Scan barcode
kilkilshah's review against another edition
1.0
Could not finish the book. I guess there is a reason Theroux travels alone because he seems insufferable to travel with. To my understanding no one forced him to take this trip but for the first 200 pages or so (which is how much I read) he constantly reminded the reader how dangerous the trip was and how miserable he was almost the entire time. I had a hard time getting by his condescension toward his fellow travelers and the people he met. He did a great job highlighting everything that was wrong with every place he visited. I understand there are many things undesirable about the places he visited but I am sure there are some positives. There were a few descriptions of places and people that kept me going but ultimately I couldn't finish. For someone who travels for a living he certainly makes it seem like a chore.
emcdonnell's review against another edition
2.0
Honestly, Theroux strikes me as a bit of a pompous ass in this book. As someone who lives & works in Africa full time, I feel that the author fails to capture the beauty of the culture and people in the areas he traverses through. He writes and complains about the trials he faces as if they are personal affronts, forgetting there are thousands of people who live such a reality everyday. His few week jaunt reveals to him the inefficiency and corrupt nature of the countries he explores, and while that is a great conclusion to come to, it is no longer new, no longer shocking, and no longer worth writing about in this way.
If you are interested in knowing more about the general state of this part of the world, then this would be a good book to start at. Otherwise, it really did not strike me as anything special.
If you are interested in knowing more about the general state of this part of the world, then this would be a good book to start at. Otherwise, it really did not strike me as anything special.
juliana_aldous's review against another edition
4.0
Paul Theroux gives his reason for wanting to take an overland journey through Africa in the beginning of the book, “Being available at any time in the total accessible world seemed to me pure horror. It made me want to find a place that was not accessible at all: no phones, no fax machines, not even mail delivery, the wonderful old world of being out of touch. In other words, gone away….The greatest justification for travel is not self-improvement but rather performing a vanishing act, disappearing without a trace. As Huck put it, lighting out for the territory.” He describes Africa as one of the last places on earth one can vanish into. Theroux had been a Peace Corps volunteer and teacher in Malawi and Uganda thirty years prior—he wanted to see how it had held up.
One of the reasons I like Theroux’s books so much is because I would never take the risks and journeys he does. But I like experiencing them through him. He reads during his trips—often books and long-dead authors connected with traveling through the region—if it be Mark Twain or Rousseau. And he usually has time to stop in and chat a bit with the regional celebrity author. I keep my Amazon wishlist close by to add to as I read. Theroux is no Rick Steves. He doesn’t travel in luxury nor or his writings to encourage you to follow in his steps. His trips are usually zen banality traveling on hot smelly buses or trains that always break down. These moments are punctuated with things like being shot at or illness. A frequent theme through the book is an African warning him away from the place he is about to go because, “bad people are there.”
He is not happy with what he finds on his journey. He was criticized after the book’s release for his contempt of Aid and Aid Workers and missionaries in Africa. Paul is a curmudgeon. But it is the chapters that he writes about his visits to the schools he taught in and you can feel his disappointment at the futility he sees. He visits the graves of the couple who founded the school and describes how their unkemptness would have disappointed the old orderly couple and so he weeds their grave himself. He also visits the school itself—aid promised was stolen, and the books had all been stolen and the school was falling down. He was disappointed to find that many of his fellow African teachers had sent their children elsewhere for education, but in some cases had encouraged their children to not come back but to stay in other countries.
If you are a real-life or an arm-chair adventurer and you love good travel writing and reading about literature then check out Theroux.
One of the reasons I like Theroux’s books so much is because I would never take the risks and journeys he does. But I like experiencing them through him. He reads during his trips—often books and long-dead authors connected with traveling through the region—if it be Mark Twain or Rousseau. And he usually has time to stop in and chat a bit with the regional celebrity author. I keep my Amazon wishlist close by to add to as I read. Theroux is no Rick Steves. He doesn’t travel in luxury nor or his writings to encourage you to follow in his steps. His trips are usually zen banality traveling on hot smelly buses or trains that always break down. These moments are punctuated with things like being shot at or illness. A frequent theme through the book is an African warning him away from the place he is about to go because, “bad people are there.”
He is not happy with what he finds on his journey. He was criticized after the book’s release for his contempt of Aid and Aid Workers and missionaries in Africa. Paul is a curmudgeon. But it is the chapters that he writes about his visits to the schools he taught in and you can feel his disappointment at the futility he sees. He visits the graves of the couple who founded the school and describes how their unkemptness would have disappointed the old orderly couple and so he weeds their grave himself. He also visits the school itself—aid promised was stolen, and the books had all been stolen and the school was falling down. He was disappointed to find that many of his fellow African teachers had sent their children elsewhere for education, but in some cases had encouraged their children to not come back but to stay in other countries.
