A review by ericfheiman
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa by Peter Godwin

5.0

Initially, I thought this book was going to be another white colonial (hence patronizing) view of Africa, a la Kapucinski or Theroux, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover it was much more—and much better—than I ever expected. There is a nice triumvirate of storytelling here that when the disparate strands are linked together as they are in this book, pack a punch that none of the three lines alone could have done. Peter Godwin IS white, but he was born and raised in Zimbabwe (nee Rhodesia) and his tacking between the worlds of black and white creates a palpaple tension in that you aren't sure if the narrator can be trusted. Two of the storylines—the death of Godwin's father and the disintegration of Zimbabwe—have a nice parallel, but it's Godwin's discovery that his father is not English by birth but actually a Polish Jew who disowned his birthright after World War II, that gives this memoir its propulsive narrative glue. I haven't cried from reading a book in a long while. This one broke the dry-eye streak and the tears felt earned and genuine.