- Paperback: 496 pages
- Publisher: HarperPerennial; Reprint edition (Oct 1991)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060986050
- ISBN-13: 978-0060986056
- Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 13 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,542,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
When Vietnam veteran and foreign correspondent Charlie Gage is recruited by the shadowy Thomas Colfax to assist with something called Operation Atropos, he has no idea he is about to be enlisted for guerilla warfare in northeast Africa. Once he realizes he’s a mercenary, however, he is not at all concerned. Ever since his young secretary was killed by a grenade at their bureau office in Beirut a couple of years before, he has lost all volition. Which is why he so readily capitulates not only to Colfax, but also, and more dangerously so, to every command of Jeremy Nordstrand, the mystical megalomaniac determined to achieve greatness on their seemingly suicidal mission. Set in the forsaken yet exotic deserts of Ethiopia, Horn of Africa is a vividly detailed and masterfully plotted novel chronicling a broken man’s struggle for salvation and inner freedom in the midst of a broken nation’s fight for stability and peace.
--This text refers to an alternate
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
I picked up this book by chance, drawn to it by the geographic scope mentioned in the title. I admit that it seemed a little bit difficult to get into, but I quickly realized that the author is a gifted writer. Caputo excells in exploring the inner workings of the mind, plumbing depths that few writers would dare to consider. He also paints pictures of physical scenarios in a vivid and unforgettable manner.
There is much that is very dark in this novel, as it delves ever deeper into the psyche of military men who themselves recognize that they are not in a healthy mental condition. As they endure unspeakable physical deprivation in a remote part of the world, each one faces the limits of his own conscience. This is what I mean by dark, because not one of the three lead characters finds much that is good inside themselves.
Cross-cultural interactions between the numerous characters are frequently tense and aggressive, revealing deep fear, ignorance and prejudice, so some readers will find the vocabulary offensive.
Despite the horrific descriptions of physical suffering, I found this novel extremely moving. Why? Because none of us knows how we would behave if our survival was at stake and if we had to rely entirely on our own resources when dealing with men at war.
I think Caputo has a wonderful power of expression and I was not bored for one moment, although I did struggle to understand some of the psychological issues that obsessed each of the three lead characters.
If you have the stomach for some really deep reading that spares the reader nothing, then read this book.
There is much that is very dark in this novel, as it delves ever deeper into the psyche of military men who themselves recognize that they are not in a healthy mental condition. As they endure unspeakable physical deprivation in a remote part of the world, each one faces the limits of his own conscience. This is what I mean by dark, because not one of the three lead characters finds much that is good inside themselves.
Cross-cultural interactions between the numerous characters are frequently tense and aggressive, revealing deep fear, ignorance and prejudice, so some readers will find the vocabulary offensive.
Despite the horrific descriptions of physical suffering, I found this novel extremely moving. Why? Because none of us knows how we would behave if our survival was at stake and if we had to rely entirely on our own resources when dealing with men at war.
I think Caputo has a wonderful power of expression and I was not bored for one moment, although I did struggle to understand some of the psychological issues that obsessed each of the three lead characters.
If you have the stomach for some really deep reading that spares the reader nothing, then read this book.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The story follows three westerners, sent by a CIA officer, to an Afrian country striken by civil war. They are to train a rebel tribal group to use modern weapons so its leader can take power.
Each of the westerners have many personal issues from their pasts and the mission provides a chance for them be resolved, for better or worse. The conflicting goals lead to many problems, including the committing of war crimes and the outcome of the rebal offensive.
The book is based around the characters, spending a long time on their backgrounds and interactions. Considering the length of the book not much actually happens. I felt it mads the story very drawn out and tiresome. It just seemed to keep rolling on and on.
The text contains a lot of swearing and racial explitives. The characters also show very little respect for religion of the tribe (Islam). It is a recently published book but I am not sure of the date in it is set. Two of the characters are Vietnam veterans so I'm guessing 70s or 80s. So the language and attitudes are somewhat in keeping.
Each of the westerners have many personal issues from their pasts and the mission provides a chance for them be resolved, for better or worse. The conflicting goals lead to many problems, including the committing of war crimes and the outcome of the rebal offensive.
The book is based around the characters, spending a long time on their backgrounds and interactions. Considering the length of the book not much actually happens. I felt it mads the story very drawn out and tiresome. It just seemed to keep rolling on and on.