If you are a real-life or an arm-chair adventurer and you love good travel writing and reading about literature then check out Theroux.
weaselweader's review against another edition
4.0
Is the real Africa on its death bed?
Forty years after a stint as a Peace Corps worker in Malawi and a teacher in Uganda, Paul Theroux decides to return to Africa to see how his former haunts have made out over four decades and how his friends are doing. Travelling in a distinctly non-tourist mode - chicken buses, overland train, feluccas, rental car, ferry, dugout canoes, cattle trucks, trains but avoiding planes at all costs - Theroux travels overland from Cairo to Cape Town and discovers an ailing Africa. The question is not whether there are problems but whether the ailments he encounters are terminal.
DARK STAR SAFARI is not a travel guide or, for that matter, a travel journal of the form that many potential readers might expect. Rather it is a dark and very bleak sociological commentary that is a blend of vitriol and anger, pessimism with the odd interlude of ultra-cautious optimism, sadness and cynicism and, if I may make a personal observation, despair. There were problems when Theroux first entered Africa but what he found today was more of the same but worse - more corruption, more poverty, more violence and crime, more hunger, more racism and bigotry, less education, more decrepitude, less infrastructure and, sadly, more apathy and indifference.
If Africans can find a way to rid themselves of the entrenched dependence on handouts and the apparently complete lack of motivation that is engendered by the self-serving approach of first world Western institutionalized charities such as UNICEF, SAVE THE CHILDREN and WORLD VISION, then there is also a hope that Africans can find the political maturity and the will to develop themselves into something beyond what Theroux saw in his extended tour. Until that happens, it is quite clear that tourists to Africa will see nature, big game reserves, eco-parks and so on but they will not see (nor is it likely that they would wish to see) the "real" Africa. It's too dangerous and, in my opinion, it just doesn't sound like a very pleasant place to visit.
DARK STAR SAFARI is well-named. It is not light or easy reading but it is educating, informative and profoundly thought-provoking. Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
Forty years after a stint as a Peace Corps worker in Malawi and a teacher in Uganda, Paul Theroux decides to return to Africa to see how his former haunts have made out over four decades and how his friends are doing. Travelling in a distinctly non-tourist mode - chicken buses, overland train, feluccas, rental car, ferry, dugout canoes, cattle trucks, trains but avoiding planes at all costs - Theroux travels overland from Cairo to Cape Town and discovers an ailing Africa. The question is not whether there are problems but whether the ailments he encounters are terminal.
DARK STAR SAFARI is not a travel guide or, for that matter, a travel journal of the form that many potential readers might expect. Rather it is a dark and very bleak sociological commentary that is a blend of vitriol and anger, pessimism with the odd interlude of ultra-cautious optimism, sadness and cynicism and, if I may make a personal observation, despair. There were problems when Theroux first entered Africa but what he found today was more of the same but worse - more corruption, more poverty, more violence and crime, more hunger, more racism and bigotry, less education, more decrepitude, less infrastructure and, sadly, more apathy and indifference.
If Africans can find a way to rid themselves of the entrenched dependence on handouts and the apparently complete lack of motivation that is engendered by the self-serving approach of first world Western institutionalized charities such as UNICEF, SAVE THE CHILDREN and WORLD VISION, then there is also a hope that Africans can find the political maturity and the will to develop themselves into something beyond what Theroux saw in his extended tour. Until that happens, it is quite clear that tourists to Africa will see nature, big game reserves, eco-parks and so on but they will not see (nor is it likely that they would wish to see) the "real" Africa. It's too dangerous and, in my opinion, it just doesn't sound like a very pleasant place to visit.
DARK STAR SAFARI is well-named. It is not light or easy reading but it is educating, informative and profoundly thought-provoking. Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
gentiang's review against another edition
5.0
A positively entertaining account of an East African Cairo-Cape Town trail. Theroux manages to vividly recount everything interesting about his trip - from the most extreme to the slowest mundane. An amazing read, especially for readers who are also travelling.
wmcduff's review
3.0
Interesting, perhaps even intriguing, Dark Star Safari has a sourness to it, a sense that the writer thinks himself cleverer than he is, with out-of-place repetitions of the titular dark star. However, it's probably worth reading for the view on Africa that is different from the endless begging and starving seen on television. Worth reading, but not entirely satisfying...which may be a good description of Mr. Theroux's own trip.
bobbo49's review against another edition
5.0
Loved the book! Theroux was in Egypt when Chris and I were there, and his descriptions of travel in Cairo and up the Nile were just what we experienced. The travel through east Africa sounded like what we have heard as well, and I was delighted that he overcame his predisposition and went on safari in South Africa. His analysis of the failure of Western aid in Africa, and reading recommendations on the subject, are thought provoking and challenging. All in all, a great read for me!