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A review by heyhaveyouread
The Last King Of Scotland by Giles Foden
3.0
**Minor Spoilers**
This was a strange book - covering an intense period of time in Uganda. Though the details are fiction, the timeline is broadly accurate. The writing is often grotesque in describing the brutality of the atrocities committed. There is dark humour in the absurd stories of indigestion, dictators rising Christ like through a swimming pool, and personal telegrams to the Queen.
The story begins with Nicholas Garrigan - a newly minted doctor from Scotland, who had registered for adventure, to work in Uganda. I enjoyed the descriptions of life in rural Mbarara, especially the medical stories through the first half of the novel - many still resonant to rural practice today.
[One of my favourite moments is right towards the end of the book when Garrigan returns to Mulago hospital after attempting to flee across the Rwandan border, being chased by Amin’s forces, almost dying of snakebite, and somehow getting involved with the Tanzanian APC - in classic hospital style, he just gets asked why he’s late, and is put to work]
He then meets Idi Amin and in an almost ‘Heart of Darkness’ sense, becomes more and more embroiled in this terrifying, paranoid but seemingly charming man’s life.
Garrigan acts as the narrator of the entire novel and perhaps as we are meant to, I sincerely disliked his character - he appears to lack moral fibre, alongside any true ambition or purpose. Does this allow him to be a true narrater? Perhaps - but he plays too much of a character in the events of the story for this to be possible. Initially, he simply hangs around like a limp overcooked spaghetti carefully ignoring the violence around him. It is only when he becomes a victim does he open his eyes to the suffering of those around him. Many reviewers are more sympathetic to Garrigan - that this is a tale of self redemption and that he realises his own complicity late, as we can do - but I did not see this. He uses his privilege as a Mzungu and doctor to choose to not see.
⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 for the love of political history and bilzharia
This was a strange book - covering an intense period of time in Uganda. Though the details are fiction, the timeline is broadly accurate. The writing is often grotesque in describing the brutality of the atrocities committed. There is dark humour in the absurd stories of indigestion, dictators rising Christ like through a swimming pool, and personal telegrams to the Queen.
The story begins with Nicholas Garrigan - a newly minted doctor from Scotland, who had registered for adventure, to work in Uganda. I enjoyed the descriptions of life in rural Mbarara, especially the medical stories through the first half of the novel - many still resonant to rural practice today.
[One of my favourite moments is right towards the end of the book when Garrigan returns to Mulago hospital after attempting to flee across the Rwandan border, being chased by Amin’s forces, almost dying of snakebite, and somehow getting involved with the Tanzanian APC - in classic hospital style, he just gets asked why he’s late, and is put to work]
He then meets Idi Amin and in an almost ‘Heart of Darkness’ sense, becomes more and more embroiled in this terrifying, paranoid but seemingly charming man’s life.
Garrigan acts as the narrator of the entire novel and perhaps as we are meant to, I sincerely disliked his character - he appears to lack moral fibre, alongside any true ambition or purpose. Does this allow him to be a true narrater? Perhaps - but he plays too much of a character in the events of the story for this to be possible. Initially, he simply hangs around like a limp overcooked spaghetti carefully ignoring the violence around him. It is only when he becomes a victim does he open his eyes to the suffering of those around him. Many reviewers are more sympathetic to Garrigan - that this is a tale of self redemption and that he realises his own complicity late, as we can do - but I did not see this. He uses his privilege as a Mzungu and doctor to choose to not see.
⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 for the love of political history and bilzharia