psychohobbit 's review for:

The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari by Paul Theroux

5.0

---

This is the first book I've read by Mr. Theroux and now I want to read some others. Although he'd been to Africa multiple times before, this trip is a solo traveler's adventure up the western part of Africa. He examines tourism, lost of a way of life (Bushmen), wildly out of control wealth inequality, results of African colonialism, celebrity meddling to stroke their egos, and quite simply what he experiences on his trip. There are some ironies involved as when he discusses tourism in Capetown's shantytowns (slumming) and yet he is doing it himself throughout the book to gain an authentic experience. Granted, he explains especially later on in the book, that the desperate poor in their squatters' camps becomes overwhelming and reaches the point where he simply does not want to see any more. I don't blame him. My takeaway from this book is the horrifying results of government/national leadership caring nothing about their populations, leaving them to their own misery and idleness. Some of the countries he traveled in, he believes to be very wealthy--oil rich and diamond rich. The leaders have extravagant lifestyles while the population starves and lacks even the most basic necessities.