Tropical Classical

By Pico Iyer

Book Overview

In Tropical Classical the author of Video Nights in Katmandu and The Lady and the Monk visits a holy city in Ethiopia, where hooded worshippers practice a Christianity that has remained unchanged since the Middle Ages. He follows the bewilderingly complex route of Bombay's dabbawallahs , who each day ferry 100,000 different lunches to 100,000 different workers. Iyer chats with the Dalai Lama and assesses the books of Salman Rushdie and Cormac McCarthy. And he brings his perceptive eye and unflappable wit to bear on the postmodern vogues for literary puffery, sexual gamesmanship, and frequent-flier miles. Glittering with aphorisms, overflowing with insight, and often hilarious, Tropical Classical represents some of Iyer's finest work.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679776109
• ISBN13: 9780679776109
• Release Date: June 1998
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Imagine a pomegranate--juicy, pithy, tart and satisfying.

After hearing Pico Iyer speak I began devouring TROPICAL CLASSICAL only to discover it's not an easy read. There are many jewels of interest and pleasure in these essays, but I delighted most in Iyer's use of simple-looking words I don't quite know. The dictionary always revealed a definition so pure any other word would have missed the point. Like Barry Lopez, Iyer exposes his views of the world in rich detail and focus. He's so full of experience none of these pieces are throwaway blurbs, yet he ends celebrating silence.

A unique abilty to bring out what is truly fascinating

A "classic" look at Iyers work and his uncanny abiltity to seek out the fascinating. He is a travelers traveler, and makes proper leaps to the heart of the matter. He writes to the soul of those who travel, those who understand the paradoxical nature of the world today. With a fluid style and often giddy manor, i am often forced to test my own conclusions and my evaluations of places and spaces.