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 othe...
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Feb 08, 2008
Bill
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Having lived in Uganda, on-and-off, for over 5 years, I was under the (false) impression that Idi Amin was simply another ruthless African military dictator. Open and shut. Did Amin govern Uganda with an iron fist? Without a doubt. Were over 300,000 Ugandans murdered during his presidency? It's a historical fact. Was Amin an uneducated, eccentric baffoon? By western standards, yes. However, as you'll be able to observe from this documentary, Amin was very popular throughout black Africa, especia
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Sep 05, 2007
Kay
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Disappointing - to me at least - this multiple award winning book didn't just have an wholly unlikeable antagonist in Idi Amin Dada but a really unpleasant protagonist in NG as he calls himself, the Scottish doctor whose eyes we see Uganda through.
Plus points, Foden knows Africa and I recognised many traits and behaviours, plants, patterns of landscape etc, from my own visits to Rwanda - but the minus side is that the book recounts rather than telling a story - the details may be ac More...
Plus points, Foden knows Africa and I recognised many traits and behaviours, plants, patterns of landscape etc, from my own visits to Rwanda - but the minus side is that the book recounts rather than telling a story - the details may be ac More...
Jan 14, 2009
The Last King of Scotland, by Giles Foden. A. Produced by Blackstone, narrated by Mirron Willis, downloaded from Audible.
This is a novel, and, as I understand it, a first novel, from a journalist, Giles Foden. He describes, from his research and interviews with people, the horrifying Idi Amin, who took over Uganda in the 70’s through force, ruled for nine years, and murdered over 300,000 people. . The story is narrated through the eyes of Dr. Nicholas Garrigan, who comes from Sc More...
This is a novel, and, as I understand it, a first novel, from a journalist, Giles Foden. He describes, from his research and interviews with people, the horrifying Idi Amin, who took over Uganda in the 70’s through force, ruled for nine years, and murdered over 300,000 people. . The story is narrated through the eyes of Dr. Nicholas Garrigan, who comes from Sc More...
Jan 01, 2012
Frederick
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This book is the basis for the Oscar-winning movie of the same name starring Forrest Whitaker. The book has a somewhat different story line than the movie however. The story is of a Scottish doctor, Nicholas Garrigan, in the 1970's who goes to Uganda to practice medicine in an idealistic way. He goes and lives in a smaller town for a while and practices in a rural health clinic, doing people much good, and becoming the lover of an Israeli doctor at the same clinic.When he first arrives, Idi Ami
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Nov 25, 2011
Jerry
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Blew through this book in a couple days - couldn't put it down.
The most haunting excerpt from the book comes in chapter 33: "I knew it was simply myself, this casket of emotional defects and diffident, inward-turning passions...Not once, I thought as I lay there in that stinking hut, have you snatched anything glorious or courageous from the world as it passed you by." I, like he, am constantly struggling to pursue nobility in the abyss of circumstances. There but for th More...
The most haunting excerpt from the book comes in chapter 33: "I knew it was simply myself, this casket of emotional defects and diffident, inward-turning passions...Not once, I thought as I lay there in that stinking hut, have you snatched anything glorious or courageous from the world as it passed you by." I, like he, am constantly struggling to pursue nobility in the abyss of circumstances. There but for th More...
Feb 07, 2011
Steve
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Foden's debut novel provides a fictional narrator's testimony of the rise and fall of one of Africa's most indelible and brutal dictatorships - that of Idi Amin in Uganda over the course of the 1970s. The author brilliantly captures the comic and tragic pastiche of Amin's rule with such realistic description of the this monstrous goliath's excesses. Not only does the reader glimpse the horrors of an unbalanced megalomaniac, but is witness to the cartoonish buffoonery which for so long hid the da
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Apr 22, 2009
Gavin
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Great concept. The fictional retelling of Idi Amin's reign of terror through the eyes of his personal physician, Nick Garrigan.
This one is kind of a mystery to me. I liked it a lot, but it seems to only scratch the surface of possibilities lurking in the subject matter. While Garrigan is exposed to some of the horrors of Uganda, they're kept relatively tame and, in general, the book doesn't delve too deeply into real brutality.
The main character is the most objectionab More...
This one is kind of a mystery to me. I liked it a lot, but it seems to only scratch the surface of possibilities lurking in the subject matter. While Garrigan is exposed to some of the horrors of Uganda, they're kept relatively tame and, in general, the book doesn't delve too deeply into real brutality.
The main character is the most objectionab More...
Dec 16, 2009
Karen
rated it:
I haven't seen the movie, which is probably better than this book. It wasn't well written. The author used a simile in nearly every sentence; very annoying. The book is from the vantage point of a naive young Scottish doctor who goes to Uganda and ends up being Idi Amin's personal physician. Unfortunately this character is so self-involved that we hear every picayune detail of his life, which is pretty boring. I don't recommend this.
Dec 03, 2011
Brad
rated it:
I didn't much care for this one, but I don't think it's a bad book. Maybe it's because I don't much like historical fiction in general, or because the protagonist is hard to feel much sympathy for, but I had to make a concentrated effort to get to the end.
