colour plates F-/G Signed by both authors on title page. Minor corner tear to dust jacket, fading to page edges, yet a nice copy. [ Larger book, so possible extra postage overseas. ].

Seller Inventory # 6324

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Between Extremes: A Journey Beyond Imagination
• Publisher: Bantam Press
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0593042646
• ISBN 13: 9780593042649
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

During their four year incarceration in a Lebanese cell the authors envisaged walking in the High Andes and across Patagonia. Five years after their release Keenan and McCarthy travelled to Chile to fulfil this dream. The story of their journey revisited the past experiences whilst allowing them to live by their own rules.

Review

Throughout their long captivity in Beirut, John McCarthy and Brian Keenan would often retreat to the lost paradises of their imagination, and particularly to the Chile of Isabel Allende's The House of Spirits, a land of and between extremes. Five years after their return from Beirut, Keenan and McCarthy travelled along South America's backbone, from the parched and scorching Atacama desert in the north to freezing, wind-torn Patagonia 3000 miles south, to realise their dream.

In addition to the two northern voices writing in unison is the continuous presence of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. The Latin voice provides a delicate counterpoint to the prose, which is both fluid and humorous.

Between Extremes contains excellent descriptions of an awesome landscape and it guides the reader towards a penetrating and often surprising vision of the collective psychology of a society seeking to rediscover itself following the traumatic period of the Pinochet regime. At the same time, the two travellers seek to redefine their own friendship--this time in open spaces. --Philippa West