Cafe Arcane

Review

Rating: 8

he following carries the caveat that Marco Polo is one of those handful of figures that I can read a lot about. I’ve read The Travels a few times now and it still entertains. This book is heavily narrated and breaks up Marco’s accounts with introspection, speculation, research and other commentary by Bergreen. Bergreen does an excellent job of rising above the criticism of the core texts (there are lots of versions and pieces that became the commonly published modern versions), providing defense of Marco on parts that are typically disputed, reigning in some of Marco’s (or his editor’s) liberties and adding context to people, place, things and events that might be confusing to the 21st century reader. I would recommend it to anyone that is curious about the era, events and person that doesn’t already have a strong grounding in historical context. At the end of the book, there is an expansive section about the life of Polo after his travels, which go a long way to add a deeper human angle (both positive and negative).