Dancing at the Dead Sea

Review by Philip Blazdell

When I first read this book, after been entranced by the blurb on the back cover ('Captivating...easily approachable and digestible while being seriously thought-provoking', 'A vigorous and highly personal account...that is both illuminating and perturbing...an impressive investigative odyssey.') I wondered if it should have been filed in 'Travel: humour' instead of 'Travel: Ecology' due to the howling mistakes and sweeping statements that the author peppers the text with and which had me crying, first in laughter, then in anger. For example, my friends in Cornwall were overjoyed to hear that they lived in, 'one of the poorest parts of the European Community,' whilst my friends in Oxford would like a quiet word with the author next time she is in town.

The author first introduces us to her journeys in Jordan, dancing on the rapidly shrinking Red Sea, and assesses the potential of the 'resurrection' of the ancient aquifers of Azraq Oasis. She then moves on to search for lemurs in Madagascar, whose inhabitants are steadily denuding the island of its ancient forests, destroying their own future in exchange for desperately needed firewood. High above the Arctic Circle, on Banks Island, the author hears from Inuvialuit who are recording effects of global climate change in the thinning and shrinking of northern sea ice, and in shifting of seasons before she finds hope in Suriname's Amazon rainforest (which is almost entirely intact, due to its government's cooperation with conservation efforts). She then travels to Iceland to research 'harnessing the mythical energy of hydrogen'. She also dives in Galapagos. Finally, Mitchell returns to her own family roots to ponder the fate of the boreal forest in northern Canada.

My main problem with this book (and there are two sections, on Suriname and Madagascar, which are excellent) is that as a travel book this clearly doesn't cut the mustard, whereas reading this book as a science book leaves the reader wondering how much the author actually understands the scientific issues which she claims are at the heart of the world's problems. Has she simplified the science to benefit the lay reader of has she fudged it because her understanding isn't comprehensive enough to do a decent job? Her prose is often sloppy and unimaginative, for example she describes the Galapagos Islands as, 'mythical' when they clearly aren't imaginary or fictitious and then proceeds to quote verbatim whole sections of Darwin's journal (twice!) without offering her impressions or opinions on the islands. Mitchell manages to devalue the whole Galapagos experience and in the book's least engaging part, blames overpopulation and over-consumption in a preachy, finger-waving manner to the extent that at one point she calls humans 'so numerous, so ravenous and so self-centred a species' whilst lamenting the fact that her tour-boat's captain fancies her.

Another criticism that must be levelled at the author is that this book does not know whether it wants to be a travelogue, a serious treaty on environmental melt-down or a personal memoir of one woman's marriage breakdown. Mitchell is very fond of bracketing sermons about the 'sixth planetary extinction' with pitiful comments concerning the break down of her marriage. This not only distracts from the important message that the author is trying to address but leaves the reader confused and vulnerable. How, we are forced to ask ourselves, can we trust the author, when she clearly isn't being subjective in her reporting at this time?

Overall this is a disappointing book. The sections on Suriname and Madagascar are well written but they alone can not hold up what is ultimately a mediocre book.

• Dancing at the Dead Sea by Alanna Mitchell