I read this some time during my Hemingway period, when I was 18, 19, 20, and 21. I thought I wouldn't remember much of it, but in fact it's all very fI read this some time during my Hemingway period, when I was 18, 19, 20, and 21. I thought I wouldn't remember much of it, but in fact it's all very familiar still after all these years. Also, I'm enjoying it....more
This doesn't read like a novel at all, and I found it really a chore to read most of the time. But it's a really amazing story, and I applaud Eggers fThis doesn't read like a novel at all, and I found it really a chore to read most of the time. But it's a really amazing story, and I applaud Eggers for finding it and trying to tell it, and especially for the amount of work and care he (and Mr. Deng) put in to getting this story told. That was a a massive undertaking, obviously. But the story is not well told, stylistically or structurally. If Eggers and Deng had taken this finished product and turned it over to a good novelist, I bet this could have been a really gripping page-turner of a book that really did read like a novel ... and possibly without losing much or any of the essential true story behind it and the true characters and events in it.
If I really did consider this a novel, I'd give it one or two stars, or more likely I wouldn't have even bothered finishing it. But as non-fiction, it's really good, and I usually don't have as many qualms about the style and readability of non-fiction books. Certainly lots of academic books I've read and appreciated have not been page-turners either!
I started reading this many years ago and thought it sucked, so I abandoned it. I picked it up recently to check it out again because I'm on a new GraI started reading this many years ago and thought it sucked, so I abandoned it. I picked it up recently to check it out again because I'm on a new Graham Greene kick (and also on an Africa kick), and read it all the way through this time, and guess what? I still think it sucks. I call it a much lower-quality product than your average Graham Greene. That's why I'm surprised that this is the one and only Graham Greene novel that the Modern Library puts in their top-100 list. This is sub-par Greene as far as I'm concerned. I find the story and the theme and just about everything else about this contrived, tiresome, tedious, uninspired, uninteresting. Also, almost nothing about this novel really rings true to me.
Well, I guess it just goes to show that there's no accounting for taste! Don't ever get me started on All the King's Men or Catch-22 or Henderson the Rain King, either. Those are three more examples of novels that are fawned over by critics that I absolutely hated! ...more
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