Nicholas Garrigan, the fictional Scottish physician, isn't a bad guy--he's just extremely passive. He watched as things went on around him that he didn't agree with and didn't bother getting out of the situation. In all fairness, More...
Nicholas Garrigan, the fictional Scottish physician, isn't a bad guy--he's just extremely passive. He watched as things went on around him that he didn't agree with and didn't bother getting out of the situation. In all fairness, More...
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Jul 14, 2010
Tammi
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The last King of Scotland was an OK book. Basically the thing that bothered me the most of the book was that there was way too much detail on the useless stuff and not enough information on the important stuff, for example
"I retied my dressing gown - it had fallen open, and I always feel exposed when that happens, even when there is no-one else in the house - and poured boiling water over the coffee I was making. The grounds expanded, fattening the wet sac of the filter. I watc More...
"I retied my dressing gown - it had fallen open, and I always feel exposed when that happens, even when there is no-one else in the house - and poured boiling water over the coffee I was making. The grounds expanded, fattening the wet sac of the filter. I watc More...
Oct 01, 2010
David
rated it:
Boy, did I love this book. I read it long before I saw the movie, and I could feel Idi Amin's energy and voice coming off the pages like the heat from a sunbaked street. The movie was good too, Forest Whitaker was a very believable Amin, and oddly enough, while I read the book I heard the type of voice Whitaker gave to Amin.
What I like most about this book is the dark but often comic portrayal of Idi Amin. The man was a monster, that you just hate to love him in this book. Foden grew up i More...
What I like most about this book is the dark but often comic portrayal of Idi Amin. The man was a monster, that you just hate to love him in this book. Foden grew up i More...
Aug 07, 2011
Kathy
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The subject is interesting to say the least - Idi Amin was one of the scariest people to become famous in the 70s, when I was a young child. I remember seeing him on TV once and asking my mother who he was; and to give her credit, she told me about the rumors of cannibalism that were going around. But my mom and I share the same weird interest in things that are, well, weird.
The main character of the book, Nicholas Garrigan, was a disappointment. For a person who got through med sch More...
The main character of the book, Nicholas Garrigan, was a disappointment. For a person who got through med sch More...
Jun 21, 2011
Tabitha
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This is a difficult book. I went into this book knowing its basic premise (a British doctor moves to Uganda to work in a clinic and becomes the personal physican for Idi Amin), and so I knew that gruesome scenes would occur in its pages. On the other hand is the narrator of the book (the main character? one could argue the main character is Amin, the man that moves the action forward), a man so dislikable that I had trouble finishing the final chapters. It is not that Garrigan actively partic
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Feb 08, 2011
Moses
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It is interesting how much I struggled to decide whether Nicholas was a character born of Foden's imagination or somebody who actually lived and witnessed the horror in Uganda during Idi Amin's days. I don't want the answer. He's too real to doubt. I was born many years after Amin had come and gone. But I was nonetheless told many stories about this ruthless dictator from my neighboring country. At the time it sounded like some horror designed to scare us as children. Now, I have come across man
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Oct 20, 2009
Harriet
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I was lucky enough to read this novel as part of a University module, on which Giles Foden lectured. (He compared this book to The Private Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg). Although I found this slow to get into, I absolutely loved it. It was really interesting and having Foden talk about it was even more so. (I think it was the only lecture all term that EVERYONE turned up to!) It opened my eyes to a period of very recent history that I know far too little about. The duality of
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Nov 15, 2008
Alb
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The Last King of Scotland is Giles Foden's debut novel of Idi Amin's fictional physician Nicolas Garrigan. Garrigan like most westerners goes to Uganda full of good intentions and idealism. Through the unfortunate run in of Amin's mazerati with a hapless cow Garrigan finds himself inescapably drawn into the horrifying and fascinating orbit of the legendary tyrant. Through the course of the novel Amin becomes more ruthless and erratic. Garrigan continuely allows Amin's charisma to cloud his own
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Jan 13, 2011
Alicia
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I don't know what I was expecting, but I finished the book feeling let down. It says it's a novel, but it reads as a memoir, and I'm not sure what of the facts they talk about really happened, or what is just being used to give the story more drama and/or credibility.
The ending seemed unsatisfying for me somehow. I really liked the premise of the story, but I still felt let down by the story. Maybe that's mean to say, seeing is how I went in not knowing what I was going to get. So how More...
The ending seemed unsatisfying for me somehow. I really liked the premise of the story, but I still felt let down by the story. Maybe that's mean to say, seeing is how I went in not knowing what I was going to get. So how More...
