Customer Reviews

Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
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"Skeletons on the Zahara" by Dean King reflects a recent trend in history writing towards more personal, localized discussions of history. Books like "Twelve Days of Terror", "The Devil in the White City" and "Krakatoa" taken events that were enormously important when they occurred, but which have, over time, faded into vague remembrance. By looking at these forgotten events, the author has an opportunity to not only tell and original story, but also reflect upon the era as a whole, and draw conclusions about how it shaped, and was shaped by, the event in question.

Handled poorly, this approach can feel severely contrived, as the writer attempts to shoehorn a host of effects into his ill-fitting cause. However, when done successfully, as is the case with "Skeletons on the Zahara", the author brings a unique perspective to the period, while engaging the reader with new adventures. In fact, if nothing else, this is an adventure story, detailing the appalling and yet somehow inspiring story of sailors shipwrecked on the North African coast and captured into slavery.

King sets the stage, by explaining the disastrous consequences the War of 1812 had on the commercial shipping industry in New England, and how limited prospects on land and potentially rich rewards at sea drove men to a life of danger and separation from their families. Offering personal glimpses into the lives of Captain James Riley and his crew, he paints a portrait of ambitious men, living life on the edge between prosperity and destitution. At the same, he offers a glimpse into the life of a merchant on the Sahara, where not just material wealth but life and health itself is determined by the desert's fickle and unrelentingly brutal conditions. By juxtaposing lifestyles that couldn't be more different except of their common precariousness, the author nicely sets the stage for the clash of cultures to come.

When Riley wrecks along the coast of Africa he and his crew find themselves in a world as alien as that of another planet. As they are placed into bondage, there world is literally turned upside down; as white New Englanders they may not have been pro-slavery, but they certainly never anticipated being held in servitude to Africans. Over the following months, Riley, in a remarkable display of leadership and loyalty to his crew manages to wheedle, cajole and bluff their way to salvation even as they suffer horrendously at the hands of their captors and the elements.

While the story of survival is remarkable in and of itself, the glimpse King offers into a time and place most modern American's are entirely familiar with is fascinating. Operating within a clan based feudal system, North Africa in the early nineteenth century was a place of shifting, capricious alliances, where attention to personal survival and aggrandizement were crucial. Although he couldn't have been aware of the labyrinthine political systems he was ensnared in, Riley and his crew on more than one occasion almost sparked open war.

However, it is in placing Riley's narrative within the larger historical context that King's book truly shines. While the aforementioned aspect of slavery is paramount, "Skeletons of the Zahara" also offers insight for our own age. Even as America struggles to understand the Arab mind, King offers at least a glimpse into a culture that is fundamentally different, but not necessarily at odds with, our own. The compassion shown by numerous Arabs to the sailors outstrips the brutal culture in which they operate. This common humanity touched Riley deeply, and made him a crusader for abolitionism for the rest of his life. There is no reason to think this humanity has eroded over the years, and King obliquely argues that it can become the basis for a new understanding with Islamic culture today.

Part adventure story, part history, part social commentary, "Skeletons of the Zahara" breaths new life into a forgotten tale of survival. Given that Riley's narrative helped shaped the minds of such luminaries as Abraham Lincoln and Henry David Thoreau, it is worth reading in its own right, but when coupled with King's historical analysis it rises to a different level. While sometimes presumptuous in his narrative, King has nevertheless produced a book that highlights cooperation and commonality across cultures at a time when such elements are sorely lacking. The author, while primarily interested in telling a fascinating story of survival, is also able to offer precedent for mutually beneficial interaction between American and Islam.

Jake Mohlman

A VERY GOOD READ. SOMETIMES IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE THAT SUCH REAL LIFE STORIES EVER OCCURED. MY HATS OFF TO ALL THE BRAVE MEN WHO SHAPED THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. MAKES BUNGY JUMPING LOOK LIKE A TODDLERS SCHOOL YARD GAME.

King follows in the desperate footsteps of Captain Riley and his marooned crew -- and in the end almost replicates as their struggle for survive and sanity. King lives out their story in his head while tracing their paths through the cruel sands. Well done. An interesting contrast is Peter Hillary's diabolical attempt to complete Captain Robert Scott's famous fatal journey -- chronicled in the beguiling and very different IN THE GHOST COUNTRY -- and nearly ended up repeating it. What makes Hillary's book both important and effective is its exploration of the inner life, of fear and guilt and loneliness, which thereby makes it a book that anyone with half a brain and a full heart can relate to. A great one.

