HORRIBLE!!! The author, Jeffrey Taylor, a white American decided he wants to relive the famed explorer, Henry Stanley's trip down the Congo river in a dugout canoe, through Zaire. Only one problem, the author is an idiot.

He is constantly ripped off by greedy, lazy people. One woman on the barge he is riding keeps ordering him to give him an onion. That’s it. They never strike up a conversation; she never helps him with anything. She just sits by his door every day and orders him to give her an onion. And this “brilliant” man who has only a limited amount of food for his journey keeps obliging. Others order food from him as well and he gives it.

At each village or checkpoint, SNIP a ramshackle government agency he likens to Russia’s KGB demands money from him as bribes that his paperwork is in order. And he pays it. Yet even through all this, he goes off and writes about how Zaire’s people are proud hard working and honorable. He’s an idiot. Even his trustworthy guide Desi is a greedy man that tells him to give him more money and items.

Also, the author writes about how poor the people are and how unhealthy they look and the poor living conditions they suffer. Yet every photo in the book is of beautiful scenery, healthy looking people, or decent possessions. Not that I want to see bony malnourished people, but I hate how hypocritical the author is.

Eventually he cuts his trip very short because his guide Desi is suddenly ill and can’t continue, but wants to go home. After they get on a barge to go home, Desi makes a miraculous recovery with some powders he buys and disappears into a crowd after seeing Jeffrey one last time. Only to tell him some officers were talking that someone on Jeffrey’s crew died. Throughout most of the book Desi reads aloud passages from Zaire’s laws that state a large amount of money must be paid if a man dies on a trip like Jeffrey’s. The way he suddenly disappears, I seriously wonder if Desi planned to get his hands on that money and try to take the easy and dishonest way.

Then, after all that Desi scammed the author, at the end of the book he cries that he wished he did more for the man. He had already paid him a hefty salary, given him the boat and supplies he bought and a large bonus. And still he wondered if he could have done more. This man has no clue about reality.

Getting aggravated and snorting at how stupid and naive some people can be to the ways of the world.

The fact that the author used simple writing. It made this mess quicker to read through and get it over with.

The whole darn book.

Take an adventure. That's the only positive thing. But I already know if I did try an expidition, I would use a lot more common sense. The idea of recreating such an historical trip was a good one, but this man went in with way too much naivity.

Need I say it again? He was an idiot.

of the stupidity of the author. The only reason my husband and I read it, was he had to do a book report for his job. Something about being exposed to different cultures. I read it because I have always had to help him write his papers and I needed to know what was going on.

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Created Dec 02, 2004 at 2:18pm • Submit your own review...