Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown

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Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown

by Paul Theroux

3.88 · rating details · 2,511 ratings · 381 reviews

In Dark Star Safari the wittily observant and endearingly irascible Paul Theroux takes readers the length of Africa by rattletrap bus, dugout canoe, cattle truck, armed convoy, ferry, and train. In the course of his epic and enlightening journey, he endures danger, delay, and dismaying circumstances.

Gauging the state of affairs, he talks to Africans, aid worker...more

Paperback, 485 pages

Published April 5th 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (first published March 23rd 2003)

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Aug 23, 2007

Steph rated it

Shelves: development

This book was a great read for a student of international development/relations. I understand the author's cynicism, admire his risktaking, and appreciate his insight into the impact of decades of foreign intervention in Africa. I didn't feel he was overly arrogant for a journey of this depth and magnitude; it certainly added to the story, for better or worse. It was an enjoyable read, full of analysis, rather than simply description.

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Jun 29, 2007

Emily rated it

Recommends it for: arrogant tourists who think they're "not really white"

Shelves: booksofthepast

WHY do I keep reading books by this man? For some unknown reason I assume that I'll garner some great knowledge form his books or be more amused than frustrated. Thus far: not. Instead I'm annoyed by his arrogance and his assumption that he's different from other white people in Africa because he "knows" that the aide system is faulty or because he lived there in the 60's. Just because you have a backpack and a history with Africa doesn't make you an expert, and Theroux whining abo...more

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Aug 24, 2007

W rated it

Recommends it for: africa reality readers

"Safari," in Swahili means "journey," and is Theroux’s reason for returning to Africa: to escape a life usurped by schedules, appointments, e-mails and cell phones. After 40 years, Paul Theroux returns to Africa where he began writing. At 60, no one has so conquered the genre like Theroux.

But this return to Africa is more rumination than entertainment, and it is depressing. His first years in Africa—as Peace Corps volunteer and University teacher—saw a continen...more

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Jul 08, 2010

Tim rated it

Near the end of Paul Theroux's north-south journey across the African continent, from Cairo to Cape Town, he allows himself the luxury of a swanky South African train trip, a rare mode of transportation for this usually spartan traveler in this fascinating trek on board cattle trucks, minivans packed to the roof with Africans, rickety matutus, canoes and proper boats. During a train stop a child begs in a prayerful way. Theroux, from the train, can't bring himself to toss food to her. After the ...moreNear the end of Paul Theroux's north-south journey across the African continent, from Cairo to Cape Town, he allows himself the luxury of a swanky South African train trip, a rare mode of transportation for this usually spartan traveler in this fascinating trek on board cattle trucks, minivans packed to the roof with Africans, rickety matutus, canoes and proper boats. During a train stop a child begs in a prayerful way. Theroux, from the train, can't bring himself to toss food to her. After the train starts, the girl flings stones through his window, just missing him. Such "What do you do?" moments in relation to charity are a big part of this journey for Theroux, who, as a white man, is descended upon by Africans of every age almost everywhere he goes. For the poor on the continent, begging is a way of life.

On a bigger scale, attempts to help Africans help themselves through endless charity is counterproductive. Money goes in the pockets of corrupt politicians, aid is resold. Foreigners had been helping them so long that Africans lost interest and motivation.

But there's much more to Theroux's travels than gripes about donor nations. And on this safari, it is people, not animals, Theroux seeks out. Thirty-five years after Theroux lived in Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer and teacher, he returns in 2000 (or thereabouts) to find the continent worse off than he left it. He finds countries poor and dangerous, mean cities of little hope.

Theroux's tale acquires more dark momentum the closer he gets to the equator. Starting out amid pyramids and Sudanese proving irresistible to European types ("We find Nubian banana"), he seeks people he knew from his Peace Corps days and ordinary strangers who have contempt for him because of the color of his skin or who want nothing more than to go to America; people trying to take advantage of him or treating him with real kindness. We do not love Theroux, but we cannot help but admire his courage in often taking the most difficult route possible and for his sharp way with words. His pace is leisurely; he doesn't have a schedule, and his family doesn't know where he is. He likes it.

