Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Subtitled ``A Novel of Africa,'' this impassioned new work by the Australian author of Schindler's List straddles the boundary between fiction and reportage so adeptly that it almost deserves a category of its own. When journalist Timothy Darcy sees a rock star's TV appeal for still more Ethiopian famine aid, desperately needed because Eritrean rebels ambushed the first grain shipments that were sent, he decides to venture into the heart of Eritrea to write about its 25-year struggle for independence. Accompanying him into ``the hunger zone'' are an American aid worker, an aged British feminist seeking reforms in the treatment of African women, and a young Frenchwoman searching for her father, a cameraman who disappeared into Eritrea years before to become a diarist of their struggle. While Keneally makes each of their quests compelling, his real concern is with the natives of Eritrea and Ethiopia. His extensively researched depiction captures the drama of oppression, but much more as well: humor, political ironies, cultural chasms, the arid grandeur of the land, and the exhaustion and resolve that come from fighting, constantly, to survive in a world hostile to human needs. Major ad/promo. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
During the Ethiopian famine, a food convoy was destroyed by Eritrean rebels. The rebels, ignored by the press for decades, earned global infamy in 45 seconds of news coverage. Keneally's courageous attempt to investigate the Eritrean side of the story provided the material for this novel. Authored by the highly talented Keneally, it could have been one of the most important books of the decade. But narrator Darcy gives a journalist's account that, too often, employs understatement to convey suffering. He interrupts the story to explain in self-pitying fashion why his wife left him; it seems that Darcy, a man of convictions, has come to see that bold actions--a betrayal and an assault on an airstrip--are motivated not by politics but by the devotion of men of action to their women. Darcy's companions, zombie-like Christine, cynical Henry, and feminist Julia, are one-note creations. Finally, we're never convinced that the Eritreans aren't using Darcy to portray Ethiopian barbarities while hiding barbarities of their own. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/89.-- Frank Pisano, Pennsylvania State Univ. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Keneally turns with clear sympathy to the Eritrean guerrilla war against Ethiopia--in this unusual-for-him reportorial novel. The protagonist here, an Australian journalist named Darcy, goes to East Africa intrigued by the confusing politics of famine and territorial irredentism going on there. He arranges to be smuggled into Eritrea along with three other Westerners: Christine, daughter of a French folk-hero cinematographer who has documented the savage Ethiopian bombings against the rebels; Lady Julia, an English noblewoman with a crusading interest in the abolition of female circumcision; and Henry, an American professional private-aid worker. Henry is the only character of some mystery--and the book's slender portion of suspense will concentrate on him solely--with Darcy and the others mere foils for an accumulation of impressions and understandings. As such, the book has a very flat way about it: alternations of exposure and reaction (mostly admiration for the Eritreans' self-sufficiency). Toward the end, Keneally has Henry give a summing-up speech that lays out all the cards: ""'The emergency is that if you guys succeed, you'll be an embarrassment to Africa. Who wants a setup like yours?. . . Colored folk who can look after themselves? It isn't viable. It upsets the world picture. Don't you know the West has to believe famine's an act of God? If they believe that, they only have to make a donation. But if they believe it's an act of bloody politics, they have to really do something, and that's too, too complicated.' "" Too, too complicated, Keneally's tract definitely is not. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
