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Blood River Tim Butcher 8601404272844 Books

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Blood River Tim Butcher 8601404272844 Books

Without the publication of this fascinating account of one man's arduous journey across a continent and through a forgotten country, the world would be worse off. The author weaves together historical accounts of the few who preceded him: Henry Stanley ("Dr. Livingstone, I presume."), Robert Conrad (Heart of Darkness), Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, and Barbara Kingsolver (The Poisonwood Bible). This makes the book much more than just a travel report but also a bibliography as wide and as deep as the mighty Congo River.


Tags : Blood River [Tim Butcher] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A compulsively readable account of a journey to the Congo — a country virtually inaccessible to the outside world — vividly told by a daring and adventurous journalist. Ever since Stanley first charted its mighty river in the 1870s,Tim Butcher,Blood River,Vintage Books,0099494280,Africa,Travel Essays & Travelogues,Travel writing

Blood River Tim Butcher 8601404272844 Books Reviews

Part history, part travel book, part social commentary, this is a fascinating and often disturbing look at the Congo and the author's observations as he attempts to retrace the journey of explorer Henry Stanley in the late 19th century through the most rugged and hostile terrain imaginable. Fantastically written and full of keen observations, this is a wonderful account of a country that has been brutalized and exploited, one that seems to have been left behind by the modern world.
Another Western journalist's account of his travels through a war-torn African country, this time, the Congo. For anyone who read and enjoyed King Leopold's Ghost, this book can almost serve as a sort of sequel. In it, Tim Butcher attempts to retrace Henry Morton Stanley's portentous journey through the Congo over a century before. A friend of the author ironically points out, it's probably more dangerous to trek across the Congolese bush now than it was in Stanley's day.

So, I admit the book's premise may be a little bit gimmicky, but Tim Butcher's voice more than makes up for it. He's a great writer and a genuinely likable person. (For those of you who have watched the show Survivor Man, imagine a Les Stroud who reads.) I found him to be sincere and direct - equal parts compassionate and honest. And despite his incredible hubris in undertaking this mission, he's surprisingly gentle-spirited and not at all pretentious.

And just when I would begin to categorize him as a sort of straight-forward, no-frills writer, he would sideswipe me with a beautifully written description of something or someone he found compelling in the Congo, like a rusted piece of Belgian railroad track overtaken by the bush, or the frenetic Congolese priest lamenting the absence of law and order, or the man who was willing to give his four-year-old child to a complete stranger to save him from the Congo. I definitely enjoyed this book enough to pick up his next one right away.
I just finished reading both this and Jeffrey Tayler's Facing the Congo A Modern-Day Journey into the Heart of Darkness, which describes a similar journey. The two books are quite different in their approaches to the material, but they lend themselves to comparison, and on the whole, this book, Blood River, comes out ahead.

The premise of this work is simple. The author, at the time the Africa corespondent for the Daily Telegraph, decides to retrace the journey of the most famous Daily Telegraph correspondent of a previous era Henry Morton Stanley. He prepares for this trip for years, reading extensively about Stanley, the Congo, and Africa in general before starting his remarkable trip. After first flying to the shores of Lake Tanganyika, he the follows, using mostly modern conveyances, the route pioneered over a century before by Stanley. Throughout he compares his experiences with those of the prior explorer, and with the experiences of only a few decades ago, at the time of the Belgian colony. I was amazed to learn how developed the Congo had been prior to its independence. A modern joke, which does not feature in this book, but which applies completely goes as follows a child asks his grandparent "what did you use for light before candles were invented?" and the grandparent replies "Electricity." The constant refrain of this book is the elderly, 70+ year old crowd, who remember clean water, good roads, good hospitals, the rule of law, and electric light, while their grandchildren work as subsistence farmers or mercenaries.

Butcher writes as a journalist, and it shows. His ability to bring even a savage and dangerous "undeveloping" country to vivid, engrossing light is superb. His research before the trip shows as well, in his asides about flora, fauna, and the monuments he discovers. His point in making the trip was a deeper understanding of the country, and this is where the starkest contrast is seen between his work and Tayler's. Tayler states at the opening of his book that the journey was one of self discovery, and that book is much more inward focused and solipsistic. It is surprising then, that I feel the reader gets a better picture of Butcher than of Tayler, as we see his interest in, and concern for, the people he encounters. His closing paragraphs add a note of hope to an otherwise bleak look at the "broken heart of Africa". Which is a wonderfully coined phrase, by the way.

The book is written in British English, with an occasional word I had to look up as an American reader. (I had never heard the term "tatty" before reading this). Occasionally he repeats himself, with some key phrases repeated more than once. Butcher describes Mobutu's "singlehanded" prevention of Congo's success on at least three occasions, using very similar wording. But these are relatively minor quibbles with an otherwise excellent work.

Highly recommended.
This was a gripping story of a dangerous journey through almost unbelievably primitive conditions. Much of what he related about his encounters was almost unbelievable to read about in the 21st C. I've traveled to third world and developing world, and have seen the incongruity of people on oxcarts with cell-phones etc. as they progress unevenly--but progress they do! But there is none of that on his journey. No sign of the 21st C, and almost none of the 20th C remaining in the area he traveled through. It broke my heart to realize how the world has ignored and forgotten the suffering DRC people. Mr. Butcher is a very interesting writer, and I appreciated the regional history as well as the story of his own tribulations and perseverance (although at times I thought he was just plain crazy to continue!). I would have given this book a "5 star" but the end of the book just petered out, so the end was a bit of a disappointment. Nonetheless, highly recommended!
Without the publication of this fascinating account of one man's arduous journey across a continent and through a forgotten country, the world would be worse off. The author weaves together historical accounts of the few who preceded him Henry Stanley ("Dr. Livingstone, I presume."), Robert Conrad (Heart of Darkness), Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, and Barbara Kingsolver (The Poisonwood Bible). This makes the book much more than just a travel report but also a bibliography as wide and as deep as the mighty Congo River.