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Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown | 
 enlarge | Author: Paul Theroux
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  70 reviews
Sales Rank: 13997
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 496
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 0618446877
Dewey Decimal Number: 916.04329
EAN: 9780618446872
ASIN: 0618446877
Publication Date: April 5, 2004
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Product Description
In the travel-writing tradition that made Paul Theroux"s reputation, Dark Star Safari is a rich and insightful book whose itinerary is Africa, from Cairo to Cape Town: down the Nile, through Sudan and Ethiopia, to Kenya, Uganda, and ultimately to the tip of South Africa. Going by train, dugout canoe, "chicken bus," and cattle truck, Theroux passes through some of the most beautiful ? and often life-threatening ? landscapes on earth.
This is travel as discovery and also, in part, a sentimental journey. Almost forty years ago, Theroux first went to Africa as a teacher in the Malawi bush. Now he stops at his old school, sees former students, revisits his African friends. He finds astonishing, devastating changes wherever he goes. "Africa is materially more decrepit than it was when I first knew it," he writes, "hungrier, poorer, less educated, more pessimistic, more corrupt, and you can"t tell the politicians from the witch doctors. Not that Africa is one place. It is an assortment of motley republics and seedy chiefdoms. I got sick, I got stranded, but I was never bored. In fact, my trip was a delight and a revelation."
Seeing firsthand what is happening across Africa, Theroux is as obsessively curious and wittily observant as always, and his readers will find themselves on an epic and enlightening journey. Dark Star Safari is one of his bravest and best books.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 65 more reviews...
Dark tar Safari December 24, 2008
Interesting overview of countries we normally do not hear much about. Hearing about tribal customs and attitudes in the lesser known African countries brought the book to life. He is an accomplished traveler and commentator.
 His own personal view and experience December 9, 2008
This book is an interesting account of Paul Theroux's own personal history in Africa and his travel adventure. Others may take the same trip and have an entirely different set of opinions based on outlook and personal opinions. Keeping that in mind it is entertaining and thought provoking.
Snapshot of a Dying Continent November 16, 2008
In his odyssey from Cairo to Cape Town, Theroux ventures through the best and the worst that this fabled continent has to offer. And if there's one overriding message that comes through it is that Africa is doomed. It is fading back into the bush and you get the feeling that perhaps that is the only answer to it. Make the continent a nature preserve and forget about it. Theroux is unstinting in his descriptions of the good and bad things he encounters in Africa and his fearlessness in getting behind the story is journalism at its best. It's also travel writing at its best and the reader comes away feeling he has personally accompanied the author on this epic journey. Theroux has done a heroic job here and his efforts and ordeals should be rewarded with the broadest readership.
"Globetrotter Avoids Bus Plunge Horror" November 3, 2008
I've been reading Paul Theroux for over 20 years and have always enjoyed both his fiction and his travel books and still like seeing how they intersect sometimes (he gives updates on writing THE STRANGER AT THE PALAZO D'ORO during this trip).
DARK STAR SAFARI is a fascinating and challenging addition to his travels.
The book has confirmed a fear and suspicion I've had about Africa: what good is all this charity really doing? I've supported an African charity until recently and maybe I'll go back to it...but...I just have this nagging feeling that I'm supporting the brand new white Range Rovers Theroux describes zipping all around Africa while the continent itself sinks lower and lower into despair and dependence. Every government sounds like a thug-dom where a dictator buys fleets of Mercedes Benz vehicles while starving kids beseige any visitor at every station. Which is exactly what Theroux describes at nearly every stop.
You end up feeling like you're being duped into helping a brutal Mafia and empowering them over the very people we're trying to help. The chaos and corruption is dispiriting. Although the world still celebrates the end of Apartheid (as it should), the Africans who have since then been murdering and mutilating and stealing the land of the white farmers only to leave the farms as nonproductive shanty towns is a harsh reality to face. Believe it or not, it gets even more absurd!
(I still support the clothing drives to Africa at my church--something I'm sure Theroux, given his anti-Christian rants--would roll his eyes at).
What I've always appreciated about Theroux is his passion for portraying the truth about any place he visits. Although a lot of people resort to name-calling here about his ego or his criticisms (even as they give him four stars!), I like that about his writing: it shows a genuine experience, an authentic point of view, a honest portrayal.
My only quibble: I was put off by his pestering of a young Christian missionary girl on a train. He has no trouble listening to Africans who commit horrific atrocities or war veterans who have done the same...but he seems to relish mugging a young girl over gay rights. Theroux is very well read on the Bible and is very good at twisting their verses but a better read Christian could undo every rant he hits this girl with.
But that doesn't offset what an eye-opening experience this book is. The Africa of HEART OF DARKNESS is still just as dense and dangerous as it is here in DARK STAR SAFARI.
A Book to Read and Reread September 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read this a chapter or two chapter at a time over a period of 2 months. It is a book to savor. There are not many books I read again, but this one is on my list.
This is a difficult journey and Theroux, traveling alone, might not have emerged from it alive. His advantages were years of travel and previous aquaintance with the continent.
The most interesting vignettes were his visit with Mahfouz in Egypt, the boat trip across Lake Victoria, entering any country, visiting friends from his former school, and the descriptions of the situations in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Theroux shares his strong opinion about the role of aid in Africa. It does seem that the aid is misdirected. The attitude, "I am poor because no one helps me" certainly pervades the latter part of the book. I don't see how the situation can continue, nor how withdrawl of aid will bring about a sustainable society.
This trip will be hard to replicate, by Theroux, or anyone, in the forseeable future. This and other Theroux travelogues are bound to be classics. I recommend them for armchair and real travelers everywhere.
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