I read this book because the author is coming to a Friends of the Library luncheon for my library. It's not normally what I would pick up, mostly because its intended audience is over the age of eighteen. I enjoyed it, though it didn't bowl me over. I enjoyed the setting (Belgian Congo in 1958) and especially liked the tidbits of information about the locals and the wildlife that started each chapter.

I found it had too many characters for me to have an easy time keep track, and each seemed to have at least 2 different ways of being addressed or referred to, which made it even more difficult. One plotline seemed to have been dropped about 2/3 into the book with no resolution. But overall I liked it, and I really chuckled at the ending.