Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 magical April 4, 2008
Wander Lust (UK)
A great story, full of history and very balanced in its views of the bushman and their struggle. This is a very easy to read volume and makes a good companion to read if you are visiting Southern Africa. Full of insight into how things "work" or in fact dont interms of the bushman and their quest.
A book from the heart October 12, 2001
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
A very truthful and touching account of a journey to remote places, people and history, both in the outer world of the Kalahari and in the inner world of how we come to be who we are. The Bushmen who appear in the book took an active part in the writing of it. The story is of importance to them
A breath of fresh african air. August 3, 2001
Cynthia Cobban.(Ewencobban@aol.com) (Washington DC . USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I read The Healing Land with great delight. I felt that the author was carrying me with him into the desert, so that the wonder of these experiences with the Bushmen and the pain of the seemingly insurmountable difficulties with which they live, touched me very deeply. Rupert Isaacson's way with words is fresh and vibrant. The prose flowed in an easy relaxed manner. For anyone who wants to experience the Kalahari and its people, their past and possibilites for the future, their rituals and culture, all presented from a deeply personal perspective, please read this book. It is wonderful.
A journey into the lives of the Kalahari Bushmen August 3, 2001
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I bought this book expecting an interesting history on the Bushmen of the Kalahari and their plight and a geographical insight into the region. While there is no shortage of fact, both historical,political and geographical, The Healing Land is so much more than an informative read. It is personal journey and a mission, written with such skill that it takes you to the very heart of a proud people and their homeland. Rupert Isaacson brings it alive and makes it possible for the reader to see and hear the beauty of the wild landscape, the hunts, the dances, the wildlife and the tragic demise of tradition and the pain of a displaced people. I loved this book and truly could not put it down. I as disappointed when the journey was over, saddened that its ending had not been happier but moved by a driving need to to do something; if only to rush out and buy it for friends to share the knowledge that the book provides and the thought it provokes and mostly the passion that the author inspires. I would recommend it everyone..... (and their friends)
A very informative, entertaining, honest book. July 25, 2001
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Mr.Isaacson not only touch my heart but also made me reconcider my own roots fastened hard in a whiteman's privledged world.I admire people who do what mr. Isascson has done, searching his roots and finding something other than the preconcieved notions and then reporting the truth. Most of us prefer the myths and go back to our confortable lives. This story is very sad from several perspectives but also infused with tremendous hope for a better future thanks to not only the author for reporting on the situation in South Africa but also those on the front lines risking their postion not to mention possibly their own lives. I personally am a cynic but this book moves me off center enough for me to re-evaluate my own power to effect change by not only seeing a problem but by pulling up a little courge to do something about it. It might get a bit better. I applaud the book for touching my soul.
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