Theroux covers many aspects of African life:

Waiting for a visa, waiting for transportation ("In a place where time seemed to matter so little, there existed a nihilism that was also a form of serenity and a survival skill."); ancient infrastructure, vehicles, buildings ("That's what happened in Africa; things fell apart."); dangerous types said to be around the bend ("'There are bad people there,'" the direst warning, heard time and time again); those trying to help, with varying degrees of real commitment ("Aid workers are the last to offer travelers assistance."); hopelessness of city life ("African cities became more awful — more desperate and dangerous — as they grew larger.")

It's not all hopeless (the journey has its funny and uplifting moments), and not all of "Dark Star Safari" is concerned with black Africans — there are white Africans too, of course, and the horrors of the government-sanctioned seizure of white farmers' land in Zimbabwe (and the brutal murder of whites) and the frustrations of whites in the new South Africa who now live in a far more just society but find themselves on the outside looking in, are touched upon.

Theroux likes all this, the grains of hope, the beauty of Africa, its contradictions and horrors: "I had fulfilled one of my fondest yearnings at the outset of my trip, for this was the territory I lit out for, and cruising down this empty river in a hollow log was pure Huck Finn pleasure."

It's a pleasure for us, too, but an often disturbing one.

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May 13, 2008

Glenn rated it

Recommends it for: travelers, travelers in Africa, aid workers, those interested in Africa

A great book which is entertaining, informative, and thoughtful. My travel book reading has been limited to Rick Steeves and Bill Bryson - Paul Theroux is a refreshing step toward the serious end of the spectrum, while still relying on a healthy dose of humor.

Theroux present himself as an intrepid traveler who is willing to brave any hardship for a story. Once he gets through Ethiopia, though, more of his personal story is revealed and I found the trip through eastern Africa to be ...more

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Mar 10, 2009

Jody rated it

· review of another edition

Theroux is a pompous ass. A just-compelling-enough pompous ass.

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Aug 07, 2011

Andrew Rosner added it

Theroux returns to a continent he first visited as a member of the Peace Corps at a time when many African countries were gaining their independence and optimism abounded. Sadly, that optimism appears to have been unfounded, or at the very least premature; the Africa he revisits is poorer and more dysfunctional in almost every way possible. Even though this book was published fairly recently (2003), Theroux missed the Darfur conflict and Zimbabwe's descent into hell (inflation ran at a comparati...more

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Sep 16, 2011

Jrobertus rated it

I do enjoy his travel books, although I have a few bones to pick with him in general. He does a great job of describing the people, places, and politics as he travels overland from Cairo to Capetown. Africa is a mess, and this narrative was informative. The place seems hopeless, and Theroux makes Western aid largely culpable for instilling a sense of entitlement amoung the natives. He generally feels a sort of subsistence life in rural villages has more dignity and joy than the chaos and crim...more

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Aug 09, 2011

Ken rated it

One of my favorite Theroux travel books. He is returning to Africa 30 years later after having spent several years teaching in Malawi and Uganda when he was in the Peace Corp. He finds things have not changed for the better and much worse is many cases. He finds the cities are really dismal and has a lot of questions about whether all of the aid and aid workers that have poured into Africa have been any benefit. He meets Africans from all walks of life and meets some really wonderful people ...more

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Jun 14, 2011

Caleb rated it

In reading reviews by others of Theroux's work, you get the sense people love him or hate him. This is my second book of his in the past few months and there will be (many) more to come. This travelogue recounts his journey overland from Cairo to Cape Town. He eschews the luxury safaris for the deathtrap buses and taxis and dugout canoes, and along the way ends up in some incredible interesting places in Africa. He's highly critical of aid organizations as doing little good, but certainly no...more

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May 17, 2011

Mindy McAdams rated it

Shelves: travel, africa

If someone spends months on the road, catching rides where he can, alone and without a local guide, he might be transformed at the end of the journey. Not Paul Theroux. I do not mean that as a put-down. I enjoyed this book immensely and was eager to read more of it each day as I carried it with me on a short touristic trip through Egypt.

