In an incredible twist of fate, a Scottish doctor (James McAvoy) on a Ugandan medical mission becomes irreversibly entangled with one of the world's most barbaric figures: Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker). Impressed by Dr. Garrigan's brazen attitude in a moment of crisis, the newly self-appointed Ugandan President Amin hand picks him as his personal physician and closest confidante. Though Garrigan is at first flattered and fascinated by his new position, he soon awakens to Amin's savagery - and his own complicity in it. Horror and betrayal ensue as Garrigan tries to right his wrongs and escape Uganda alive.
The Last King of Scotland
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No, we're not talking Bonnie Prince Charlie here. The title character of Giles Foden's debut novel, The Last King of Scotland, is none other than Idi Amin, the former dictator of Uganda. Told from the viewpoint of Nicholas Garrigan, Amin's personal physician, the novel chronicles the hell that was Uganda in the 1970s. Garrigan, the only son of a Scots Presbyterian minister, finds himself far away from Fossiemuir when he accepts a post with the Ministry of Health in Uganda. His arrival in Kampala coincides with the coup that leads to President Obote's overthrow and Idi Amin Dada's ascendancy to power. Garrigan spends only a few days in the capital city, however, before heading out to his assignment in the bush. But a freak traffic accident involving Amin's sports car and a cow eventually brings the good doctor into the dictator's orbit; a few months later, Garrigan is recalled from his rural hospital and named personal physician to the president. Soon enough, Garrigan finds himself caught between his duty to his patient and growing pressure from his own government to help them control Amin.
From Nicholas Garrigan's catbird seat, Foden guides us through the horrors of Amin's Uganda. It would be simple enough to make the dictator merely monstrous, but Foden defies expectation, rendering him appealing even as he terrifies. The doctor "couldn't help feeling awed by the sheer size of him and the way, even in those unelevated circumstances, he radiated a barely restrained energy...I felt--far from being the healer--that some kind of elemental force was seeping into me." And Garrigan makes a fine stand-in for Conrad's Marlow as he travels up a river of blood from Naiveté to horrified recognition of his own complicity. As if this weren't enough, Foden also treats us to a finely drawn portrait of Africa in all its natural, political, and social complexity. The Last King of Scotland makes for dark but compelling reading. --Alix Wilber, Amazon.com --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
'A gripping tale of tropical corruption... This is a wonderful read, beautifully written, every description drenched with a sense of Africa.' --Spectator
'As convincing and terrifying a portrait of a capricious tyrant as I have ever read. Foden captures with absolute fidelity the fascination of a figure like Amin.' --Anthony Daniels, Evening Standard
'Catches to perfection Idi Amin's contradictory, murderous, playful, brutal, sentimental character.' --Former prime minister James Callaghan, Sunday Times
'As convincing and terrifying a portrait of a capricious tyrant as I have ever read. Foden captures with absolute fidelity the fascination of a figure like Amin.' --Anthony Daniels, Evening Standard
'Catches to perfection Idi Amin's contradictory, murderous, playful, brutal, sentimental character.' --Former prime minister James Callaghan, Sunday Times
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By A. Ross
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Idi Amin's bizarre and brutal eight years of dictatorship in Uganda are the setting for this assured debut. The narrator is Nicholas Garrigan, a young Scottish doctor who arrives in Uganda for a contract job at the same time as Amin's 1971 coup. The book is his recollection of his two years in a small town clinic and six years as Amin's personal doctor in Kampala. His story continues the Conradian tradition of the European man who comes to Africa and becomes transformed through his contact with evil. Amin is Garrigan's Kurtz, and while the doctor and other expats generally turn a blind eye to the truckloads of political prisoners being taken to the countryside to be executed, eventually Garrigan is dragged face to face with Amin's horror.
Of course this isn't pure Conrad, rather it's cut with a bit of William Boyd, another Englishman writer who's written compelling fiction about modern Africa and the legacy of colonial rule. For the horror here isn't that Garrigan begins to understand Amin (after all who could really hope to understand a man of Amin's awesome eccentricity), but begins to like him in an odd way. And it's not that the doctor is a weak character, he's actually remarkably average, and thus very much like ourselves. The reader is unable to to find solace in making easy smug judgments about Garrigan's gradual moral slide as he sucked more and more into Amin's confidence and makes small compromises with himself. Amin is a great character in his own right, lurching from buffoonery to gluttony to sly cunning to sheer incomprehensibility at the drop of a hat. Of course Fodden had a lot to work with, as many of Amin's deeds and speeches are classic examples of truth really being stranger than fiction.
