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100th out of 655 books
—
501 voters
A Good Man in Africa
by
William Boyd
In the small African republic of Kinjanja, British diplomat Morgan Leafy bumbles heavily through his job. His love of women, his fondness for drink, and his loathing for the country prove formidable obstacles on his road to any kind of success. But when he becomes an operative in Operation Kingpin and is charged with monitoring the front runner in Kinjanja’s national elect...more
Paperback, 352 pages
Published
January 14th 2003
by Vintage
(first published 1981)
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Morgan Leafy, a British diplomat in the small African republic of Kinjanja, is a bumbler in every regard. Trying to keep his job (while concurrently trying to get out of Kinjanja for a better posting), he confronts blackmail, bribery, venereal disease, a series of failed sexual encounters, and a dead body, which for a while is in the trunk of his car. Morgan's ineptitude and more broadly the British ineptitude are on overdrive throughout the novel.
There is a lot to like here. The story mixes jus...more
There is a lot to like here. The story mixes jus...more
Nov 25, 2011
Laurie
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
anyone who's ever felt trapped in a small elevator with a horrible boss
Anyone with a name like Morgan Leafy is bound to have troubles. His career has wandered onto a jungle path and got lost. He's freckled, balding, going to fat. Within the Foreign Office, he's a second-stringer if ever there was one: not Oxbridge, not connected to the right people (or any people, for that matter) and stuck in a provincial backwater in west Africa as second-in-command to an about-to-retire has-been diplomat who spent his entire career in the Orient until, presumably because of his...more
Boyd, William. A GOOD MAN IN AFRICA. (1981). *****.
This was Boyd’s first novel, and was the winner of the Whitbread Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award. So far, I’ve only read one other of his novels, but, with luck, I’ll be able to get at the rest of them. He is one terrific writer. This novel, as you might guess, is set in Africa in the fictiional republic of Kinjanja. The protagonist is Morgan Leafy, a young man on his first assignment with the British diplomatic service. He tends to bumble...more
This was Boyd’s first novel, and was the winner of the Whitbread Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award. So far, I’ve only read one other of his novels, but, with luck, I’ll be able to get at the rest of them. He is one terrific writer. This novel, as you might guess, is set in Africa in the fictiional republic of Kinjanja. The protagonist is Morgan Leafy, a young man on his first assignment with the British diplomatic service. He tends to bumble...more
The author's first novel. In this case, as is often true with first novels, the early Boyd gets the worm. This book is an over the top, scathing indictment of the English colonial presence in Africa. The protagonist, Morgan Leafy, is a minor colonial official in a fictional west African country. Attack fiction is fine, but the Leafy of the early pages is such a total waste (moral, human, intellectual, sexual, you name it) that I almost quit reading. Sure, his situations are ridiculous (not real...more
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Overweight, beleaguered Morgan Leafy, a minor official in the fictional African country of Kinjaja, muddles his way through a series of misadventures. He faces scandal, blackmail, and venereal disease, as well as a righteous Scottish doctor, whom he must attempt to bribe. A very funny novel, with solid, human characters and wonderfully bizarre situations that are nevertheless more believable than, say, Tom Sharpe’s. The plot unfolds compellingly, in three parts, with the middle part a flashback,...more
I am going to preface this review by acknowledging that there are probably lots of people who will disagree with my assessment of this book and admitting that my feelings about it are a study in misinformed, and so disappointed, expectations. Basically, I didn't like it but then I was expecting something completely different which is down to me and has nothing to do with the author or the book! I have never read any William Boyd before but - for whatever reason - was expecting an empathetic expl...more
Good, but not great...
I suspect that this book must have made quite a stir when it first started getting attention. As a first novel, this is an interesting, funny and somewhat cynical look into the going ons of international politics. The lead character is thoroughly unlikeable and disguisting and for the most part, it's hard to really have any sympathy for anyone in this book (barring Murray). (Glad I'm not a politician!!!)
I previously read Brazziville Beach by Boyd which I would recommend ove...more
I suspect that this book must have made quite a stir when it first started getting attention. As a first novel, this is an interesting, funny and somewhat cynical look into the going ons of international politics. The lead character is thoroughly unlikeable and disguisting and for the most part, it's hard to really have any sympathy for anyone in this book (barring Murray). (Glad I'm not a politician!!!)