Theroux lived in Africa while in his 20s, so probably its main effects on him occurred then. Here he recounts his return visit, decades later. It's es...moreIf someone spends months on the road, catching rides where he can, alone and without a local guide, he might be transformed at the end of the journey. Not Paul Theroux. I do not mean that as a put-down. I enjoyed this book immensely and was eager to read more of it each day as I carried it with me on a short touristic trip through Egypt.

Theroux lived in Africa while in his 20s, so probably its main effects on him occurred then. Here he recounts his return visit, decades later. It's especially interesting to read his perspective as an American who was well acquainted with parts of Africa, and with African people, 30 or more years earlier. He's fluent in at least one African language (I've forgotten which one, but I envied him his ability to communicate), and he looks up old friends in several places. Everywhere he goes, much has changed. Like anyone returning to a place he loved and from which he has long been absent, he experiences many disappointments.

Some readers might find the book to be too negative. I thought it was, in the early chapters -- Theroux was especially rough on Egypt and the Egyptians, and I felt annoyed with him while I was reading that chapter, because I was having a good experience in Egypt at the same time! Then Theroux travels south, crossing through some desperate territories, and the book continues on the bleak side. It becomes increasingly better. Gradually I came to see how Theroux had brought the baggage of his earlier experiences, those of his young manhood, spent as a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, and I appreciated how those memories, and all that Africa has lost since those days, made him feel rather grouchy and short-tempered much of the time.

One of the best things in this story is the accumulation of encounters with foreign aid workers. This is another example of how at first I thought Theroux too much a curmudgeon, and even mean-spirited -- in his harsh judgments of aid workers he met up with, he is almost without exception quite critical. As with the book overall, my attitude became more positive as the story continued. Theroux is especially admiring of one aid worker in particular, a Catholic nun, in spite of his harsh treatment of other aid workers. He also brings in some outside data sources to add context to what he observed personally, with the end result that I felt better informed about why all the millions of dollars in aid sent to the African continent seem to have done so little good.

Another very satisfying aspect of the story is that although Theroux is not transformed by his experience, he seems to reach a level of acceptance. In losing some of his material goods and then measuring that against a friend's loss of much more, he comes to terms with himself, with his entry into the final phase of his own life, with the reality that the promises to and for Africa have not been fulfilled. I know that sounds like a big downer, but that's not how I felt as I was reading it. Instead I felt that much of that anger and tension, regret, frustration, has drained away from him, like pus being purged from a wound. He opened it to the air, he cleaned it out. I felt happy for him, but sad for Africa. Sad -- but far from hopeless.

I felt lucky to have the paperback edition, in which a new chapter has been appended telling how Theroux returned again to Africa after the first edition of this book had been published. The new chapter is quite good and well worth reading.
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May 01, 2011

Skipr rated it

I like to travel, but it takes somebody with a lot bigger appetite for adventure (and danger and discomfort) than I have to do what Paul Theroux did. He sets out from Cairo and travels overland to Cape Town. He shuns all the easy, safe, tourist-friendly ways of making the trip, and essentially goes native. Crowded buses, broken down vans, smelly freighters, mosquito-assaulted canoes - Theroux takes the road less traveled by Westerners, so that he can take the roads taken by Africans themselves. ...more

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Dec 25, 2010

Jim rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: travel

Quite timely reading this when Africa's plight is being highlighted in the news so much at the moment. Theroux travels overland from Cairo to Cape Town offering his jaundiced view on places and people along the way, reserving his most scathing attacks for aid agencies and workers. He can't resist noticing that the best cars are the white Land Rovers driven by the charities, that the best hotel rooms are stuffed full of aid workers paying more per night than the average African earns in a month o...more