The text contains a lot of swearing and racial explitives. The characters also show very little respect for religion of the tribe (Islam). It is a recently published book but I am not sure of the date in it is set. Two of the characters are Vietnam veterans so I'm guessing 70s or 80s. So the language and attitudes are somewhat in keeping.
Its not a awful book but can be very hard to keep reading. I can't really recommend it.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
17 reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Well written wanderings into the Heart of Darkness....
4 May 2003
Format:Paperback
Caputo' Horn of Africa is a well-written novel in a style that emulates or aspires to Graham Greene or Joseph Conrad. I enjoyed the book, and admired the writer but the story never completely 'clicked' for me.
Horn of Africa is a psychological/military thrill that takes place in a fictional province of Ethiopia, Bejaya, that closely resembles Eritrea but is not really supposed to be anyplace. The story is told through a first person narrative of one of the characters, Charlie Gage. Gage is a burnt out journalist hanging around Cairo. He's recruited by a simultaneously creepy, pompous and shadowy CIA character to go along on a clandestine mission to Bejaya to assist local rebels against the Ethiopians. Gage is joined on his mission by an uptight, by the book Britain with local experience and a larger than life American, Jeremy Nordstrand, with a borderline psychotic sociopathic philosophy about life and their mission. Nordstrand is both philosopher (in a base way) and soldier, with obvious capabilities despite his slightly unbalanced philosophy. Soon enough, he becomes the group's real leader. Nordstrand first willingly descends into violence, testing both himself and his idea of society, and then slowly descends into madness.
Caputo has Gage set the tone of the novel in the first two pages: the reader knows that this is not a story with a happy ending, and that ugly things happen. This is both good an bad: I thought it simultaneously gave a great sense of foreboding throughout the novel, but when the dark events occur they were anti-climatic.
Also, Nordstrand wore his psychosis on his sleeve, as did the British character. I had a hard time believing that they would be put in a position of power on an important mission, rogue or not. The story was interesting but the base premise, in my mind, was a little hard to believe.
Anyway, I don't think you will be disappointed by Horn of Africa. Its extremely well written with deep characterizations, and an interesting story. Is it quite up to Conrad or Greene? Maybe on one of the formers' worst days... but its still a good novel and a worthwhile read.
Horn of Africa is a psychological/military thrill that takes place in a fictional province of Ethiopia, Bejaya, that closely resembles Eritrea but is not really supposed to be anyplace. The story is told through a first person narrative of one of the characters, Charlie Gage. Gage is a burnt out journalist hanging around Cairo. He's recruited by a simultaneously creepy, pompous and shadowy CIA character to go along on a clandestine mission to Bejaya to assist local rebels against the Ethiopians. Gage is joined on his mission by an uptight, by the book Britain with local experience and a larger than life American, Jeremy Nordstrand, with a borderline psychotic sociopathic philosophy about life and their mission. Nordstrand is both philosopher (in a base way) and soldier, with obvious capabilities despite his slightly unbalanced philosophy. Soon enough, he becomes the group's real leader. Nordstrand first willingly descends into violence, testing both himself and his idea of society, and then slowly descends into madness.
Caputo has Gage set the tone of the novel in the first two pages: the reader knows that this is not a story with a happy ending, and that ugly things happen. This is both good an bad: I thought it simultaneously gave a great sense of foreboding throughout the novel, but when the dark events occur they were anti-climatic.
Also, Nordstrand wore his psychosis on his sleeve, as did the British character. I had a hard time believing that they would be put in a position of power on an important mission, rogue or not. The story was interesting but the base premise, in my mind, was a little hard to believe.
Anyway, I don't think you will be disappointed by Horn of Africa. Its extremely well written with deep characterizations, and an interesting story. Is it quite up to Conrad or Greene? Maybe on one of the formers' worst days... but its still a good novel and a worthwhile read.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Blowing My Horn For Caputo
29 Jun 2000
Format:Hardcover
A well-written, descriptive, metaphorical voyage into the heart of darkness. Three mercaneries are hired to run guns to a guerilla group in Africa and train a rebel Moslem tribe. The three men are abandoned there to work out their own differences and personal salvations. Civilization as we know it did not exist, and the dark side of human nature is exposed; the side without restraint, pity or conscience.
This is another stellar piece of writing in Caputo's body of work. The Voyage and Rumor of War are also strongly recommended.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Superb, dark story of violence and irregular warfare
25 April 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Why is this great book out of print? This is a modern classic, a superb, dark story of violence and irregular warfare in Northern Africa. Powerfully evocative of place and time, with three unforgettable main protagonists.
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