At thirty-three one's direction in life should be clear, and mine was not.' In search of some direction, or at least a new challenge, Jeffrey Tayler gave up his day job of opening rejection letters from publishers and went exploring. Having always been fascinated by Africa and the great age of Victorian exploration he went to Kinshasa in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and found a boat to take him up-river to Kisangani, deep in the heart of the jungle. Not content with that, he then bought a pirogue (a kind of canoe), hired a guide and set out to paddle the 1,000 miles back to Kinshasa.
A personal journey, an intrepid voyage, an exceptionally well-written travelogue: FACING THE CONGO is all these things and more. A wonderfully vivid and exciting read for armchair adventurers everywhere.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Recent years have seen a spate of "Congo books". Ronan Bennett, Barbara Kingsolver and John Edric have written acclaimed Congo novels, and Adam Hochschild's history, King Leopold's Ghost, documents the atrocities committed during rubber fever, when 8,000,000 died in the Belgian Congo and up to 14,000,000 died in French Equatorial Africa. In the travel genre, we have had Redmond O'Hanlon's great Congo Journey and Michaela Wrong's In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz. The combination of historical tragedy and contemporary anarchy makes this rich hunting ground for writers, but also provokes serious ethical questions about writing commercial books on a destroyed country--questions which only the nature of the books themselves can answer.
Facing the Congo is the latest such book. In it, Jeffrey Tayler recounts his attempt to canoe the navigable length of sub-Saharan Africa's most symbolic river. Equipped with help from one of Mobutu's henchmen and an ailing guide, Tayler finds things far from plain sailing. Negotiating corrupt officialdom, murderous peoples on the riverbanks, widespread suspicion and the dangers of the river itself, he ultimately finds his plans too demanding to be fully realised.
Tayler's prose is often evocative and his story is a compelling one. But he tends to load his descriptions with adjectives, which can over-dramatise situations. Of course this is a dramatic adventure, and Tayler tells it well, but at the end you can't help feeling that too little attention is paid to the root causes of both his troubles and the current situation in the Congo--rubber fever, greed and a callous European superiority complex. --Toby Green
The exquisite sheen and might of the Congo itself flow through the pages of Jeffrey Tayler's account. His triumph is his ability to carry us deep into the very heart of Africa, negotiating like an old river-hand the eddies and curves of the dark enigma which is the Congo. There's a rare truth here, the grip, grind and mystery of the African forest, expressed not through a lurid tale of explorer antics, but through Tayler's heroic sensitivity to the everyday lives of river people. Here, in all its sweltering majesty, is the real Congo - the clicking, swirling intensity of one of the greatest of all rivers, as it moves timelessly through the lives of the crocodiles, fishermen and bandits who inhabit its feted shores. (Benedict Allen, author of LAST OF THE MEDICINE MEN and INTO THE CROCODILE NEST)
A fascinating record of an often breathtaking journey. Tayler's account is also an incredible adventure story (TLS)
A gripping account (BELFAST NEWS)
Captivating reading (SUNDAY TIMES)
A stirring adventure story, observantly told (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)
Immensely gripping (Bill Bryson)
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Condition: Very Good. Outstanding travel narrative about a journey up the Congo river: superbly evocative writing in the tradition of Paul Theroux and Bruce Chatwin Num Pages: 352 pages, Integrated: 12, b/w int. BIC Classification: 1HFJC; WTL. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 197 x 127 x 24. Weight in Grams: 246. Good clean copy with minor shelf wear. 2002. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # KSS0001565
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Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. At thirty-three one's direction in life should be clear, and mine was not.' In search of some direction, or at least a new challenge, Jeffrey Tayler gave up his day job of opening rejection letters from publishers and went exploring. Having always been fascinated by Africa and the great age of Victorian exploration he went to Kinshasa in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and found a boat to take him up-river to Kisangani, deep in the heart of the jungle. Not content with that, he then bought a pirogue (a kind of canoe), hired a guide and set out to paddle the 1,000 miles back to Kinshasa.A personal journey, an intrepid voyage, an exceptionally well-written travelogue: FACING THE CONGO is all these things and more. A wonderfully vivid and exciting read for armchair adventurers everywhere. Jeffrey Tayler gave up his day job of opening rejection letters from publishers and went exploring. He went to Kinshasa in Zaire and found a boat to take him up-river to Kisangani, deep in the heart of the jungle. He then bought a pirogue (a kind of canoe), hired a guide and set out to paddle the 1,000 miles back to Kinshasa. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780349114507
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