The Reader's Companion to South Africa -- Take 2

As is to be expected with a compilation of essays - and in fact as I specifically anticipated in my first post related to The Reader's Companion to South Africa, some of the pieces contained herein were better than others. 

The essays, as a rule, are an outsider's take on various aspects of South Africa: politics, geography, geology, people, history, you name it.  I muddled my way through all of them, but some of my favorites were by Mark Twain, Frank Carpenter, H.V. Morton, and P.J. O'Rourke; they all have wonderful senses of humor.

(Aside: I'm especially excited to have enjoyed the H.V. Morton selection.  I don't know how it is that I've been interested in vintage travelogues for so long and haven't run across him, but somehow I hadn't until very recently.  But once I did, based solely on the reading of a few first sentences of books, I went a bit berserk and probably have a dozen of his books now. I haven't read any of them yet, but my enjoyment of this selection makes me very excited to dive into them!)

Despite a few duds, overall the collection was a good introduction to how South Africa came to be what it is.  The editorial lead-in at the start of each essay was especially helpful in adding some context.  My biggest criticism is that the collection is heavily, if not entirely, comprised of works by foreigners visiting South Africa.  That may be because the perspective allows for a certain clarity of observation which is more difficult for a local.  Regardless, a piece or two by an actual South African might have been a nice addition.