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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Illuminating chronicle of the white author's childhood and military service in Rhodesia and the subsequent first years of life in Zimbabwe. The prose reads pleasently.
Listened to your book. I got a sense of the tragedy of the whole, the people living there and the country's metamorphosis. I could sense your sincere love for the people and the land you grew up in. I hope such a love of people for people and the land in which they gain their life will arise in the hearts of all more and more as we live and learn from all such tragedies and life experiences.
medium-paced
Peter Godwin shares his life from a young boy to when he leaves Zimbabwe for the final time as an adult. His life during such tumult could be romanticized, yet Godwin keeps the story and the reader grounded in what feels like a realistic retelling of life leading up to civil war, the war itself, and how he dealt with its aftermath.
It's his story only. Godwin doesn't attempt to rationalize any political position, so many questions are left in the book's wake. But, they're good questions that will motivate me to learn more about a time and place I knew little of until now.
It's his story only. Godwin doesn't attempt to rationalize any political position, so many questions are left in the book's wake. But, they're good questions that will motivate me to learn more about a time and place I knew little of until now.
About 3 years ago I tried this author’s other book, [b:The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe|8728554|The Fear Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe|Peter Godwin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1344272080l/8728554._SY75_.jpg|56128862] but really struggled to get into the highly political story.
This one however was much easier to connect with as it was written in the form of a memoir following the author’s childhood in Zimbabwe, his subsequent stint in the army and finally his time as a lawyer and journalist during the change of government in the 1980’s.
I have to say my favourite sections were that of his childhood. Particularly when young Peter's nanny brought him to the Apostolic church. His childhood memories reminded me a little of [b:The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe|6449208|The Last Resort A Memoir of Zimbabwe|Douglas Rogers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320408480l/6449208._SY75_.jpg|6639310] which is hands down my favourite book of Zimbabwe.
As Peter got older and got forced to serve time in the military the narrative changed – as expected – to provide more insight into the politics and guerrilla warfare that happened all over Zimbabwe. How the locals suffered, stuck between the military and guerrillas with no relief from either side.
I found it quite ironic that as a lawyer he had to defend the same war criminals he fought against in the army.
As with all the books I read about Zimbabwe there are moments of hope but also many many accounts of atrocities, with no one coming out the winner.
This one however was much easier to connect with as it was written in the form of a memoir following the author’s childhood in Zimbabwe, his subsequent stint in the army and finally his time as a lawyer and journalist during the change of government in the 1980’s.
I have to say my favourite sections were that of his childhood. Particularly when young Peter's nanny brought him to the Apostolic church. His childhood memories reminded me a little of [b:The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe|6449208|The Last Resort A Memoir of Zimbabwe|Douglas Rogers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320408480l/6449208._SY75_.jpg|6639310] which is hands down my favourite book of Zimbabwe.
As Peter got older and got forced to serve time in the military the narrative changed – as expected – to provide more insight into the politics and guerrilla warfare that happened all over Zimbabwe. How the locals suffered, stuck between the military and guerrillas with no relief from either side.
I found it quite ironic that as a lawyer he had to defend the same war criminals he fought against in the army.
As with all the books I read about Zimbabwe there are moments of hope but also many many accounts of atrocities, with no one coming out the winner.
Profound and articulate. Excellent story, very well told. Laughed out loud, poignant and disturbing in its graphic detail.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
A very interesting read. I don't know how atypical Peter Godwin is; the son of liberal/progressive parents in rural Rhodesia, he grew up accompanying his doctor mother to road accidents and post-mortems, and his black nanny to Apostolic church meetings where he was the only white. The first part of the book, covering his childhood until he leaves school, is both touching and funny.
Part 2 is an abrupt change of scene, covering the 18 months or so he spent after school as a young conscript in the Rhodesian army after Ian Smith's declaration of independence and the black rebellion against it. As you'd expect this is harsh, and brings home yet again the futility of war, perhaps especially civil war, and that although you may start out with "principles", war will eventually corrupt you and you will be committing -- or at least complicit in -- the same injustices and atrocities you once railed against.
Godwin eventually escapes, amazingly unscathed, to Cambridge where he trains as a lawyer. Part 3 covers his return to Zimbabwe, where he is involved in the defence at a treason trial which sadly reveals that the new government is not above using the same tricks as the old one: the defendants, acquitted, are promptly locked up again under emergency powers inherited from Smith. Disgusted with the law, Godwin becomes an investigative journalist, risking life and limb to uncover government-sanctioned mass slaughter.
It's a bit gung-ho at times, with some episodes that read like a thriller, making you wonder if it could really have happened like that. But overall, it reads as a sincere and rather embittered insider's look at the mess that is Zimbabwe, still suffering from the same ills almost 40 years on. Well worth reading.
Part 2 is an abrupt change of scene, covering the 18 months or so he spent after school as a young conscript in the Rhodesian army after Ian Smith's declaration of independence and the black rebellion against it. As you'd expect this is harsh, and brings home yet again the futility of war, perhaps especially civil war, and that although you may start out with "principles", war will eventually corrupt you and you will be committing -- or at least complicit in -- the same injustices and atrocities you once railed against.
Godwin eventually escapes, amazingly unscathed, to Cambridge where he trains as a lawyer. Part 3 covers his return to Zimbabwe, where he is involved in the defence at a treason trial which sadly reveals that the new government is not above using the same tricks as the old one: the defendants, acquitted, are promptly locked up again under emergency powers inherited from Smith. Disgusted with the law, Godwin becomes an investigative journalist, risking life and limb to uncover government-sanctioned mass slaughter.
It's a bit gung-ho at times, with some episodes that read like a thriller, making you wonder if it could really have happened like that. But overall, it reads as a sincere and rather embittered insider's look at the mess that is Zimbabwe, still suffering from the same ills almost 40 years on. Well worth reading.
First reaction on reading the book is that while this is a good read, and definitely insightful into another part of the world; but I can’t also at the same time help but notice Godwin seems a bit ahistorical in his analysis; he avoids talk of why his family migrated to Zimbabwe in the first place, and doesn’t seem to have fully understood the actions of the white families/settlers who came to occupy and take resources from the land. Instead he laments about how “pointless” the civil war was (completely forgetting that perhaps the occupation/invasion by white people reason enough) - see the scene at the end of the book with him looking to God for help on the hill where he imagined Jesus was crucified. I can’t help but wonder if Godwin is writing this through a politically correct post colonial lens; he portrays himself as being sympathetic to blacks, but yet at the same time the book definite exhibits apartheid era nostalgia (see the scenes of when he goes back to Mozambique and how things have all gone to shit now the white people are gone, or when he goes back to Melsetter and talks about how many white families have left - almost as if black families didn’t matter so much for him)
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced