Dancing in the Glory of Monsters
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"Jason Stearns is probably better qualified and better able than any man alive to write about Congo. This is history felt on the body, and told from the heart." (JOHN LE CARRE) "(Dancing in the Glory of Monsters is) a brave and accessible take on the leviathan at the heart of so many of Africa's problems... Stearns's eye for detail, culled from countless interviews, brings this book alive... I once wrote that the Congo suffers from 'a lack of institutional memory', meaning that its atrocities well so inexorably that nobody bothers to keep an account of them. Stearns's book goes a long way to putting that right." (DAILY TELEGRAPH) "(t)his courageous book is a plea for more nuanced understanding and the silencing of the analysis-free 'the horror, the horror' exclamation that Congo still routinely wrings from Western lips." (MICHAELA WRONG, SPECTATOR) "[Stearns] is probably the most widely travelled and the most meticulous and empathetic observer of the war there. This is a serious book about the social and political forces behind one of the most violent clashes of modern times - as well as a damn good read." (THE ECONOMIST) "Stearns has done a fine job of amassing vast amounts (of material), much of it based directly on interviews with the participants and victims, to bring to light details of a scandalously under-reported war... (T)his book succeeds in providing a vivid chronicles of this rolling conflict involving 20 rival rebel groups." (SUNDAY TIMES) "(Dancing in the Glory of Monsters) is one of the most gripping and comprehensive accounts of this human tragedy yet written... Stearns makes a convincing case that greater international understanding is a crucial first step - and if he's right then this book could be a major contribution." (NEW HUMANIST)"
Product Description
This critically-acclaimed book provides an unprecedented, up-close portrait of Africa's Great War. At the heart of Africa is the Congo, a country the size of Western Europe, bordering nine other nations, that since 1996 has been wracked by a brutal and unstaunchable war in which millions have died. It has become Africa's Great War. Despite its epic proportions, the war has received little sustained attention from the rest of the world. How do you cover a war that has involved at least twenty different rebel groups and nine government armies yet seems to have no clear cause or objective? How do you put a human face on vast numbers of casualties most of whom perished in remote mountain towns and villages? "The New York Times" gave Darfur nearly four times the coverage it gave the Congo in 2006, while Congolese were dying at nearly ten times the rate. In "Dancing in the Glory of Monsters", veteran political activist and journalist Jason K. Stearns has written a compelling, personal, and deeply reported narrative of how Congo became a failed state that, rocked by violence arising from the aftermath of the genocide in neighboring Rwanda, collapsed into a war of retaliatory massacres of extraordinary brutality. Stearns brilliantly describes the key perpetrators, many of whom he met personally, and high-lights the nature of the political system that brought these people to power, as well as the moral decisions with which the war confronted them. As a Congolese friend and parliamentarian told him: "In the Congo, in order to survive, we all have to be a bit corrupt, a bit ruthless. That's the system here. That's just the reality of things. If you don't bribe a bit and play to people's prejudices, someone else who does will replace you".
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Written with a pace and narrative Grisham would be proud of. Caught between a tragedy, horror and comedy. An amazing story many would never have heard and fewer understand. Intelligent, thought provoking, shocking, horrifying and resembling Catch-22 in places. From the genocide in Rwanda to the country today - fifteen years of history, five million deaths. Page turning, readable - highly recommended.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
I have read dozens of books on the RDC but none of them come close to pulling all the threads together like this one in a readable but upsetting history, I lived in Congo Brazzaville for many years and realise now that my "in depth" knowledge of the DRC,s history hadn,t even scratched the surface, I would urge anyone to buy and read this book and then try to imagine the horrors still going till this day..and then look on in wonder at the lack of interest shown by the Western political elite. True a lot of the pain is self inflicted but nobody deserves what the poor in the RDC have to contend with on a daily basis.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
'Dancing in the glory of monsters' is another brilliant example of a journalist delving into history and presenting an accessible account that is enthralling and accurate. This book follows Dowden's 'Africa, Altered States, Oridnary Miracles', Merridith's 'The State of Africa', and Wrong's 'In the footsteps of Mr Kutz', chronicling the history of the DRC. If anything is lacking, it is the attention given to Western powers and their influence at this time. Stearns introduces elements of influence but neglects for whatever reason to take this further. Contextualising it from an African regional experience is fine, but in my opinion this should be more explicit.
If you find the DRC interesting then this book increases the intrigue!
If you find the DRC interesting then this book increases the intrigue!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Jigsaw of Conflicts
I've been interested in Congo's 'World War' ever since reading Philip Gourevitch's superb articles in the New Yorker a decade ago. Read more
Published 4 months ago by W. Harvey
Nearly a good book!
There are certainly some very good things about the book. The material is fresh and the book does well in keeping the reader in tune with geography of a vast country. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Chola Mukanga
Best book this year
This is the perfect piece of non-fiction, written so well I rushed through it, fantastically informative and a book that left me with so much more understanding of central Africa,... Read more
Published 7 months ago by C. S. D. Robertson
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