BobHarris.com - Montserrat

Books! Actual books!

"A rollicking ride of intellectual discovery and emotional growth... his comic timing never fails"

-- The Wall Street Journal

"Pulls you in like a good sports story"

-- The New York Times Book Review

"Endearingly frank... jubilant... lighthearted and fast-paced"

-- New York Newsday

"A surprisingly touching memoir"

-- Entertainment Weekly

"Snappy and informative"

-- Associated Press

"Effortlessly funny and informative... tender, human, and very wise... A must for anyone who loves Jeopardy!, or has ever seen it, or is breathing."

-- Joss Whedon, creator, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"I haven't seen Jeopardy! since I was a kid, and yet I was charmed and amused by Bob Harris's fascinating and surprisingly suspenseful book. Through sheer force of personality, he takes this brainy TV show and makes it funny and easy to relate to."

-- Ira Glass, creator and host, This American Life

"A surprisingly intimate, entertaining book."

-- Orson Scott Card, 4-time Hugo Award winner, author of Ender's Game

"Funny, enlightening -- and just might help you win a million bucks on Jeopardy!"

-- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All

"A masterful job of describing the feel of Jeopardy! in the heat of battle... I knew Bob was a great guy and a fantastic Jeopardy! player. Now I've found that he's also a wonderful writer. I think I'm starting to hate him."

-- Brad Rutter, top money-winner in Jeopardy! history

Books I'm Getting

Who Hates Whom:
Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts,
and Various Things Blowing Up —
A Woefully Incomplete Guide™

“Revelatory... Harris's sly wit and infectious curiosity make understanding world chaos fascinating... witty, horrific, and necessary.”

— Boston Globe

"Brave... irreverent... charges into the thick of the globe's myriad simmering wars... hilariously relaxed."

— New York Observer

"Only Bob could make a user’s guide to our increasingly hostile world this absorbing, this breezy, and—ultimately—this hopeful.”

— Ken Jennings, author of Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs

“Fascinating, enlightening, and surprisingly: NOT TOTALLY DEPRESSING. A gimlet-eyed look at the world we endure that’s also suitable for enjoying with a gimlet.”

— John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise
and correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

"All three [presidential] candidates should read all three of these [recommended] books, but McCain gets first crack at Bob Harris's "Who Hates Whom“... a lighthearted overview of the insurrections and civil wars in the world today."

— Steven Pinker, author of The Stuff of Thought, in the New York Times Book Review

Main

Juan Cole

Montserrat

Tag it now -

Sunday, 22 April 2007

I'm way behind in posting stuff from this trip, a situation which won't be changing anytime soon, so bear with me.

But Montserrat. Man.

When I was in college, I first heard of Montserrat as the tropical haven where Beatles producer George Martin had set up a recording studio frequented by everyone from The Police to Elton John to Stevie Wonder to Lou Reed.

I read a little about it, and it sounded fantastic, a faraway and exotic place I never imagined I'd see.

Unfortunately, the island was largely wiped out by its long-dormant volcano in 1995. The capital of Plymouth was completely engulfed, the airport was destroyed, and about two-thirds of the residents left and never came back.

These days, most of the island is a closed-off Forbidden Zone (actually, they call it the "exclusion zone," but same thing). In the last few months, the volcano has even started to get all rumbly again.

Still the remaining locals are doing their best to make a go of it, hoping to market (a) the island's lush beauty to adventurous tourists, and (b) large swaths of uninhabitable rock as building supplies to less unfortunate islands. I figured what the hell and flew over.

I was one of only three passengers on the flight in. This didn't bode well for the whole tourism thing.

The island truly is gorgeous. In its day, it must have been one of the most beautiful places on earth. On the west coast north of the exclusion zone, there are still barely-touristed beaches you can spend some of the nicest days of your life on.

You can even spot occasional moments of marvelous dark humor.

But what the travel guides I read never mentioned -- but common sense should have told me -- is that most of the people you meet in Montserrat are still the same survivors who lost everything. Their lives have never been the same. And most of their families have moved away. There is an emptiness here.

And when the volcano is in sight and a resident raises their eyes, there's often a haunted look on their face that soon tries to reproduce itself on yours.

And on an island this small, it's impossible not to be reminded.

If you're in the Caribbean, it's worth a visit and a stay. You'll see beautiful stuff every waking minute, your memories will ache with the beauty and sadness, and you'll be helping nice people who could use a break.

Montserrat. Man.