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Title: Dark Star Safari : Overland from Cairo to Cape Town by Paul Theroux ISBN: 0-618-13424-7 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: March, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.16 (55 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: solipsistic, self-aggrandizing, intelligent
Comment: This is a book about a man who went to Africa carrying in his mind what he wanted Africa to be and when the continent did not fit that mould, he complained and complained. In the end, this book is about Paul Theroux and not about Africa. It is about a solipsistic, self-aggrandizing, intelligent man who in the end is rather unappealing. The conversations he records become tiresome because they are all in the same pattern -- He portrays himself as sane, rational, as opposed to the stupidity of other people. He is also excruciatingly condescending when he writes about Africans and seems to be entirely unaware of it, his smirky amusement at Ethiopians is an example. Theroux sometimes sounds like a colonial-era writer; he is guilty of wanting Africans to be exoticized primitives: pure and unspoiled. (Somebody tells him that the Mursi are REAL Africans and by REAL, Theroux means 'admirable savages') It is sad that he fails to engage with Africans in the present. Africa has been changed by its impact with the West, it can NEVER go back to what it was, in the same way that Americans cannot go back to the time of their great-grandfathers. However, all educated and westernized Africans are NOT corrupt, as Theroux seems to believe. Being 'bare-assed' as he puts it, does not automatically a good African make.
He criticizes the Aid Industry, all well and good, but he does so without nuance, without engaging with any alternatives and in the end I felt that if they had given him rides when he asked, he might feel more kindly towards them.
His limp self-righteousness comes through when he writes about ivory, for example, but what I found most tiresome was how he constantly told hawkers or beggars or drivers, "Please don't talk about money." What street person in a developing country does not ask for money? And Theroux seems to delight in highlighting how Africans don't like each other, as if it somehow proves something for him.
There is never a reference to African writers, as if one cannot trust Africa as represented by the people. Instead, Theroux reads Heart of Darkness, a novel that sees Africans as dogs, TWELVE times, and once even admits to feeling like Kurtz.
Perhaps the only thing I admired about this book is Theroux's abhorrence for the Africa of Hemingway and others - the Africa of big games, of pay and be shown a lion that you'll shoot and go home to boast about, of no black people except for generic, stupid servants, each one an African Jeeves.
Rating: 5
Summary: An Honest Portrait of a Continent
Comment: Paul Theroux writes a book about his travels through Africa that is sad and beautiful. The prose is smooth, and the stories rich and poignant. He is able to reflect on what has transpired over the last 40 years, due to his five years in Malawi and Uganda as a Peace Corp member and as a teacher - as a young man. I have read all of Mr. Theroux's travel books, and this is perhaps the best.
There are many aspects of the book that I enjoyed - from boat trips to dangerous rides through Sudan - but the points that were most rewarding were his comments on the state of affairs, and his analysis of why things are the way they are. His honesty is refreshing and challenging. He views with a clear eye the damage that has been done by colonialism, slavery, war, famine,stupidity, poor leadership, and misguided aid from Western and Eastern nations.
He does offer solutions that are the bedrock of humanity. It almost reads like a "Book of Virtues". We have heard the value of kindness, hard work, honesty, education, and long range planning over and over, but this book really shows you that virtues are necessary ingredients for a successful society. His observations are those of an Anthropologist, and as a human being returning to his past.
This book has something for anyone that has a love of travel,literature,philosophy,art and science. I recommend that it be required reading for all United States citzens.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Bright Look At Darkest Africa
Comment: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I hadn't read Theroux since "Riding The Iron Rooster" and didn't want to after reading about a third of that book. Ordinarily, I have to finish a book even if I don't like what I'm reading, but Theroux's book about his travels through China was so negative, I was thoroughly disgusted and had to put the book away. From what I read, it seemed as if Theroux lost his joy of travel; he hated everything. Maybe a middle-age crisis, who knows? Theroux's joy in travel is back in "Dark Star Safari" however. (The dirt and grime and dust of China though annoyed him terribly but somehow the same conditions in Africa aren't nearly so repulsive to him.) How he survived the trip by land from Cairo to South Africa without having a nervous collapse is amazing. Theroux's anger at African dictators who no longer can blame colonialism for their countrys' problems is a breath of fresh air. What's stale and rotten though is that the west keeps pouring dollars into the pockets of these very same dictators in the guise of aid. Africa's future (with the exception of a few countries) appears hopelessly fated to repeat the same blood-drenched policies again and again. I'd like to see Theroux take his next trip up the west coast of Africa and write a book about that.
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Title: Bill Bryson's African Diary by Bill Bryson ISBN: 0767915062 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 03 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: To the Ends of the Earth by Paul Theroux ISBN: 0804111227 Publisher: Ivy Books Pub. Date: 02 April, 1994 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Zanzibar Chest: A Story of Life, Love, and Death in Foreign Lands by Aidan Hartley ISBN: 0871138719 Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Pillars of Hercules by Paul Theroux ISBN: 0449910857 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 29 October, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia by Paul Theroux ISBN: 014024980X Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1995 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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