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Oct 24, 2010

Alene rated it

Shelves: travel, nonfiction, search

My whole life I have dreamed of going to Africa, never as a tourist, but more as an aid worker or longer-term wanderer. So naturally, I was curious to hear Mr. Paul Theroux's account from whom I loved Mosquito Coast and the Great Railway Bazaar. Dark Star Safari was his story of being a long-term wanderer through Africa, avoiding planes and sticking to ground routes through borders and cross countries. I liked how raw it seemed and how he didn't romanticize it at all. I feel like he told it ...more

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Aug 24, 2010

Al Swanson rated it

First book by Theroux for me - but won't be the last. I've actually already ordered another.
My love of just about everything African led me to read this. I saw it sitting on a table of clearance items at a Borders in Reno and ordered it from Amazon when I got home (Sorry, Borders!). Since I've been wading through a large pool of economics books, this was a welcome reprieve.
The author starts out in Egypt and migrates his way down through East Africa, primarily by road (a difficult tas...more

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Apr 20, 2010

Sabrina rated it

Shelves: travel-mad

I have been to Africa twice now and loved visiting a bold, big and beautiful country. The landscape constantly changes and it always draws you in to experience what can seem as something mysterious and wonderful. Having just read Paul Theroux's Dark Star Safari though I am now beginning to wonder: "Did I did see Africa?"

When I started reading the book I thought of the time when I went to Cape Town I organised to visit one of the townships and my mother asked me why I would wa...moreI have been to Africa twice now and loved visiting a bold, big and beautiful country. The landscape constantly changes and it always draws you in to experience what can seem as something mysterious and wonderful. Having just read Paul Theroux's Dark Star Safari though I am now beginning to wonder: "Did I did see Africa?"

When I started reading the book I thought of the time when I went to Cape Town I organised to visit one of the townships and my mother asked me why I would want to do that...I just needed to stay home for that (that would be Jamaica where poverty is in some ways comparable). In the end I am not sure what I really did get out of visiting the township. In the end the tour for me was not about experiencing a different culture or getting to know the 'real' Africa. I was instead put in a position to purposefully feel sorry for and guiltily pushed into helping. The only feeling I had when we went inside one of the families houses was uncomfortable. There was a point where I refused to meet the witch doctor! There was some guarantee from the hostel owner who recommended this particular tour that the money we spent definitely goes back into the community. I must admit that I did love meeting the children in the local school as they are genuinely keen to meet you and hold your hand and in the end that did make it all worthwhile. Theroux though was pushing me even beyond this with his novel, that is of finding a way of immersing yourself in their way of life and not just running away and locking yourself into one the safe tourist hotspots.

He really does not have patience for the safari types. While reading it I did not know how guilty to feel about the money I spent on our honeymoon safari to Zambia. I have always wanted to go on safari to see these great animals in their natural environment. We went with Remote Africa Safaris which does a lot to support the local community so does this justify our trip in some way. But yes I was greeted at the airport and whisked away to a fantastic lodge where I ate the most amazing food and went on safaris to go big five spotting. There was the option of course to visit the local village which is sponsored by Remote Africa Safari's but we saved this for our later trip to Mozambique. Actually maybe I can claim to have done it right in Mozambique as I stayed at Guludo Beach Lodge renowned for it's sustainable model to relieve poverty in the area, so much so they have actually won awards for it.

Nema Foundation | Guludo Beach Lodge

So I guess the question should be before you go travelling, "What are you going travelling for?" To be honest though Theroux throughout his book does not even leave it open for you to have such debates. He has made up his mind about what he is travelling for and lets just say it's not your average tourist experience. Just for the sake of asking another question, "Is there anything wrong with just being an average tourist?" After all his experiences included being shot at, and that to be frank is not my idea of a holiday! His tour was in many ways also nostalgia for his days when he taught in the Malawi bush. I have read him described as the witty observant but sometimes his comments seemed rather harsh and judgemental but possibly truthful.

