A brilliant book on the complex ways in which identity is formed through the ever-present binary of Self/Other. Based on reflections accumulated through a lifetime of travel, Kapuscinski examines in a very interesting way the Western construction of the “Other”.
His writing explores some of his encounters with people in Asia, Africa and Latin America which have made him better understand how reductive is the action of “Othering” because of its inherent representation of the non-West as irrational, savage and barbaric.
I have always been interested in books about identity especially when they touch upon ideas of intersubjectivity and phenomenology. Yet this one was particularly interesting to read because it combined reflections with storytelling in a compelling way. It reminded me a lot of Edward Saïd’s Orientalism, one of my favorite books on identity.
