Book Reviews - Part II - To the Ends of the Earth With Paul Theroux and Peter Matthiessen

Admittedly tired of his role as famous writer working in his home/office on the next award-winning book, Paul Theroux can't wait to get away from faxes, Internet and cell phones. He met his wife while teaching in Africa forty years ago; he has history there. What he finds on his return journey is that things change, while some things never do.In retracing his steps as a young man in Africa, Theroux experiences the "You Can't Go Home Again" syndrome. One: As a teacher in his twenties Theroux is kicked out of the Peace Corps for getting involved in Malawi politics. Two: Forty years later, "You Can't Go Home Again," not to Africa.If the reader is looking for tips on the best way to see Africa, don't read this book. For the game parks, safari camps and the likes of Victoria Falls, I suggest Frommer's Travel books, Lonely Planet and travel agents. You will be comfortably whisked from one destination to the next without having to get down and dirty. For those who want to know what
really lies in this heart of darkness, see it through the eyes of Paul Theroux.A consummate adventurer and prolific writer of fiction and non-fiction, Theroux is ever the pragmatist, well acquainted with the inherent dangers of an American alone in Africa. But his knowledge of the continent gives him a leg up. His "Dark Star Safari" is witty travel writing that takes the reader on a bumpy, sentimental journey from Cairo in the North to Cape Town in the South with no one to meet and greet him along the way. His travel companions are often chickens, goats and pig latin speaking guides with light fingers in his pockets and a charming curiosity about Americans.Beginning his journey in Egypt's dusty brown capital of Cairo, Theroux waits interminably for a visa to the Republic of Sudan. A questionable expert tells him there are Nubian pyramids bigger, grander, more beautiful and more intact than those he sees while riding horseback in Giza. After wading through bureaucratic maize,
he's finally given permission to leave for the Nubian land of Sudan where he runs smack into one of Africa's never ending surprises. Not only are these Nile monuments more numerous and incredibly well preserved, they are a combination of Nubian and Egyptian creativity surpassing those in Egypt.A copious note taker and researcher Theroux leaves nothing to memory. He knows he has a book publisher and he is in no hurry. Leaving most of the big overcrowded cities behind, he prefers meandering, stopping where it suits him or where the bus breaks down. His man-in-the-bush style of traveling makes him unique and among the few travel writers of his ilk, like Peter Matthiessen. Theroux admits it's a hard way to travel and he falls ill many times. His reunions with old friends in the grass huts and villages of Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, all the way down to where the southern tip of Africa meets the treacherous Cape of Good Hope are meticulously recorded so that he can write abo
ut them a year later as though they had just happened. His personal experiences with the people, politics and poverty of Africa are enlightening and often tragic.Theroux loves the bush. He returns to Malawi to see the school where he taught and renew old friendships with former students. He finds that like elsewhere on the continent, Malawi is rusting away, a result of too much aid and not enough do-it-yourself. There are exceptions. But most of Africa is still ridden with the poverty and disease of forty years ago only worse because Africa was killed with kindness from aid-givers. The high-spirited well-meaning days of yore have come undone, leaving an erosion of spirit and a less educated listless people with empty bellies.Some students of Peace Corps volunteers, the lucky ones, went on to Harvard and Oxford. They returned to lead their countries only to become sucked into the malaise of greed and corruption that is Africa today. The natural resources of Africa, like gold,
diamonds, wildlife and plain old take your breath away gorgeousness, are exploited to the benefit of all except Africans. And all the world can do about Africa today is try to keep more people from dying in the face of leaders who don't care.Theroux obsesses over the details, and that is what makes this book such an eye-opening and necessary read.Paul Theroux's novel "Mosquito Coast" was made into a motion picture.

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