Rating: 
Summary: alienation and seduction and a disturbing ending
Review: The readers who were disappointed in this book because the ending was not definitive (Jeeykim, Ms. Gaucher) clearly missed Ms Hodgson's (no relation) intentions. More clearly than any other author I have read, she imbued me with what it is like to BE in Morocco, to try to live a nice logical white-woman American life in this alienating yet seductive, poor and yet rich, land of mystery. And then Livia's own body becomes the mystery. The definitive ending which the readers were looking for would defeat Ms Hodgson's well-rounded taste not only for what it is like to travel in Morocco but what it is like to try to make North American sense of this very alien experience. You can't. So the book didn't. The lesson is to discard your North American cultural maps and learn to construct a new one you will use when you immerse yourself, lose yourself, as Livia was lost to those of us who don't have the map. Livia developed the map -- and developed the ability to be part of the mystery, not the mystified.This is one of my favorite books, part mystery and part travelogue and part work of art: it is beautifully constructed. It is a book to be savored, like fine foreign chocolate, or a savory foreign dish which you know you could never divine what the herbs and spices, let alone the meat, in it are. I never wanted to go to Morocco before I read The Tattooed Map, but it's been near the top of my list ever since I did.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautifully illustrated but give me more.
Review: Travel to exotic places, always an interesting topic, this book initially read like a travelogue. Lydia, who travels with her one time lover now friend Christopher, has taken on the enjoyable task of keeping a journal. She is a warm personality and eager to befriend the natives who reciprocate by inviting her into their homes. We follow her through the streets as she enlightens us with a refreshing and unusual look at the back alleys of Morocco for Lydia is not only here in the present, but also lost in the past or perhaps not. After awakening with what she deems to be flea-bites on her hand she finds an intriguing connection to a Moroccan named Layesh. From these spots on her hand a tattoo begins to spread of a map, ornate and only visible to her. There is so much here to work with but I find that the author left me wanting more. Chris finds himself faced with her disappearance and left to decipher the insanity that her journal has become. He picks up pen and paper and attempts to continue the journal finding a strange comfort in putting his words on paper. As Chris begins his journey there is a transition in the works, but is it enough to save this book, that is the question that only the reader can answer. Kelsana 8/8/01
Rating: 
Summary: A good-looking book in search of a plot
Review: With ingenious artwork evoking the color and drama of the Orient, and with moody black and white photography, Barbara Hodgson's book oozes atmosphere and draws the reader into an interesting, but undramatic travelogue in Morocco by two disparate friends and former lovers. But the tattooed map appearing on Lydia's wrist changes everything. It appears Hodgson, a writer whose talent is quite clear, had lots of clever ideas for this book. Too many of them, and the characters - including Allen and Layesh's family - remain undeveloped. There was a wonderful supernatural, time-twisting mystery and thriller on the boil which failed to fire. After Lydia's disappearance Christopher spends an awful lot of time in the library with beautiful old books sorting out red herrings from possible leads and too little happens after that. Two stars for the artwork because it is an undeniably clever device, adroitly woven into what there is of a story.
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