I agree with the other reviewer who said that this story cannot compare with Shackleton's story, but this is still a story worth reading. Too bad it is written by a mediocre writer. Dean King tries to enliven the story by pretending to know what Riley and his shipmates must have said or thought. At one point, he says that Riley picked up a piece of fruit that he must have thought was a date. The fruit was bitter, and King says that Riley made a connection between the looks-good-tastes-bitter fruit and Africa. Except that this little metaphor is fiction and I doubt that Riley ever thought Africa looked good. King's attempts to turn this into a spiritual journey or to find the wisdom hidden in the misery...you'd find better in high school essays. The dialog King makes up is awful. Bad writing. That said, it is still a good story. Borrow it from the library, though.

After a frustrating run with a dozen or so mediocre books (three best-selling thrillers, two famous name memoirs, three populist science and the universe curios and assorted easy-digest sex and violence trash teasers) I've read TWO brilliant books in one week! SKELETONS OF THE ZAHARA was one of them. Survival stories can be a real drag after a while, as the miseries begin to mount with no end, but King has managed to make this tale sing with the excitement of legend. There are times when there's something spiritual about the trials of these men, especially when they go out of their minds and into a trippy state with thirst and anxiety. A superb tale.

The other book that has simply stunned me is IN THE GHOST COUNTRY. It's about Peter Hillary's heart-breaking journey to the South Pole, the loneliest and most disturbing oddysey of his life on the edge. Hillary has survived where many, many of his friends have died in the mountains -- and many of them who were at his side at the time. On the body-wrecking and mind-warping haul to the bottom of the world, the ghosts of friends and family rise up to walk with him. Shocking, sad, captivating and a very trippy experience. Too many amazing stories to go into here.

Reading that the author, Dean King, was going to speak locally, I was drawn to his talk ( and film presentation) by his discovery not only of a miraculous survival story, but of the incredulous human connection between two men of very different backgrounds, ( worlds actually) which basically only knew to fear and avoid each other at all costs.
Through their journey, their own humanity came forth under which we would consider brutal condtions. The trust, friendship and respect between a devout Christian and devout Muslim exceeded all bonds. This, to me, is where the author's gift and treasure lie of this book.. the historical account which King researched very thoroughly, is amazing enough, but that he was able to keep and honor that which the Conneticut Capt. wrote about as well... the friendship and connection which kept the sailors alive until their rescue ...and beyond!
How were these men who began as slaves and master able to bridge the bond of respect and mutuality? You will have to take their journey with them and realize those same possibilities exist for today. When we see 'the enemy' as human, we see ourselves and how they are a part of our own survival...... This lesson is just as meaningful today as it was 200 years ago!

I agree with many other reviewers that the ordeal of Captain Riley and his crew is a riveting description of one of the most extreme human ordeals ever recorded. On top of that is the almost unbelievable tale of the survivors' journey out of the desert.

I found Skeletons on the Zahara particularly interesting in light of the current strained relations between the eastern and western worlds. Although almost 200 years have passed since the events described occurred I thinks we can still learn something regarding the differences between the cultures. Sidi Hamet was a fascinating character. Although not entirely honest he was fundamentally decent. His very existence in such a hostile environment seems incredible yet there he was and at least five sailors lived to see home again because of him.

QUICK REVIEW
This is a harsh but incredible book about a shipwrecked crew's fight for survival in the African desert. Forced to be slaves and often living off of virtually only camel's milk and water (and even those in limited quantities) the crew's story is made vivid and powerful by a skillful author.

