My Mercedes Is Not for Sale: From Amsterdam to Ouagadougou... An Auto-misadventure Across the Sahara
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- Synopsis
- "Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?" --Janis Joplin. A journalist's intrepid endeavor to sell his used car abroad results in a high-spirited and revealing look at West Africa. "Look, there's my car," I say, pointing at my Mercedes in the parking lot. "Where?" a fellow desert traveler asks. "There, that Mercedes," I say. He looks at me, questioning. "You want to drive that through the Sahara?" Jeroen van Bergeijk came up with what seemed like a great scheme for making a quick profit: buy a clunker of a car in his native Amsterdam and resell it in the Third World, where a market even for jalopies still thrives. His chariot of choice is a rusted-out 1988 Mercedes 190D with 220,000 kilometers on its odometer; his route will take him from Holland through Morocco, across the Sahara, and into some of the least trodden parts of Africa. My Mercedes Is Not for Sale is a rollicking tale of an innocent abroad. The author finds himself facing a driving challenge akin to the Dakar Rally but encounters obstacles never dreamed of by race-car drivers: active minefields, occasional banditry--mostly by the border guards--and a teenage, chain-smoking desert guide with a fondness for Tupac lyrics. Food and water are scarce, sandstorms are frequent, and all he has to patch up his many car breakdowns thousands of miles from civilization is a bar of soap, some duct tape, and a pair of women's nylons. Then there's the coup he survived. My Mercedes Is Not for Sale captures more than the adventure--it vividly portrays the impact of globalization on Africa through a surprise-filled journey into its thriving car culture, while asking the question: is the white man's burden really a used car?
- Copyright:
- 2006
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Publisher Quality
- ISBN-13:
- 9780767930222
- Related ISBNs:
- 9780767928694
- Publisher:
- Broadway Books
- Date of Addition:
- 12/17/10
- Copyrighted By:
- Jeroen Van Bergeijk
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- Nonfiction, Travel, Biographies and Memoirs
- Submitted By:
- Bookshare Staff
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.