In the end would I recommend reading this book, yes. If for nothing else than enjoying reading about his experiences and feeling envious for the fact that I would just not be brave enough for travelling the way that he did. At the same time always questioning his judgements of the people and their way of life and asking 'Is that how they see their Africa?' One thing I do know Africa is always calling me to come back. (less)

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Jan 18, 2010

Linda rated it

· review of another edition

Dark Star Safari is indeed dark. The deep disappointment felt by the master of travel writing, Paul Theroux, pervades this heartbreakingly honest look at decaying societies.
The landscape itself though scarred with dilapidated human settlements remains beautiful in its vast immenseness, but a sense of hopelessness pervades the text. Paul travels overland from appalling dirty and dangerous Cairo to Cape Town where white farmers are being hacked to bits by liberated South Africans who feel th...moreDark Star Safari is indeed dark. The deep disappointment felt by the master of travel writing, Paul Theroux, pervades this heartbreakingly honest look at decaying societies.
The landscape itself though scarred with dilapidated human settlements remains beautiful in its vast immenseness, but a sense of hopelessness pervades the text. Paul travels overland from appalling dirty and dangerous Cairo to Cape Town where white farmers are being hacked to bits by liberated South Africans who feel the land belongs to them.
From taxi’s that breakdown in bleak backwaters, to buses that are nothing more than rolling death traps, to trains that are rocking shells of their former selves the modes of transport he takes range from laughable to downright dangerous. The muddy villages along the way are filled with derelict populations who are often “bad people”.
I think Paul in his quest to unplug and go someplace his fans could not find him forgot the old adage that you can never go back. In his idealistic youth he served in the Peace Corp and taught at a school in Malawi. He feels sadness about the fact that not only have things not gotten better for the African people in the last forty years, they have gotten much worse! Corrupt leaders have milked millions from the generosity of countries trying to help the African people. They do not want real development to take place because children with distended bellies and flies in their eyes engender more sympathy and foster larger handouts than healthy communities.
I selected this book because I want to go to Africa to see the gigantic fireball sunsets, the herds of grazing beasts and the last of what can be considered wild, and because Paul Theroux ranks high on my top ten writers list. After reading it I feel silly and insincere because I am not going to see the suffering masses. I will be wearing the tourist kaki with birding glasses slung over my shoulder and be the safari slut Paul finds so insensitive to the plight of the African people. I will sidestep the atrocious slums of Nairobi on my way to the game parks and try like hell not to get killed or robbed in Joburg. Still, I do care and hope that Africa, the birthplace of mankind, will find a way out of the dark abyss of hopelessness and the people will stand tall in the sun once more.

www.lindaballouauthor.com
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Jul 26, 2009

Debbie (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it

Funny. I had a Paul Theroux on my shelf for years, untouched, and finally decided to take it with me to the Chicago Book Festival last summer where I released it. Theroux was speaking so I thought it would be cool to release one of his books just outside the tent where he was speaking. I left the book next to one of the tent stakes and went inside to hear him talk. He was a fabulous storyteller and I immediately regretted that I had given away his book. I went out to try to retrieve the book, bu...more

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Apr 28, 2009

Dawn rated it

Shelves: book-club-selection, own

Dark Star Safari is the account of Paul Theroux's travels from Cairo to Cape Town. He begins in Egypt, traveling south along the eastern border of Africa by train, bus, boat, and car. He discusses the cities and towns he visits, the people he meets, and the things he sees.

The first 40-ish pages of this book made me want to throw it out the window. I was not impressed with Theroux's writing style or his choice of topics. His writing is disjointed, with sentence fragments, name droppin...moreDark Star Safari is the account of Paul Theroux's travels from Cairo to Cape Town. He begins in Egypt, traveling south along the eastern border of Africa by train, bus, boat, and car. He discusses the cities and towns he visits, the people he meets, and the things he sees.