FULL REVIEW
The word "adventure" doesn't really fit this well-crafted story. "Adventure" tends to imply that either someone went looking for an exciting experience, enjoyed the experience, or was glad in the end that they had gone through the experience. Neither of those applies to this story. The crew of the wrecked ship were simply merchants, and the events that take place after their ship wrecks were not in any possible way enjoyable to any of the crew. The only people that find enjoyment (if you can call it that) from the events are us, the readers, who get to stand back at a great distance and awe at the incredible hardships and suffering that the men of that crew were able to endure. Once immersed in the telling of this tale, you actually start to wonder how anyone knows about this story because you can't believe that anyone survived to tell the tale. The reader is left amazed by humans in two ways: one-that the human body is able to survive under such conditions, and two-that one large culture of humans are willing to treat another set of humans in such appalling ways. The reader also ends up being amazed by how much research the author did to bring us this story, and how all that research didn't result in a dry or dull telling. On the contrary, the writing is well done and the telling of it keeps you turning the pages. And so as to be completely truthful and fair on my evaluation of this book, I should go ahead and mention, reluctantly, that the beginning is a tad slow at first-but once the story unfolds it never fails to keep your interest. Highly recommended.

I was with a group of friends the other evening and we started talking about these uncertain and violent times, and how people seem to be looking for examples and symbols of courage and endurance in the face of anxiety and extinction. After pondering the question of leadership and where to find it... we decided the best place to find it at the moment is in books. Namely, survival stories. Dean King tells a wild and harrowing tale of men desperately trying to keep it together as their alien surroundings swallow them alive. Running parrallel to the marooned band's epic... is King's expedition through the desert in search of his story. At its best it reads like a man clawing through the ashes of an evaporated city. More intimate and ''beautful'', and in many ways more shocking, is Peter Hillary's In The Ghost Country, about his own journey to the bottom of the world and the depths of his mind, his titanic struggle to hold on to his sanity as the ghost of his past rise up before him in living color. A brilliant evocation of the human condition.

As a boy, Abraham Lincoln read the memoir of Captain James Riley, and never forgot its story of slavery in the Sahara (or Zahara, as Riley would have known it). Thoreau knew the book. It was an international bestseller, and it might have been one of the few books besides the Bible in some American homes. Riley was a legend in his own time, but no longer is in ours. He is back, brought to us by Dean King, who read Riley's memoir of his adventure in the Sahara, and then read a narrative of the same adventure from a fellow crewman of Riley's, and then himself traveled in the still inhospitable and dangerous regions described in the two books. King has produced _Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival_ (Little, Brown), a wonderful account of fortitude under the most extreme conditions at sea and on the desert. This is one of the great adventure stories, full of the tortures by man and nature, and of course of the success of an indomitable spirit.

Captain Riley and his "good Yankee crew" of eleven left Connecticut for an ordinary merchant voyage in 1815, and eventually foundered on the west coast of the Sahara, six hundred miles south of Morocco. They were beset by hostile, thieving nomads, but briefly escaped by taking to sea in the ship's longboats. They were eager to be away from the Sahara, which everyone knew was a realm of death but which was at the time uncharted, mysterious, and full (so the stories went) of cannibals. They ran out of provisions at sea and were forced to make for Sahara land south of Bojador, and their prospects were just as bad. Other tribesmen captured them, took their goods, and made them slaves. There are many pages devoted here to pain, extreme sunburn, thirst, hunger and other travails. The means of relieving these tortures are often unpleasant to contemplate as well; the way the captors and crew made do eating unmentionable parts of camels as well as snails and locusts are detailed here. Riley's eventual captor was a desert merchant Sidi Hamet, who was in financial trouble. Riley assured Hamet that he had important friends at the British consulate, hundreds of miles away. He insisted that these friends would buy him and the crew back for a high price. Of course, there were no such friends, and Riley was bluffing; Hamet insisted that if the ransom price was not paid, he would slit Riley's throat, and perhaps he was bluffing as well.

The hapless Riley and the hapless Hamet make the core of this tale, and King cannot be faulted that his source narratives don't have enough details to describe Hamet fully. He emerges, however, as a friend and savior, even if he was initially only after the ransom. Riley could not have known it, but there was indeed a procedure for ransoming slaves, and a British consular official made it happen, becoming Riley's lifelong friend. A measure of the two months in captivity is that Riley normally weighed 240 pounds, and when he was ransomed he weighed less than ninety. Not all of his crew made it back, and some of them may have spent the rest of their lives as slaves. King's exciting and surprising narrative ends with the speculation that Riley may even have had an effect on his own country's slave trade. He became an active abolitionist, easily able to discuss the immorality of slavery; and perhaps since Lincoln admired Riley's book, it may have done its little part to bring emancipation about.