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Product Description
Product Description
'A provocative novel about a disillusioned writer who travels to Africa to research a screenplay. Cartwright tellingly contrasts the supposed savagery of the dark continent with the very real barbarism of Nazi Germany and the modern world' Esquire
'Ambitious ... the book works well, as a story, as a compendium of reflections on race and nationhood and as a novel with a refined and distinctive narrative voice and one marvellously complete character, the old White Kenyan, Tom Fairfax ... an elegantly complex, unfailingly intelligent novel'
Lucy Hughes-Hallett, The Spectator
'Ambitious ... the book works well, as a story, as a compendium of reflections on race and nationhood and as a novel with a refined and distinctive narrative voice and one marvellously complete character, the old White Kenyan, Tom Fairfax ... an elegantly complex, unfailingly intelligent novel'
Lucy Hughes-Hallett, The Spectator
About the Author
Justin Cartwright was born in South Africa and educated in America and at Oxford University. His books include LOOK AT IT THIS WAY, INTERIOR, and IN EVERY FACE I MEET, which was shortlisted for the 1995 Booker Prize. His latest novel LEADING THE CHEERS won the Whitbread Novel Award for 1998
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this book last year while I was living in East Africa, where the novel is set. I found it to be a very vivid account of the place and the people of the area, both the white "KC" community and the indigenous Masaai . The story is also well told and packs an emotional punch at the end which I had not at all expected.
One of the reviewers below seems to find something obnoxious in the narrators attitude to women, while I can understand where the reviewer might have found that , I don`t think the criticism of mysogeny is a fair one. The narrator is obviously carrying emotional baggage after his messy break-up, but how he eventually deals with that through the quest to unearth the story of his protagonist, is one of the main themes of the book. It`s an important part of understanding why this character is doing what he has decided to do. Cartwrights characterisations are strong throughout and his observations of East Africa had me laughing with painful recognition.
I would ,and have, recommended this book to friends.
One of the reviewers below seems to find something obnoxious in the narrators attitude to women, while I can understand where the reviewer might have found that , I don`t think the criticism of mysogeny is a fair one. The narrator is obviously carrying emotional baggage after his messy break-up, but how he eventually deals with that through the quest to unearth the story of his protagonist, is one of the main themes of the book. It`s an important part of understanding why this character is doing what he has decided to do. Cartwrights characterisations are strong throughout and his observations of East Africa had me laughing with painful recognition.
I would ,and have, recommended this book to friends.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Many people consider this Justin Cartwright's finest novel to date, a story about a French woman who lives in Africa, and returns to France to try to save her family from the Holocaust. But the story acquires added depth and extraordinary fascination when the script writer, Tim Curtiz, one of Cartwright's best characters, returns to E. Africa to research the story. It is beautifully written, and heartbreaking.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This beautiful and idea-filled novel is so daring in its choice of subjects and scenes that one is stunned by its cumulative effect. In what may seem at first to be an unlikely or inappropriate juxtaposition, the author contrasts the horrors of the Holocaust with the pastoral, and seemingly simple life among the Masai in Kenya. This never feels demeaning, insensitive, or inappropriate, however. By developing both these subjects, Cartwright is able to illustrate in unique and imaginative ways the wider universal issue of ethnicity as a factor in the search for justice, love, and a Universal Spirit.
On the surface this the story of journalist Tim Curtiz's search for the truth about Claudia Cohn-Casson, a French Jewish researcher of the Masai, who was betrayed to the Nazis when she returned home in the final days of World War II. Curtiz is planning to write a screenplay for an "Out of Africa"-type film to be shot in Kenya, and in his attempt to understand the "real" Claudia, he interviews both an elderly British ex-patriate, Tom Fairfax, who was Claudia's lover, and the elderly laibon of the Masai community which Claudia studied. Both men suffered great losses as a result of their contact with Claudia, something with which Tim Curtiz, also suffering a loss, can identify.
As the narrative unfolds, it follows the hypnotic, circular dancing patterns of the Masai as it twists, leaps, and turns back upon itself, while gathering in the details of Claudia's life, the mystery of her disappearance, and the complications in the lives of the subordinate characters. The elasticity of Cartwright's prose is perfectly suited to this style, as he varies his sentence lengths to control the overall pace and moves from positively lyrical descriptions of the African savannah to turgidly doom-filled passages describing the cattle cars transporting Jews to the camps. The author deserves to have wider distribution of this fine novel. Mary Whipple
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
First novel of author for me
I did not know of Justin Cartwright before but so glad I took the opportunity.
He has the ability of really drawing the reader into the plot and ensures you know each person... Read more
He has the ability of really drawing the reader into the plot and ensures you know each person... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Kathesme
Cinematic descriptions spoilt by misogynistic writing
I started off liking this book, there were some very vivid descriptions where Cartwright paints pictures of the past using up to date images and references and these effectively... Read more
Published on 13 May 2002
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