Speaking oh which, Fodden went to great lengths in researching this novel, interviewing a wide range of people who witnessed Amin's reign. Alas, the Saudi government wouldn't grant him permission to interview Amin, who is still alive and living on a Saudi pension in Jeddah. Garrigan is loosely modeled on Bob Astles, a British WW2 veteran who somehow became Amin's closest advisor. Altogether a very good read, regrettably Fodden's next two books apparently don't live up to this one.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I found this book quite by chance and was stunned by its originality. Foden is particularly good at conveying the messy moral dilemmas of post-liberation Africa. The true-life horrors of life in Uganda under Amin, as described in the book, are shocking; but more disturbing by far is the narrator's own mental and moral decay in his position as Amin's personal physician. It's a familiar path: little lies, hesitancies and omissions all leading to bigger and more terrible compromises. It's not a comfortable read, but it is an amazing one. And Foden's best book by far.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
The focus of the novel is the indecision of the central character. It is a study of a man whose naivete and weakness lead him to rationalise the appalling atrocities going on around him. Foden's concern is to chart Garrigan's moral slide as his involvement with Amin deepens, and he does not spend time describing the horrors that took place, largely leaving them implicit, like haunting shadows. The effect is to draw the reader into Garrigan's mind, and the reader has to be careful to remember the crimes committed by the regime that initially Garrigan so calmly accepts. The frightening thing about Foden's writing is the firm belief that Garrigan is not especially weak, or bad, or prone to suggestion. On the contrary, he is very ordinary, and so are we all.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Foden aims high
The Last King of Scotland
Giles Foden delves into the world of the notorious Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada and his well-known ruler ship over the African nation for 8... Read more
Giles Foden delves into the world of the notorious Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada and his well-known ruler ship over the African nation for 8... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Jack R
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not as good as the film
Watch the film, don't read the book. Its overlong and over-written. I can't help thinking that the book needed a good editor and would have been a good book if only it were half... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Diana Foster
4.0 out of 5 stars
"He Who Dips his Finger in Honey Doesn't Dip Once."
People are, as a rule, quite lazy thinkers and for convenience we mentally pigeon-hole each other. Obviously, the reality of character is much more complex than simple dichotomies... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Merlin's Owl
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Last King of Scotland
When Scottish medical graduate Nicholas Garrigan accepted a Foreign Office posting to Uganda, he could not have imagined that he would end up as private physician to Idi Amin. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Clare O'Beara
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling
I thoroughly recommend this book. Fast paced (particularly after the scene has been set in the first 100 pages), gripping, thought provoking and ultimately a little disturbing... Read more
Published on 13 Mar 2011 by Me
5.0 out of 5 stars
A tour-de-force of a book
This is one of the best books I have ever had the pleasure to read. The story is gripping and reads like a real-life account of Idi Amin's personal physician. Read more
Published on 25 Oct 2010 by B. WARD
5.0 out of 5 stars
Idiotic
An idiotic dictator but a wonderful story by Giles Foden. I love his writing. The first time I have come across a writer talking to me about himself:- "genital light" - why did I... Read more
Published on 15 May 2010 by Roger A. Powell
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but not great
Nowadays probably better known by the film adaptation of the same name, 'The Last King of Scotland' is a political thriller set in Uganda during the reign of the brutal dictator,... Read more
Published on 24 April 2010 by BookWorm
4.0 out of 5 stars
A review of 'The Last King of Scotland'
`The Last King of Scotland' gives an insight into the madness surrounding the dictator Idi Amin during the most interesting period of Ugandan political history. Read more
Published on 1 Jan 2010 by M. spiteri
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good book, but not the film
This book sees a young Scotish doctor, Nicholas Garrigan, go to Uganda after Idi Amin's rise to power. Read more
Published on 1 Nov 2009 by J. Bowen
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