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Product Description
Lit with humor, full of African birdsong and told with great narrative force, No Mercy is the magnum opus of "probably the finest writer of travel books in the English language," as Bill Bryson wrote in Outside, "and certainly the most daring."
Redmond O'Hanlon has journeyed among headhunters in deepest Borneo with the poet James Fenton, and amid the most reticent, imperilled and violent tribe in the Amazon Basin with a night-club manager. This, however, is his boldest journey yet. Accompanied by Lary Shaffer--an American friend and animal behaviorist, a man of imperfect health and brave decency--he enters the unmapped swamp-forests of the People's Republic of the Congo, in search of a dinosaur rumored to have survived in a remote prehistoric lake.
The flora and fauna of the Congo are unrivalled, and with matchless passion O'Hanlon describes scores of rare and fascinating animals: eagles and parrots, gorillas and chimpanzees, swamp antelope and forest elephants. But as he was repeatedly warned, the night belongs to Africa, and threats both natural (cobras, crocodiles, lethal insects) and supernatural (from all-powerful sorcerers to Samalé, a beast whose three-clawed hands rip you across the back) make this a saga of much fear and trembling. Omnipresent too are ecological depredations, political and tribal brutality, terrible illness and unnecessary suffering among the forest pygmies, and an appalling waste of human life throughout this little-explored region.
An elegant, disturbing and deeply compassionate evocation of a vanishing world, extraordinary in its depth, scope and range of characters, No Mercy is destined to become a landmark work of travel, adventure and natural history. A quest for the meaning of magic and the purpose of religion, and a celebration of the comforts and mysteries of science, it is also--and above all--a powerful guide to the humanity that prevails even in the very heart of darkness.
From the Hardcover edition.
Redmond O'Hanlon has journeyed among headhunters in deepest Borneo with the poet James Fenton, and amid the most reticent, imperilled and violent tribe in the Amazon Basin with a night-club manager. This, however, is his boldest journey yet. Accompanied by Lary Shaffer--an American friend and animal behaviorist, a man of imperfect health and brave decency--he enters the unmapped swamp-forests of the People's Republic of the Congo, in search of a dinosaur rumored to have survived in a remote prehistoric lake.
The flora and fauna of the Congo are unrivalled, and with matchless passion O'Hanlon describes scores of rare and fascinating animals: eagles and parrots, gorillas and chimpanzees, swamp antelope and forest elephants. But as he was repeatedly warned, the night belongs to Africa, and threats both natural (cobras, crocodiles, lethal insects) and supernatural (from all-powerful sorcerers to Samalé, a beast whose three-clawed hands rip you across the back) make this a saga of much fear and trembling. Omnipresent too are ecological depredations, political and tribal brutality, terrible illness and unnecessary suffering among the forest pygmies, and an appalling waste of human life throughout this little-explored region.
An elegant, disturbing and deeply compassionate evocation of a vanishing world, extraordinary in its depth, scope and range of characters, No Mercy is destined to become a landmark work of travel, adventure and natural history. A quest for the meaning of magic and the purpose of religion, and a celebration of the comforts and mysteries of science, it is also--and above all--a powerful guide to the humanity that prevails even in the very heart of darkness.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
O'Hanlons book - in his own great tradition and the tradition of travel and soul writer Bruce Chattwick - is a splendid piece of Art. The book is a travelor's impression, a natural science description of flora & fauna of the Congolese jungle, an ethnographic description of tribes, traditions and beliefs, a political opinion on the communist state-form in Africa, it is also a fascinating plot and adventure story - but it is, above all, more than all these parts: the vivid, humorous, spell-binding and exact description provides the reader with an all encompassing inside into the human nature - ours and theirs - the fragility of life, and the exteme span of priorities the peoples populating this earth pursue. Even though one might guess the actual outcome of the trip as such, I read the entire book in one spell-bound session, laughing at times, having shivers running up my spine at others - this book sticks in your memory, and deepens the understanding of the world. Above all because O'Hanlon does not teach, preach or offers opinions: almost all is written in direct speech, and where not, like a diary - the reader travels with the author, is experiencing all his adventures looking over his shoulder. Therefore the impact is strikingly direct. Also, I'd say, it is a must read for all who work in or for-, or are interested in central Afrika - and to others who wonder why things seem to happen differently, and according to different agendas, in that part of the world.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I had read Redmond O'Hanlon's previous books and I expected more of the same- hapless Englishman out of his depth in the tropics having real jungle adventures, but with a strong comic element. And indeed at the beginning, the book seems to follow that formula. But by the end, there is little comedy and the reader is faced directly with some of the deepest issues of human life. It is a shattering conclusion and there is indeed no mercy for anyone, possibly no mercy anywhere in this world. It is a long book and maybe has a few too many descriptions of birds and such, yet it is a classic travel memoir, a journey both physically and to the deepest part of one man's mind. And to a place outside the comfortable civilized rational view of life, to someplace completely more scary, that may very well be inside all of us. A unique and thought provoking journey.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Redmond manages to find humor in difficult circumstances without ridiculing or belittling those around him. Yes, the book is long, but well worth it. His ostensible reason for the trip is just a thin excuse, disappointing and surprising no one when it isn't "successful." The ending, I found entirely appropriate for a journey of this nature.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
For anyone who has ever dreamed of adventure
This is the first O'Hanlon adventure I have read. I certainly will read his others. The book is a swirling, mesmerizing account of his trek through the swamp forest in search of a... Read more
Published on 1 July 1999
Tedious for the Layman
This is one of those travel narratives that takes a real commitment, 450 pages of densely set type in a hefty book. Read more
Published on 29 April 1999
somebody tell Speilberg...this book should be a movie!
This book is written in dialogue and description, I felt like I was there...and feel like I know the people very well. I believe it's much deeper than a first read justifies. Read more
Published on 25 Mar 1999
Loved it!!!!
I found this book so interesting and humouroslyinformative ,that halfway through it I ordered O'Hanlons "Borneo" book online! Read more
Published on 16 Mar 1999
exceptional, revelatory
I wished the book were twice as long. Compassion evident throughout, sitting inside Mr O'Hanlon as he rendered any conversation. Read more
Published on 10 Feb 1999
WOW!
I loved this book, redmond is great at describing the sounds and sights(colors!) of the congo and all the creatures within it. Don't forget your FETISH
Published on 29 Jan 1999
A brilliant and accurate description of life in the Congo
Having lived in the Congo for ten years, I believe this is the first book I've read that accurately describes what life there is actually like, both for foreigners and for the... Read more
Published on 15 Sep 1998
Brilliant, Disturbing, Hilarious
Redmond O'Hanlon's book is stunning. As funny as it is penetrating, he offers so much more than an incredible physical journey. Read more
Published on 23 Jun 1998
This is one weird book.
Ok, I'll admit it.I enjoy arm chair travel books to places I would never,ever go to in real life. "No Mercy"-- about Lake Tele in the Congo-- seemed to fit the bill. Read more
Published on 27 April 1998
More than travel writing - a literary jem
Redmond O'Hanlon, who already pleased us with Into the Heart of Borneo and In Trouble Again, has achieved with Congo Journey what he was, with hindsight, aiming for with the two... Read more
Published on 4 Mar 1998
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