Mar 13, 2011
Sarah
rated it:
I read this book after seeing a preview of the movie coming out soon. Hey…I like Scotland, and I like African history, should have been a great mix. This was a novel about Idi Amin’s Scottish doctor and while it wasn’t great, it reminds me that I shouldn’t completely write off historical fiction. I just put this down and can’t exactly put my finger on what I didn’t like about this book, but it didn’t completely hold me through the end. I loved the beginning, but my interest seemed to fade and I
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Jul 11, 2008
Richard
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So of course, my title refers to the character of Idi Amin rather than the man himself. In his first novel, Giles Foden tells the story of Nicholas Garrigan, a Scottish doctor who becomes Idi Amin's personal physician after the madman's rise to power in Uganda. Garrigan is personally torn between the facts of Amin's cruel military dictatorship, which he gets first- and second-hand, and the charms of the man in the flesh. This novel is told from the point of view of Garrigan writing his memoir of
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Apr 01, 2008
Nancy
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From what I've seen in the reviews of this book, either people really really liked it or they really really disliked it. Personally, I liked it (not really really) and created opportunities to be in my car to continue the story (this edition is the unabridged audiobook). Let me note here that I did see the movie prior to reading the book -- a definite plus in this case since the screenplay of the movie was changed quite a bit from the book.
The narrator is one Dr. Nicholas Garriga More...
The narrator is one Dr. Nicholas Garriga More...
Jan 21, 2008
Brinda
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Giles Foden, the author, writes for the Guardian, and you can tell by his style. Dry, deceptively simple delivery, packed with a light punch and a hardened and weathered knowledge of global affairs. It's always a bit strange for me to read a fictional account of a very real time in history. There's this part of me that wonders why I am horrified by the grisly parts -- is it the part of me that thinks it really happened or is it my imagination that is stretched by the mere possibilty of it as pre
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Apr 13, 2009
Katie
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It feels wierd rating this book as "liked it", when it is such an ugly story. I remember hearing abouut Idi Amin when I was a kid, and he was this epic force of evil, like the boogie man or Charles Manson. This book fleshes out the man and doesn't in anyway portray him as being a nice guy ... Its just that at this point in my life Idi Amin is no longer the complete epitome of evil, he is just one of so many brutal and prodigiously deadly men who have gained power and ruled by fear an
Jan 13, 2008
Samuel
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I remember watching General Idi Amin Dada: A Self-Portrait by Barbet Schroeder. It is called a self-portrait because Schroeder films Amin directly and interviews him. If you watched that film, you'll recognize the Amin in this book: a bloody tyrant and international buffoon.
Of course, the question everyone inevitably asks is whether Nicholas Garrigan discharged himself honorably in the book. To sound clever, we might say something that despite his indecision and lack of inner streng More...
Of course, the question everyone inevitably asks is whether Nicholas Garrigan discharged himself honorably in the book. To sound clever, we might say something that despite his indecision and lack of inner streng More...
Sep 22, 2010
Aseidas
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I thought this book was amazing. I could not put it down. The fact that it takes place in Kampala and I have seen many of the landmarks he describes in the book made it all the better. I really enjoyed the movie but after reading the book it pales in comparison. The level of detail achieved and the skill in which Foden inserts Dr.Garrigan into real historical events in a believable first person narrative is amazing ! Highly recommend !
May 08, 2011
David
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I have a strong compunction towards reading dystopian novels, with the likes of 1984, Dune and Farenheight 452 all being consumed in a single sitting. Last King of Scotland was no different. Though I would describe it as a 'newspaper book,' seeing that many of the stories came from discrete events, there remains enough life in this story to keep the tale of a Forest Gump of Uganda kicking to the very end.
Jul 10, 2009
Brooks
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The story is about Nicholas Gregian, a young Scottish doctor working in Uganda. Having lived the ex-pat life, I really enjoyed reading the beginning with his sense of discovery and challenges of living in a foreign country. Also, fully understand how confused and open to any companionship you can become in a foreign country. It was very interesting to watch the loss of objectivity in the lead character. When would you have left in disgust? Not sure I would have been any stronger than Nicho
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Aug 21, 2011
Deepthi
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This has to be one of the worst books I have ever read. Giles writes like an amateur and there are parts of the books where it made me wonder if he was writing his book over email. The story is completely lacking and crawls at snails pace. Terrible piece of writing and I find it quite unbelievable that such a remarkable movie was inspired by such abominable storytelling
Apr 12, 2009
Fahd
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If you've seen the movie, a great injustice has been done. The real message and story have been ever so slightly altered by, and lost to, the grotesque beast that is Hollywood. Kudos to Whitaker for playing the part to its finest detail, but boo to the scriptwriter and director for altering the storyline. If you haven't already gotten the message, please go read this book!
Jan 23, 2011
Starrsina
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Intellectual in the true meaning of the word i.e contains a deep and vibrant understanding of life. Description of Uganda is terrific, political background confusing but mobidly fascinating. Gives a well-fleshed out portrait of Idi Amin which I found very believable. Garrigan is the most authentically British sounding character I have come across. Sensational book.
Mar 23, 2011
Wendy
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I really enjoyed this book. Fiction based on the real former dictator Idi Amin of Uganda. Terrifying, engaging, gripping. Not for children. Interesting questions brought up-how would you behave if you were within reach of a brilliant madman who held your life in his hands? Brings to light the terrible tragedy that the people of Uganda lived and died.
