Reviews of Habibi Funk 031, Kayatibu, and The Good Ones
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A global tourist trap
An exploration of the downside to mass travel is engaging but not wholly satisfying, says MIK SABIERS
THE WRITING’S ON THE WALL: Unrequited Love in Barcelona
[Miltos Gikas/Flickr]
SIMON DUFF relishes the cross contamination of Damien Hirst’s greatest hits by street artists from France and the US
In view of the grooming gangs inquiry, SIMON PARSONS feels the relevance of this powerful examination of trauma suffered at Medomsley Youth Detention Centre
JOHN GREEN doubts the motivations of a US war photographer who never questions why, or for whom, she is producing images of imperialist conflict
MARIA DUARTE reviews Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, Hedda, The Mastermind, and Regretting You
TONY CONWAY welcomes a thrilling and concise history of Hope not Hate, that is also a manual full of tactical advice
PAUL DONOVAN welcomes an inspiring account of living with deafness that has important lessons for the treatment of deaf people in today’s UK
The World in a Selfie: An Inquiry into the Tourist Age
Marco D’Eramo
(Verso, £20)
PREDICATED on the premise that there is nothing more annoying than a tourist blocking that perfect shot of the tower of Pisa or even the Mona Lisa, Marco D’Eramo’s The World in a Selfie is readable, well-researched and well-written. It takes not just tourists but tourism as a whole to task.
Whether touching on Mark Twain’s travel exploits as one of the world’s first globetrotters, admonishing Adam Smith over the “grand tour” or even imaging what aliens from another planet would make of the annual pilgrimage to pastures new, tourism is tackled head on. And it’s found wanting.
D’Eramo proclaims that “tourism is the most important industry of the century” and rolls out facts and figures backing that claim.
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ROGER McKENZIE welcomes an important contribution to the history of Africa, telling the story in its own right rather than in relation to Europeans
Despite its anti-socialist bias, JOHN GREEN recommends a new survey of British architecture that seeks to educate and provoke