Glory in the Camel’s Eye Trekking Through the Moroccan Sahara
In this nonfiction book by Jeffrey Tayler is the story about his travels from the Moroccan Sahara Desert all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. Jeffrey Tayler is a man who became fascinated with the world of Morocco and how the people live there. He wrote this book so he would not forget and also for others to know and learn about his adventure. Throughout the trip he had one goal - to make it all the way to the Atlantic Ocean across a vast expanse of sand. The story was written in chronological order; from the first day he left to the day he accomplished his goal.
The story is a nonfiction first-person narrative. He defines words that the readers wouldn’t know immediately and that is the strategy of context clues that keeps up the interest of the reader. For example, “ the marabout opened his hands in a supplicatory gesture and looked heavenward… ‘Allah yiftah’alayk… I in the name of God and Sidi Nasir and all the awalya’! There is no power and no strength except in God!” This is a perfect epitome of the authors engaging style and strategy.
The author chose not to use footnotes in his text, rather he explained through narrative prose so the reader could understand. Also he used dialogue to create a vision of the scene. For example, one of the exerts that I remember clearly is when one of the radiators was leaking and he thought that they needed a mechanic. “Why go to the mechanic when there’s pepper?” His driver used pepper to close up the whole in the radiator. Jeffrey uses humorous and lively dialogue to show the scene in a detailed way. This also shows how creative you can get when you live in an underdeveloped country.
As Jeffrey and his guide’s get further and further into the Sahara, things begin to get harder and more tiring. Jeffrey’s guides leave a lot of things that are out of their control to Allah who is the God for the Muslim religion. “If God wills” is a common saying by the guides Mbari and Hassan. For example, “if God wills, then is will rain,” or “ if God wills then we will survive.” Some of the main points he wants to get across to the audience are the following: having confidence in yourself and in your project is the key to having a successful outcome. Jeffrey is not only confident; he is determined to achieve his goal with a first-class attitude.
Jeffrey Tayler is one of the bravest people for what he did and accomplished. All of what he said in the book is completely true and credible. The reader becomes part of the adventure because he makes the trip seem so real by not trying to teach you something on every page but make it feel like you were there. He is an explorer, who completed many expeditions, but none that are quite as difficult or life threatening. Although he is not Arabic, he is still accepted by most of the people he encounters. He speaks Arabic, which allows him to seem more culturally similar and is possibly one of the reasons why he is not threatened or hurt during the expedition. This book appears to be very popular and influential according to New York Times, NPR, and CNN.com.
This book exemplifies my topic because the author is traveling in an exotic part of the world. Also, some stuff that I learned throughout this blog project is that people don’t just vacation for the blatant idea of getting away fro stress or work, which is what Jeffrey does. He is traveling for his love of exploring and is pushing himself to do things that are life threatening but also not impossible. I think that reading this book allowed me to meet my goal of really understanding why people vacation or travel. I particularly enjoyed the parts where they were struggling, but always found a way to overcome that obstacle. I was constantly amazed at the miraculous sequence of events that kept the expedition going. They would run completely out of water at one point on their journey and randomly stumble upon a nomad tent where they would be fed and given water. It was things like this that made me realize why these people believe Allah takes care of everything. The only thing that I didn’t like about the book was the dificulty of pronouncing and reading the Arabic words. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes a humorous but adventurous to the extreme book. It is an amazing book and it almost feels like your there at certain times and scenes.