I previously read Brazziville Beach by Boyd which I would recommend ove...more
I found this book absolutely hilarious. I was literally in hysterics for an entire 20 page chapter - my husband was looking at me in awe as I have not laughed that long or hard in ages, and as he says, "I am a hard audience." That being said, it's not a riot throughout, but Boyd develops the characters so well that he can pull this off artfully. Having lived in Africa and England, I really appreciated Boyd's characters in all their Africanness and their Britishness. Morgan Leafy is an aspiring d...more
Boyd's first novel; brilliant mastery of plot and flash-back narrative; memorable turns of phrase ("the opaque, cloudy void of his ignorance seemed to stretch away in front of him"; "As he turned into his driveway and parked his car in the garage the options that were available to him presented themselves and were discarded. One: be honest, tell her the truth, or as much of it as was necessary... Two: forget it, simply go ahead as if nothing were wrong... Three: lie. His old friend Mendacity, or...more
Morgan Leafy is the second-ranked British diplomat in a provincial capital in post-independence 1960s West Africa. He hates his job and all the people around him, constantly hiding his rages. He's ignorant and pretends sagacity, all the while those around him manipulate him for their own ends.
This is a comic novel -- Boyd's first published novel -- with a fairly unlikeable character. It took a while for the penny to drop and I found myself laughing out loud. For any other writer, I'd give it fo...more
This is a comic novel -- Boyd's first published novel -- with a fairly unlikeable character. It took a while for the penny to drop and I found myself laughing out loud. For any other writer, I'd give it fo...more
Morgan Leafy is quite the character! Life just kept throwing curve balls at him and he had to keep diving out of the way! Some of the messes he found himself in were of his own making and the result of poor choices he made. Still others were created by other people and Morgan was dragged into the middle of them by "players" he couldn't say "no" to! Morgan is a disgruntled, cynical man, but by the end of the book, one gets an inkling that he is "seeing the light" and may, quite possibly, come out...more
The blurb on the back cover made this sound like a fun book to read. After reading the first 7 pages I was bored with the writing style - the author keeps mentioning things that have happened to the protagonist, but then doesn't fully expand on them. Unfortunately, we already know these titbits of information as they are on the back cover - they need to be expanded!! Flicking through the rest of the book I realised I hadn't seemed to miss much by heading to the end - all in all, a dissappointmen...more
Set in Colonial Kinjanja, Africa, Morgan Leafy is an over-weight, middle-aged man who is easily manipulated by others and is insufferably jealous of the man who woes and marries the girl he adores, Priscilla Fanshawe, who also happens to be his boss's daughter.
You can't help but feel sorry for Morgan but he does put himself into awkward situations, like the time he finds himself hiding in a bath with the shower curtain drawn while he listens to a large well-to-do lady going to the toilet; but in...more
You can't help but feel sorry for Morgan but he does put himself into awkward situations, like the time he finds himself hiding in a bath with the shower curtain drawn while he listens to a large well-to-do lady going to the toilet; but in...more
entertaining funny book about british diplomats in West AFrica in the 1970s. The main character is this guy who's a failure and not a very good man, but still sort of likeable in a crazy way. He gets gonorrhea from his African girlfriend and has various other mishaps and gets blackmailed by an African politician. An easy and fun read. Was the first book by the author of "Any Human Heart" which is Michael from Books on the Nightstand's favorite book of all time. I must read that one now.
This was a fun read. Boyd spins a tale so unflattering to the British diplomats and yet probably closer to reality than one might guess. The smug arrogance of the Brits and their self-serving colonizing efforts told in a "Murphy's Law" story is just plain entertaining. I was confused for quite a while as I had assumed the good man to be the wrong character...I couldn't quite figure out how he was going to turn out being good! Well spun tale.
A very quick and enjoyable read about British colonialism in an invented African country in the 60s (? guessing, never really says). The main character is highly entertaining as a put-open, pessimistic, mid-level diplomat hoping for an assignment probably anywhere else. He is definitely not the 'good man in africa' of the title, but the book focuses on him wading through all of the bureaucracy and politics to discover that, despite his cynicism, this said good man does in fact exist. You're left...more
This book really surprised me: Boyd somehow took one of the least likable protagonists I've ever encountered, surrounded him with several other infuriatingly pathetic supporting characters, and ended up with a hilarious page-turner. I do think it's a book that is best read quickly, as I might have tired of it otherwise, but read in a couple of days it was quite the entertaining romp!