The first 40-ish pages of this book made me want to throw it out the window. I was not impressed with Theroux's writing style or his choice of topics. His writing is disjointed, with sentence fragments, name dropping, and political babble. He would mention that he went somewhere with Joe (just a name for example's sake), then go several pages talking about what he saw/did at that place. Then, he might explain who Joe was. I found it very difficult to follow.

As the book went on, either I got used to his style, or his style got better. I found the middle of the book went much faster and was more interesting than the beginning. He really started getting into the differences between the places he was visiting and the things he saw and the people he met. His observations and even his injections were mostly interesting. I found myself getting annoyed along with Theroux at the constant begging and blatant asking for money. His accounts of people of all ages nagging him for handouts were detailed and you could almost hear the little beggars behind you. One thing he only did once (that I can remember) is talk to one of these beggars. He went to see one of the farm invaders in Zimbabwe and asked him about why he stole the land. The man was so adamant that it was his prerogative to take this land for no other reason than his being poor and the landowner was not. He even went as far as to say that the landowner should provide the seeds and even plow for him on his newly stolen land.

I appreciated the map of the places he visited in the front of the book, as my geography is admittedly weak, it was helpful to flip back to the map to visualize where he was and where he was headed. There were many parts of the book I enjoyed, such as his discussions of the different countries and the peoples there. His descriptions of his traveling methods were very interesting as well. I have to admit, I didn't like Theroux very much as a person. I felt he was rather pompous and was a little too interested in name-dropping. And I'm still left wondering how his wife let him go to Africa for all those months without her!

I do feel that I've learned a lot more about Africa and the cultures there after reading this book. The discussions about the aid in Africa were particularly enlightening. I wish it had ended with a little more introspection. The only outcome of his trip was this book and his erotic story he kept talking about working on in the hotels and trains. I didn't feel that he let Africa in much, he didn't seem to have been affected much by his trip. There was no huge epiphany or deep thought about his life. (less)

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Nov 21, 2009

Liz rated it

Shelves: travel, 2009-reads, africa

There are quite a few chapters in this book that are really insightful and enjoyable. Unfortunately, there are just as many chapters where Theroux shifts the focus away from the people and places he encounters on his journey to rag on international aid and development agencies (without actually adding anything substantive to the larger debate on the relative benefits of foreign aid) and remind the reader how much better he is than all other Westerners who come to Africa. He also makes rather f...more

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Apr 21, 2010

Sarah rated it

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 11, 2011

Juliana rated it

Shelves: travel, memoir

Paul Theroux gives his reason for wanting to take an overland journey through Africa in the beginning of the book, “Being available at any time in the total accessible world seemed to me pure horror. It made me want to find a place that was not accessible at all: no phones, no fax machines, not even mail delivery, the wonderful old world of being out of touch. In other words, gone away….The greatest justification for travel is not self-improvement but rather performing a vanishing act, disappear...morePaul Theroux gives his reason for wanting to take an overland journey through Africa in the beginning of the book, “Being available at any time in the total accessible world seemed to me pure horror. It made me want to find a place that was not accessible at all: no phones, no fax machines, not even mail delivery, the wonderful old world of being out of touch. In other words, gone away….The greatest justification for travel is not self-improvement but rather performing a vanishing act, disappearing without a trace. As Huck put it, lighting out for the territory.” He describes Africa as one of the last places on earth one can vanish into. Theroux had been a Peace Corps volunteer and teacher in Malawi and Uganda thirty years prior—he wanted to see how it had held up.

