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A review by simon_levi
Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown by Paul Theroux
1.0
The Goodreads text above describes the author as "endearingly irascible". I would rather describe him as arrogant and prejudiced towards other people. Yes, he has some insights and cultural anecdotes along the way but this is achieved regularly by a lot of authors without too much trouble.
What lacks here is not only compassion towards other travelers and other people living in Africa. The constant description of people in a sinister or comical way makes me think the author has no humanistic side to him. Although his original intentions towards Africa might've been good, he does not act in a way that would prove this.
Phrases like "Of the Germans, the sextet of aging, occasionally exuberant blondes, like the reunion of a chorus line, interested me most, because they were traveling with a Levantine doctor." or "I resisted mocking them because they were harmless and most were committed to geniality" put me off and made the author look like a bully. Yes, you can sometimes have an encounter with an obnoxious person but Theroux seems to have only such encounters. Theroux lives in a world where only he is good.
Overall I would suggest you find another author that will show you there are great places and great people in Africa too and who is able to do this in a less fragmented more fluid writing style.
Goodreads says 1 star means "I did not like it". And that's true for this one.
Another honorable quote by Theroux:
"I finished Flaubert and started The Heart of Darkness, which I was to read twelve more times before I reached Cape Town."....Really Theroux? You are truly a hero.
What lacks here is not only compassion towards other travelers and other people living in Africa. The constant description of people in a sinister or comical way makes me think the author has no humanistic side to him. Although his original intentions towards Africa might've been good, he does not act in a way that would prove this.
Phrases like "Of the Germans, the sextet of aging, occasionally exuberant blondes, like the reunion of a chorus line, interested me most, because they were traveling with a Levantine doctor." or "I resisted mocking them because they were harmless and most were committed to geniality" put me off and made the author look like a bully. Yes, you can sometimes have an encounter with an obnoxious person but Theroux seems to have only such encounters. Theroux lives in a world where only he is good.
Overall I would suggest you find another author that will show you there are great places and great people in Africa too and who is able to do this in a less fragmented more fluid writing style.
Goodreads says 1 star means "I did not like it". And that's true for this one.
Another honorable quote by Theroux:
"I finished Flaubert and started The Heart of Darkness, which I was to read twelve more times before I reached Cape Town."....Really Theroux? You are truly a hero.