The happy ant-heap and other pieces

This book is a collection of Norman Lewis writing - more articles or essays than stories. They cover his writing range of travel and reportage, a number are about Italy and are Mafia related, other relate to crime or travel. These essays all have the year of writing stated, and date from 1988 to 1998 (published 1998).

There are 18 essays, and I would say 6 are excellent, and a further 6 are good. That leaves 6 that missed their mark with me, but to be fair, the Mafia writing isn't really my thing.

The essays that had resonance with me were the travel essays, and those that appealed more I believe are the ones that are set in counties that Lewis had a real connection to. Countries that he has written much longer books about. Those places were India, Burma (Myanmar), Indonesia, Central America.

I have a soft spot for this author, and genuinely like his work in the travel genre.
For me this is 4 stars, despite missing the mark on some of the essays for me personally.