Dark Star Safari is, however, a very enjoyable read, and it does present a good picture of aspects of Africa. On the other hand, he shows great sympathy for the white South African and (formerly) Rhodesian farmers, who many of us would tend to view as being reactionary forces. He frequently mentions his approaching birthday -- a big one, giving him a certain old man status (though given how often he remarks how young people think he looks obviously not one he's eager to embrace). In the course of his epic and enlightening journey, wittily observant and endearingly irascible Paul Theroux endures danger, delay, and dismaying circumstances. Theroux has what often appears to be an open and unapologetic contempt for many of the black Africans he meets and describes -- certainly a contempt for what they’ve made of themselves and of their societies.

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. In his first new travel book in eight years, the endearingly irascible Theroux takes readers the length of Africa by rattletrap bus, dugout canoe, cattle truck, armed convoy, ferry and train. He's described some of his experiences, both in his early novels and in books such as Sir Vidia's Shadow (see our review).He, also journeys on boats of variable size – from old boats left over from colonial days to canoes. Early on Theroux mentions reading Conrad's Heart of Darness -- "which I was to read twelve more times before I reached Cape Town" -- but it's not a guiding text for most of the book.

This book chronicles a journey of discovery and rediscovery, not only of the unknown and unexpected, but also of people and places he first got to know forty years before. Because, despite his hissy fits about white people in white cars who won't give him lifts, he never actually visits an aid project or the office of an aid organisation. Dark Star Safari,'' his latest travel book, charts the author's arduous journey through Africa, from Cairo to Cape Town, by truck, bus, ferry, train and bush taxi. He cites books like The Lords of Poverty and The Road to Hell, as well the opinions of many Africans (black and white) who confirm this bias (he may be right in this; I’m in no position to judge). In Malawi, he berates a man begging in the street, demanding why he doesn't ask for work instead of a handout.It takes an elderly British nurse who has spent most of her life in Africa, to put Theroux's naiveté into perspective. Dark Star Safari In his first new travel book in eight years, the endearingly irascible Theroux takes readers the length of Africa by rattletrap bus, dugout canoe, cattle truck, armed convoy, ferry and train. Few recent books provide such a litany of Africa's ills, even as they make one fall in love with the continent. Travelling in a distinctly non-tourist mode - chicken buses, overland train, feluccas, rental car, ferry, dugout canoes, cattle trucks, trains but avoiding planes at all costs - Theroux travels overland from Cairo to Cape Town and discovers an ailing Africa. Most of these vehicles are in a decrepit state – and likely would not be allowed on roads in a First World country.

Aid workers are ''oafish self-dramatizing prigs'' who ''turn African problems into permanent conditions. In Malawi we hear of "a white person driving one-handed in his white Save the Children vehicle, talking on a cellphone with music playing loudly - the happiest person in the country". In the early 1970s Paul Theroux moved with his wife and two children to Dorset, where he wrote Saint Jack, and then on to London. The working of society was in the hands of charities, running orphanages, staffing hospitals, doing triage in the pathetic education system. In South Africa he brilliantly evokes the extreme contrasts - the wealth, culture and wonderful animal life, versus the crime, and the tough life experienced by the poor in squatter camps outside Cape Town.We shared an office at the Extra Mural Department at Makerere, and then I got a promotion - became Acting Director - and I was his boss! His novels include The Bad Angel Brothers, The Lower River, Jungle Lovers, and The Mosquito Coast, and his renowned travel books include Ghost Train to the Eastern Star and Dark Star Safari. In Zanzibar, earlier Arab slave trading island, Theroux says missionary doles and micro loans replaced mismanaged grants.