Basically a David Lodge book set in a backwater British diplomatic post in West Africa. A little less elegant than Lodge's best, or Kingsley Amis's average, but mixed in with the slapstick there's some political intrigue and a few keen observations about the role of foreigners in such places, and that pretty much makes up the difference.
Gosh, this was a funny book! Our anti-hero, Morgan Leafy, is everything that one hates in a man but somehow you want to cheer him on to better things - I became like his mom who believes that there is more to Morgan than meets the eye - something Morgan has to learn about other people too - the difference between seeming and being.
This was William Boyd's award winning first novel so I thought I would give it a try after having LOVED Restless. This is dated and terrible, not at all funny. Don't waste your time. I kept hoping it would get better and it didn't. If I had known I wouldn't have wasted my time.
It's good and at times very funny. But you need to be a fan of Boyd's "fish out of water" books (Stars and Bars, Armadillo, etc.) and be able to like unlikable characters to enjoy. With these narrators, I don't actually like them but I'm interested in what happens to them. But, this was his first novel and I'd recommend later ones before this. Stars and Bars is better. Or read Restless, one of his more recent ones which is very different and very good.
This book is pure laughter! It is corny, frustrating, but above all funny. If you've ever lived in Africa it's even better! I can only imagine that anyone who has ever worked in the diplomatic services abroad must see the funny side too.
Boyd is a terrific writer. Excellent descriptive technique which kept me engaged despite a dark plot e.g., the day-to-day life of a third rate British foreign service representative with ambiguous morals in a backwater African posting.
Places you in what feels like Colonial Africa
along side Somerset Maugham and Graham
Greene..the sweating tropics, unfathomable
continent and lots of g & t's to keep the
malaria away. I think maybe a truly black
comedy.
along side Somerset Maugham and Graham
Greene..the sweating tropics, unfathomable
continent and lots of g & t's to keep the
malaria away. I think maybe a truly black
comedy.
Aug 18, 2009
Bob
marked it as to-read
I had an uncle who lived (and was murdered) in Africa, and my graduate school adviser was from Africa, so I might have an interest in a bumbling (are there any other kind?) British functionary in the colonies.
This was an excellent book, hilarious, good-natured, and warm from start to finish. The wheels come off a bit in the last forty pages, which is what kept this from 5 stardom for me.
This is a very funny comic novel (recently re-published since it was issued in 1981) about the British colonial experience in a mythical African country called Kinjanja. The protagonist, Morgan Leafy, is a bumbling junior diplomat who wants desperately to be reassigned -- when he isn't boozing or womanizing. When oil is discovered off the coast of Kinjanja, the little country attracts high-level British attention (aka meddling), and Leafy is assigned the job of monitoring the leading candidate i...more
Some good laughs in this, and some gloriously toe-curling situations, but it took a while to get to them as the start was rather slow. Also (and rather a lame objection, I know), I found the main character's name a bit silly.
Both sad and funny. In fact, parts were downright hysterical. At one point I was laughing so hard I was crying. The protagonist gets into some of the most incredible situations.
Um livro que vale bem a pena!
Inicialmente estava receoso sobre este livro, talvez por não conhecer o autor que tão bem conceituado é.
Mas depois de o ler é realmente uma livro que aconselho a ler por entretenimento. Tem uma história bem construída, uma boa escrita também, e elementos de diversão fantásticos
Por vezes o melhor e o ideal não é ser-se "um homem melhor – ou mais sábio" mas simplesmente ter-se a dignidade, a coragem e o respeito por si mesmo e pelos outros quando o merecem.
O autor está...more
Inicialmente estava receoso sobre este livro, talvez por não conhecer o autor que tão bem conceituado é.
Mas depois de o ler é realmente uma livro que aconselho a ler por entretenimento. Tem uma história bem construída, uma boa escrita também, e elementos de diversão fantásticos
Por vezes o melhor e o ideal não é ser-se "um homem melhor – ou mais sábio" mas simplesmente ter-se a dignidade, a coragem e o respeito por si mesmo e pelos outros quando o merecem.
O autor está...more
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Of Scottish descent, Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana on 7th March, 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father, a doctor. Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him.
At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray, Scotland an...more
More about William Boyd...
At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray, Scotland an...more
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