One of the reasons I like Theroux’s books so much is because I would never take the risks and journeys he does. But I like experiencing them through him. He reads during his trips—often books and long-dead authors connected with traveling through the region—if it be Mark Twain or Rousseau. And he usually has time to stop in and chat a bit with the regional celebrity author. I keep my Amazon wishlist close by to add to as I read. Theroux is no Rick Steves. He doesn’t travel in luxury nor or his writings to encourage you to follow in his steps. His trips are usually zen banality traveling on hot smelly buses or trains that always break down. These moments are punctuated with things like being shot at or illness. A frequent theme through the book is an African warning him away from the place he is about to go because, “bad people are there.”

He is not happy with what he finds on his journey. He was criticized after the book’s release for his contempt of Aid and Aid Workers and missionaries in Africa. Paul is a curmudgeon. But it is the chapters that he writes about his visits to the schools he taught in and you can feel his disappointment at the futility he sees. He visits the graves of the couple who founded the school and describes how their unkemptness would have disappointed the old orderly couple and so he weeds their grave himself. He also visits the school itself—aid promised was stolen, and the books had all been stolen and the school was falling down. He was disappointed to find that many of his fellow African teachers had sent their children elsewhere for education, but in some cases had encouraged their children to not come back but to stay in other countries.

If you are a real-life or an arm-chair adventurer and you love good travel writing and reading about literature then check out Theroux.
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Jul 26, 2011

Paulamoney rated it

My husband and I went to a book reading by Paul Theroux when the book was first published and have a signed copy so I felt that I must read it. But I really didn't feel like actually reading it so I held the hard cover copy of this book and listened at the same time. My husband didn't know I was listening (long hair covered my earbuds). He'd have thought me silly to buy an audio version when we already had the book.
I am a huge fan of Theroux and have read almost every book he has written (t...more

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Jan 07, 2008

Suzanne rated it

I loved this book and recommend it to anyone who has been to Africa or plans to go. Theroux does not apologize for his sometimes unpopular view of the Continent and how Western Aid has helped to drive post-collonial Africans right back into the dark ages. But his love for the place, and many of the people comes across as honest and heartfelt. Best of all, you'll feel like you're riding shotgun throughout the entire story.

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Sep 03, 2011

John rated it

Paul Theroux's The Great Railway Bazaar was my gateway book to travel literature. He continues to deliver and satisfy with Dark Star Safari.

Theroux travels by colonial era trains, broken down delivery trucks, dilapidated buses and overloaded mini van driven by crazed youths. He finds himself in what seems like the most desolate fly-blown, poverty stricken, slum in all of Africa only to be outdone by the next country.

Traveling at the time of his 60th birthday, he is robbed, ...more

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Jul 12, 2011

Jennifer rated it

Shelves: nonfiction, tfpl-book-club

Two days after I've finished this book and I'm still not sure what I think. The first few things that come to mind are "long", "depressing", and "conceited". Having said that, I never felt like I just wanted to give up on the book. I had a good time wandering around Africa through someone else's eyes, and it was interesting to hear the many voices that Theroux relates in his travels.

The book was a little long. I realize that Theroux had a lot of ground to ...more

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Dec 11, 2007

Popularpatty rated it

Recommends it for: travelers

Shelves: non-fiction

Paul's writing may not be all you've ever wanted, after all, his opinions on development and poverty are pretty vanilla in terms of insight, BUT this book is still amazing. Its well researched, presents a ton of African history and culture in an interesting way and there can be no doubt that the trip he writes on was so outside the average person's experience, you can't help but get a lot out of reading this book.

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Apr 13, 2011

Jeanette rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: africa, cultural-and-social-commentary, nonfiction, netterooski-challenge-2011, travel-adventure, four-star-nonfiction

Curmudgeonly cogitator creeps curiously from Cairo to Cape Town. Crazy old coot!

Travel writer + several months of free time = Egypt--->Sudan--->Ethiopia--->Kenya--->Uganda--->Tanzania--->Malawi--->
Mozambique--->Zimbabwe--->South Africa--->Mozambique--->South Africa

Rearrange the letters in "Paul Theroux" and you get "Heat Up, Luxor!"
I feel it's my duty to point these things out. Make of them what you will.

