This elegant and enlightening book is an impressive feat ... Kumekawa gives us a 'barge’s-eye view' of what his protagonist witnessed over the ensuing decades, tracing how the vessel became a passive yet essential participant in a rapidly changing world.
Perhaps to supply some punch, Mr. Kumekawa strains for effect ... His repeated sneering at the capitalist West and his arch rhetoric make for heavy reading ... Underlying Empty Vessel is a reflexive antipathy to globalism, a working assumption that things from other places are suspect.
Readers of history and economics will enjoy his unique insights on regions from the Caribbean to Africa and how these barges were deployed in strategic and interesting ways.
