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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
The Travelling Ape: What Travelling (Nearly) Everywhere Taught Me about Humanity, Geopolitics, and Happiness by Michael Mackay Richards explores a diverse array of landscapes and cultures worldwide. Beginning with the eruption of Mount Yasur in Vanuatu, the author contrasts modern travel privileges with historical explorers' challenges. Richards describes adventures across Papua New Guinea, Israel, the Namib Desert, Palau, Bolivia, Europe, Asia, South America, North America, and Australasia in rich detail, with elements like candid depictions of Port Moresby's urban decay and Palau's paradisiacal beauty, along with reflections on Ethiopia's unique history. Richards explores cultural nuances in places like Tokyo, Rome, Jeddah, Central Asia, North Korea, and China, raising questions about wealth, happiness, mental health, and democracy, and concluding with reflections on lifestyle choices inspired by healthy societies and the transformative power of global experiences.
The Travelling Ape by Michael Mackay Richards offers readers an armchair tour of the world and his own personal thoughts and insights on its state throughout, allowing us to connect with his experiences and perspective. I found the book and much of what Richards said to be timely considering where we are globally at this very moment. I felt that the greatest contribution the author makes toward helping us understand how we got here is through his historical contextualization, contemporary relevance, and the present-day implications of past events. Richards does his best to manage a balancing act that is both honest and somewhat objective, more so on religion than on politics and social constructs, and even with swaths of exhaustive research, he writes in a style that is accessible. It's remarkable how much he has traveled and the places he has been, and I have no doubt this book will be a delight for lovers of geography, travel, history, sociology, and pretty much anything relating to the human condition.
