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Title: Dark Star Safari : Overland from Cairo to Capetown by Paul Theroux ISBN: 0-618-44687-7 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 05 April, 2004 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.33 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Fresh Look From A Professional Skeptic
Comment: This may be the best of all of the Theroux travel books. Theroux, skeptical of everything, revisits the Africa he left 30 years before. Theroux concludes that things are worse in much of Africa and he strongly implies that Western aid; Western Charity and Western Liberal Do-Gooders have accomplished little or nothing in Africa. They have trained the local people to expect handouts instead of taking care of themselves. Here he sounds like a conservative Republican. However, Theroux is especially skeptical of the religious workers in Africa who, in his view, are wasting their time attempting to convert Africans to Christianity to save souls. This book caused me to rethink the African Charity issue.
As always, Theroux is fresh and unpredictable. He pokes fun at himself and his life, but he also concludes that his own journey through life has been very rewarding. You get the sense that no one handed Theroux any breaks in his career. He feels he had to earn every break he got.
He makes a few references to V.S. Naipaul in the book. He also interviews Nadine Gordimer, the South African novelist, and paints a portrait of an interesting and courageous woman.
Rating: 3
Summary: A new look on Africa
Comment: While reading this book by Paul Theroux I had to pause a number of times. I had to let all the information he gave me settle into my brain and translate it into what I could understand for myself. They way I interpreted the story was pretty much not to judge a book by its cover. In onther words, when it comes to Africa many people judge this great continent just on what they hear on the News. About the AIDS epidemic and all that. But that's only a fraction of what Africa is all about. You really need to get to know the people in Africa and actually see it for yourself before you can make a judgment. That's exactly what Theroux did in this book. He went to Africa and really got to know the people and the actual continent. My only complaint about the book was that it was a little wordy, but in general it was an amazing book. I would recommend this book to anyone who is willing to throw all their preconceptions of Africa out the window and one who is open-minded and willing to learn a life-lesson and learn more about Africa as well.
Rating: 2
Summary: Interesting topic, but much too negative
Comment: Theroux always chooses interesting topics to write about, and this book is no exception. But having read a number of his books, I always find myself disappointed, and I'm afraid that happened again here, too. Problem is, Theroux doesn't like people. So it's so depressing to hear him write an entire book on people! Listen to his assessment of a foreign aid worker, a young woman who had an outreach to the street children of a large African city: "...this Christ-bitten nag and every other twaddler like her sought out Africans...to abuse them with the notion that thery were sinners, to browbeat them into arcane forms of atonement, such as screeching hymns and the dues-paying routine of tithes." Is that the type of tone you want to hear through all 472 pages? I don't think anyone does. It certainly turned me off. Better look for a book from a person who seeks out the good in people and places and writes about that, not for someone who can't seem to stand people.
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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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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: Happy Isles of Oceania : Paddling the Pacific by Paul Theroux ISBN: 0449908585 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 19 October, 1993 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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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: Fresh Air Fiend : Travel Writings by Paul Theroux ISBN: 0618126937 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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