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Oct 06, 2011

Chuck rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Chuck by: Katie Hocevar

Shelves: adventure, autobiography, non-fiction, top-ten-percent, review, africa

This book describes the adventure of the writer's trip overland from Cairo, Egypt to Capetown, South Afica. During this journey he travels on every type of transportation known to man and shares his vivid experiences with the people he meets and the dangers that he encounters. He has been to Africa before for extended periods and does not hide very well his love for the continent. His insights to people and their circumstances are brutally direct whether they are prostitutes, clergy, political h...more

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Oct 14, 2010

Derek rated it

Count me among Paul Theroux's hesitant defenders. Dark Star Safari is the first of Theroux's books that I've tackled, and I don't plan on rushing to the bookstore to pick up another any time soon, but I am glad I spent the time with this book. He's accomplished an amazing feat here, and has provided a compelling vision of an overland trip through Africa in the early 2000s, sparing no detail or (and yes, this is sometimes a pain) opinion.

There are issues to be found in the narrative a...moreCount me among Paul Theroux's hesitant defenders. Dark Star Safari is the first of Theroux's books that I've tackled, and I don't plan on rushing to the bookstore to pick up another any time soon, but I am glad I spent the time with this book. He's accomplished an amazing feat here, and has provided a compelling vision of an overland trip through Africa in the early 2000s, sparing no detail or (and yes, this is sometimes a pain) opinion.

There are issues to be found in the narrative as Theroux tells it, outside of any disagreements you might have with his take on foreign aid or post-colonialism. For starters, the dialog frequently feels like Theroux talking to himself. He meets an incredible array of people on his sojourn, and yet they all tend to speak in a strangely similar way - the Theroux way (educated, articulate, opinionated, self-assured). In a narrative such as this, where there isn't really an arc or a plot or a goal to drive the action of the story, you're testing a reader's patience when the narrative stretches to almost 500 pages. The pleasures of reading Theroux (his exquisite word choice and gift for description, just as one example) can get you through a lot of this, but the chapters do tend to feel a little samey as the book goes on. The many villages, even when described in his able and eloquent prose, tend to blur together.

There are, of course, so many things that Theroux is doing well, too. The subversion of his physical sexuality through the erotic novella he is writing is a masterful choice, and it follows him throughout the narrative. Framing his adventure around that other westerner-in-Africa novel, Heart of Darkness, also seems apt and serves to ground the fairly ungrounded storytelling. It's these moments, I think, where the reader is given a clear sense of the passage of time, that Theroux is at his finest.

I won't delve into the politics of this book (was he right in criticizing foreign aid, is he an asshole for not giving money to any of the many beggars) simply because so many people have much more valid thoughts and opinions on this than I am able to provide. But I will say that dismissing Theroux as a "know-it-all" is dangerously reductive and loses so much of the nuance of the story he is aiming to tell here. I recommend this to anyone looking to do a little armchair travel, too afraid, perhaps, to conquer the dangerous lands that Theroux describes so beautifully.(less)

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About Paul Theroux

Paul Edward Theroux is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work is The Great Railway Bazaar (1975), a travelogue about a trip he made by train from Great Britain through Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, through South Asia, then South-East Asia, up through East Asia, as far east as Japan, and then back across Russia to his point of origin. Although perhaps best know...more

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Quotes from Dark Star Safari: Over...

“You go away for a long time and return a different person - you never come all the way back.” — 12 people liked it

“The wish to disappear sends many travelers away. If you are thoroughly sick of being kept waiting at home or at work, travel is perfect: let other people wait for a change. Travel is a sort of revenge for having been put on hold, or having to leave messages on answering machines, not knowing your party's extension, being kept waiting all your working life - the homebound writer's irritants. But also being kept waiting is the human conditon.” — 9 people liked it

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