Amazon.co.uk: The Last King of Scotland: Giles Foden: Books

Perfect Partner

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Abyssinian Chronicles by Moses Isegawa

(2) �5.99

Minsk by Lavinia Greenlaw

(1) �6.99

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (Wordsworth Classics) by James Hogg

(12) �1.99

This Sporting Life by David Storey

(2) �5.99

Uganda (Bradt Travel Guides) (The Bradt Travel Guide) by Philip Briggs

(6) �8.99

› Explore similar items : Books (40) Music (2) DVD (1)

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
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

Synopsis
Combining elements of the thriller noir with comedy, this novel is based on the macabre events of Idi Amin's regime, "The Last King of Scotland" being one of the many titles which the tyrant bestowed on himself. It is also about a young Scottish doctor who becomes involved in Amin's administration.

Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed

The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden

(4) �5.99

The Last King Of Scotland [2006] DVD ~ James McAvoy

(71) �4.98

Illywhacker by Peter Carey

(5) �6.99

The Spoils of Poynton (Classics) by Henry James

(1) �7.78

Saturday by Ian McEwan

(148) �4.95

› Explore similar items : Books (41) DVD (1)

Customer Reviews

18 Reviews

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

(18 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

Conrad meets Boyd Uptown for a Showdown, 17 Dec 2002

By	A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

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.

Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you?

(Report this)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

A must read journey into madness, 30 May 1999

By A Customer

Foden's excellent novel is a journey into the heart of Africa. It exposes the complex and sometimes horrifying nature of a harsh but wonderful continent and its leaders. It is a testament to the author's skill that the line between fact and fiction is invisible in this novel. Sections of it made me laugh out loud while other repelled me. The characterisation of Amin is first class and I wonder if he has read this book. Maybe like the fictional doctor Garrigan, the author will one day receive a telephone call from the retired tyrant. If he does and its an invitation to lunch, I'd find an excuse if I were him. He might just be on the menu.

Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you?

(Report this)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Fantastic book, I was gripped from the first page, 16 Mar 2007

By	Louise Miller "corsetcrazy" (Somerset, England) - See all my reviews

I enjoyed this book so much I've just gone out and bought all Giles Foden's other books which I plan to read in the coming weeks. Last King of Scotland had a bit of everything in it - history, suspense, horror, romance, comedy and was an extremely well written book. I read it in one night refusing to go to sleep until I got to the end and it was totally worth losing sleep over. Foden sets the scene really well, you can hear, taste and smell Uganda on every page, wonderful stuff! I want more though, why did the book have to end?!

Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you?

(Report this)

› See all 18 customer reviews...

Most Recent Customer Reviews

Scary and Macabre - a must read
A slow start perhaps, but for me that worked well. We were not straight into the thick of the Amin regime but Foder works on the charcater development of the Dr and how he becomes... Read more

Published 2 months ago by York8500

not a patch on the amazing screen version.
i watched the movie before the Oscar glory as i judged its trailer to be promising enough. and god it was , a lot more than that. Read more

Published 13 months ago by florencex

FILM
For anyone who is interested: I was in Uganda July 05 and a British film crew were making a film of this book near Jinja.

Published on 4 Nov 2005

Where is Amin?
The first hundred pages allow you to get to know the young doctor Garrigan and hardly involve Amin at all. Read more

Published on 9 Mar 2002 by J. Mcgregor