Alexander Frater was born to a family of Scottish expatriates on the tiny island of Irikiki in the South Seas. Following his dreams of being a writ...
read full description
reviews
Nov 20, 2011
Jrobertus
rated it: 
This is a mix of travel narrative and memoir. Frater was born in the south Pacific into a family of missionaries and physicians. He has spent a lot of time in the tropics, working as a writer and on documentary films. As he narrates, an event will elicit memories from other places and he lapses into anecdotes from there. His wiritng style is very lush, with complex sentence structure. This makes it hard to speed read, but I suppose gives a sense of the tropics, which Frater stresses is sloo
More...
Feb 09, 2011
Marcelo
rated it:
A fine book, if a bit uneven. Frater does have a good eye for the details that you wouldn't catch as a simple traveler, and writes very lyrically at times (and very funny at times). The thing is, some of the locations (war-torn Mozambique, some of the Southern Pacific isles) and stories (for example, the Quiros travels) are way more interesting than others, and especially in the middle it becomes a bit of a muddle. But, he closes with a good set of chapters around one central theme (wood, for ex
More...
Aug 16, 2011
2009- Not as great as I was expecting. The author covers too much territory and assumes the reader has in-depth knowledge of geography of some obscure places. I really wanted to like this book and I did learn a great deal about Vanuatu, but I felt the narrative skipped around too much, sometimes jumping from place to place within a single page. I prefer Colin Thubron.
Dec 15, 2010
I really have to disagree with the goodreads review of this; is it not vibrantly observed, not terribly witty. This is the kind of book I absolutely love to read and I have no desire to discover where else he wants to take me.
Dec 17, 2009
John
rated it: 
When the book arrived in the mail months ago, I skimmed through it, thinking "hmmm ... looks like it might be kinda dull" and put it aside. I was wrong. There was potential for a real dragged out story, had Frater confined himself to Vanuatu (the South Seas nation where he was born and raised - his father and grandfather were missionaries there). However, he does fully succeed in tying-in his experiences in other Torrid locations (Africa, Burma, etc.) along the way such that the parts
More...
Sep 05, 2009
Scott
rated it:
Frater's writing style can be rather irksome. Primarily this is a tale of Vanuatu, but it's interspersed with interesting anecdotes about tropical places all around the world.
Mar 29, 2008
Brad
rated it: 
A lesser cousin to Frater's excellent Chasing the Monsoon, Tales From the Torrid Zone is choppy and uneven, mucking up an in-depth travel essay about Oceana, where Frater grew up, with myriad asides about other tropical locations Frater has visited during his tenure as chief travel correspondent for The Observer.
Sep 21, 2007
Mike
rated it:
Frater is Scottish, a Presbyterian missionary's son who grew up on the island of Iririki in The South Seas. This book documents his travels to countries that lie within the equatorial zone. Not as compelling as a review that I read led me to believe, but has it's interesting moments. Frater is a travel correspondent with The Observer.
May 31, 2009
Eli
rated it:
It reads like it was written by a magazine writer - like it is a whole series of unconnected articles. It could be that I just don't see the connection and when it finally hits me I will fall out of my chair wearing an expression of utter, mind-blowing comprehension, but I don't think so.
Nov 12, 2007
Melody
rated it: 
Interesting nuggets buried in a meandering and disconnected narrative. Fraser is all over the place in time and space, and doesn't stop to orient the reader very often. The South Pacific is fascinating, but this treatment didn't work for me.
Jul 25, 2007
Hulananni
rated it:
Still reading but couldn't put it down last night. I must also suffer from mal de jaune. I've been to many of the same places in the "Torrid Zone" and have always been happy in these areas....
Jan 08, 2012
Jan 02, 2012
Dec 07, 2011
Nov 15, 2011
Nov 13, 2011
Nov 11, 2011
Nov 10, 2011
Nov 02, 2011
Oct 24, 2011
Oct 01, 2011
Sep 30, 2011
Sep 22, 2011
Aug 22, 2011
Aug 06, 2011
