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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
This book is incredible. Kapuscinski pulls together a portrait of Ethiopia's last emperor, a fascinating and horrifying character whose lavish world was at total odds with the situation in the rest of the country. Quick read, and very well worth the time.
dark
medium-paced
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Fascinating story on how an illiterate man manages for 50 years to stay the boss of an empire. Kapuscinski tells a fascinating tale by interviewing the former people living at the court.
informative
medium-paced
Chronicling the last days of Haile Selasie, the Emperor of Ethiopia, who ruled from 1930, until he was overthrown in 1974. I first heard of Polish journalist Kapuscinski through his writings in some old issues of Granta. This story is told mostly through the people who used to serve the emperor, people who used to spend most of their time around him, like the door opener, who mastered the art of opening the door at the right time (reminded me of the two men who open the doors for the assembly speaker. Quite an art!) or another one whose job was to wipe the shoes of dignitaries, on which the Emperor's dog used to pee. Though he ruled for half a century, he never signed anything with his own hand. He preferred bad ministers so that he would look good, in comparison. Yet he wanted all decisions to happen through him. The foreign trips, the constant tussles with tUniversity students (who became the first real opposition against the emperor), the blindness to sufferings around him and attempts to suppress any talk about these sufferings, the muzzling of even the foreign press, the vanity...all of its reminds one of a contemporary leader. Hoping that this one won't have Selasie's longevity.
Kapuscinski story-telling is gripping and free-flowing, bringing alive all the drama of those last days when the decades of unquestioned power unravelled. The last days of the emperor, imprisoned in the rooms of the Menelik Palace on the hills above Adis Ababa, with the man himself believing he is still the emperor, is quite a read.
Kapuscinski story-telling is gripping and free-flowing, bringing alive all the drama of those last days when the decades of unquestioned power unravelled. The last days of the emperor, imprisoned in the rooms of the Menelik Palace on the hills above Adis Ababa, with the man himself believing he is still the emperor, is quite a read.
The decadence of an Empire is here narrated to outsiders - on the surprised, ironic and astonishing words of those that worked to maintain it until the very end.
A tale of autocracy and myth, weaved with a surprising disregard for the needs of the population. Kapuściński retells us the end of the Empire, and leaves us eager to know what happened next with the Derg, a bloody history in itself.
And although the book is called The Emperor, Selassie remains the obscure figure of the plot, an old man with undefined plans and goals, just holding on to power.
The book is a very interesting study on development and enlightened rulers, also providing for a fascinanting view on some of the beliefs of Ethiopian people, that surely still influence them today.
A tale of autocracy and myth, weaved with a surprising disregard for the needs of the population. Kapuściński retells us the end of the Empire, and leaves us eager to know what happened next with the Derg, a bloody history in itself.
And although the book is called The Emperor, Selassie remains the obscure figure of the plot, an old man with undefined plans and goals, just holding on to power.
The book is a very interesting study on development and enlightened rulers, also providing for a fascinanting view on some of the beliefs of Ethiopian people, that surely still influence them today.
dark
funny
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced