Joan Colby's Reviews > Travels With Myself and Another

What a marvel this book is. Gellhorn is funny, acerbic and a brilliant writer who can describe a scene unforgettably. Hemingway is mentioned only in the China expedition of 1941—but their relationship, at that point, is rather a caustic delight, both parties equally adept at adventure and repartee. Gellhorn who titles each journey as one of horror visits Africa from coast to coast, fascinated by the animals especially her favorites, the giraffes, and perpetually in danger from following her impulses, driving an aging Land Rover with her supposed guide Joshua, who turns out to be a coddled passenger fearful of the wild. Her visit to Mrs. M. in Russia(clearly Mandelstam’s widow) tells us home truths about that brutalized nation. Published in 1978, many of Gellhorn’s voyages took place from the 40’s to the 70’s. She is unsparing, politically incorrect—her comments about the natives will offend the sensitive, but must be understood in the context of the era. Altogether, a most edifying read from an unusual woman that one wishes one had met.