Rating:

Get Lost !

Author:  Alastair Bonnett

unruly placed cover (183x275)In my backyard are two sturdy metal spikes – buried almost flush with the ground – that mark the two rear corners of my entirely unremarkable quarter acre lot. From an objective viewpoint, the property line created by these markers seems rather arbitrary, but all objectivity flies out the window whenever my clumsy neighbor steps over the line and crushes some of my new garden plantings.  Then the line is grounds for a surprisingly visceral and abiding animosity.  Similar lines define much of modern living.  From neighborhoods to cities, counties, states and countries, the world is divided into countless meticulously defined parcels which frequently are the source for all sorts of conflict.  But there are some places on the planet that defy the traditional conventions.  Some hide in plain sight, while others are almost inaccessible.  Some exist only on paper, while others change with the weather.  In Unruly Places, British author Alastair Bonnett explores the geography of the bizarre, spanning the globe to reveal dozens of unfamiliar and mysterious places.  It’s really quite a trip.

Currently a professor of social geography at Newcastle University, in the early 1990s Bonnett was a founding editor of Transgressions, a now defunct magazine that was devoted to the peculiar field of psychogeography.  As far as I can tell, this discipline focuses on the creative exploration of the urban environment, often making use of improvised journeys through the cityscape which disrupt the geometry of the status quo and lead to authentic new experiences.  Or something like that.  In the introduction, Bonnett describes how disorienting it is to try and find one’s way around a Newcastle day care center when all you have is a map of the Berlin subway system.  If you find this kind of wacky worldly approach to your fancy, this book is for you.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant as viewed from a roof in Pripyat, Ukraine.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant as viewed from a roof in Pripyat, Ukraine.

Taking the reader on 47 brief trips all over the world, the author starts the journey at Sandy Island, a 45 square mile landmass seven hundred miles off the east coast of Australia that doesn’t actually exist. He then moves on to Leningrad and plenty of other places that don’t quite exist anymore.  He continues on to underground cities in eastern Turkey, propaganda cites in North Korea and the abandoned city of Pripyat near what’s left of the Chernobyl power plant, presenting a thoughtful look at some of the planet’s most unusual locations.  He also explores the many idiosyncratic borders between countries, like the ridiculously complicated enclaves and counter-enclaves that are scattered along the India-Bangladesh border.

Successfully seeking out some of the most peculiar locations on the planet, I found Bonnett’s imaginative and unconventional approach to the world to be quite entertaining, although some of his musings are a bit too professorial at times. I was also perturbed by the ironic absence of any maps, although latitude and longitude coordinates are provided for each location, when possible.

I honestly expect Unruly Places to only appeal to geography buffs, like me.  But if you want to learn something about the thousands of people who call a Manila cemetery their home or are curious about the Lunda Tchokwe separatists in eastern Angola, I expect you’ll find Bonnett’s approach both informative and entertaining.  Four out of five stars from me.

— D. Driftless

Chernobyl photo by Jason Minshull

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