What do you think?
Rate this book
Okapi Fever
hardbound
310 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1963
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 16, 2017
I give this book 4 stars because even though the main character of this novel was a complete bastard and I hated him throughout the story, I also found myself compelled to understand him. I think it is a mark of great storytelling and writing that an author can make you at once despise a character and still choose to walk in his shoes. I liken this book to Lolita, but not as sinister and also set with an amazing backdrop of the Congo jungles.
June 26, 2017
More like 3.5 simply because I wasn't expecting much out of this book. I bought it because it was cheap and I liked the cover. Despite the fact that the story is pretty boring, the writing is actually fairly beautiful, at least more enthralling that I had assumed it might be based on the plot.
July 19, 2014
A book not worth reading about an aging, selfish ex-pat in Africa during the upheaval during the sixties. He makes his living by capturing wild animals for zoos. Four young adults come to him for assistance in getting north to rejoin their group to work for "helping" the Africans. The main character agrees mainly because he wants to seduce one of the girls. He fails. I don't know if he learned anything at all. He deserved to fail. The book has too many explanations and thoughts, but it does evoke the setting of the jungle.
May 22, 2021
A French translation from 1963. DNF. A period piece of racist stereotypes and misogyny. I gave it my obligatory 40 pages but it was a ‘did not finish’ for me. I’ll let the quotes speak for themselves. Normally I don’t give a DNF a rating but I gave this book a ‘1’ and you’ll see why.
The story line is that four young people, 2 men, 2 women, 20-ish, approach this Frenchman in Africa who traps animals for zoos. They want him to take them on an expedition into the heart of Africa. He’s reluctant at first until he decides he wants to bed down the blonde. When she repulses his initial advances, he slaps her.
“I needed Francine beside me, with her blondness, that amber skin of hers, as an illuminating contrast to the primeval tide of blackness that has once again, as in the dawn of time, come flooding over the planet: a black horde, a dynamic overplus of black vitality.” [He means African independence]
We go on from there. Are you ready?
“…rediscovering the old, wild, primitive Africa, of at last having a chance to see the natives on their own, coping unaided with their weird superstitions…and their own indifference to suffering and death.”
“I no longer knew what a real woman was like, someone who was neither a Negress nor, like Annie, a mulatto.”
“For two years Annie, with her lustrous black skin and inexhaustible capacity for sex (her attitude to which exactly resembles a monkey’s)…”
The group comes upon a village that has just been burned in ethnic wars. Bodies everywhere, but one ancient toothless woman survives: “What could any of us do for this pathetic piece of flotsam.”
“Negro sexual prowess is an extraordinary phenomenon, and one which deserves considerable respect.” Yes he goes on to talk about ‘gigantic dimensions.’
“Tomorrow, perhaps, we might pass a few natives, marching along the trail in Indian file: the usual cheerful, stupid, grinning faces, the usual cry of ‘Jambo! Jambo!’ ”
“Pure Negroes are seldom any good with animals. More often than not they treat them in a brutally cruel manner…But mulattoes sometimes have a touch of genius where wild animals are concerned.”
All these quotes are from the first 40 pages. Why bother to type this stuff up? Perhaps it could be useful to a sociologist or anthropologist studying racial stereotypes.
The dangers of trying to clear out your TBR pile! I got this book as a library discard, somewhere, perhaps 30 years ago. I won’t be lugging it around anymore, LOL
The author (1908-1977) wrote more than 25 books, almost all translated into English. He is probably best known for seven books about undersea expeditions co-authored with Jacques Cousteau.
Photo of the Okapi Wildlife Preserve in the northeast Republic of the Congo from the-okapi.org
The author from gettyimages.com
The story line is that four young people, 2 men, 2 women, 20-ish, approach this Frenchman in Africa who traps animals for zoos. They want him to take them on an expedition into the heart of Africa. He’s reluctant at first until he decides he wants to bed down the blonde. When she repulses his initial advances, he slaps her.
“I needed Francine beside me, with her blondness, that amber skin of hers, as an illuminating contrast to the primeval tide of blackness that has once again, as in the dawn of time, come flooding over the planet: a black horde, a dynamic overplus of black vitality.” [He means African independence]
We go on from there. Are you ready?
“…rediscovering the old, wild, primitive Africa, of at last having a chance to see the natives on their own, coping unaided with their weird superstitions…and their own indifference to suffering and death.”
“I no longer knew what a real woman was like, someone who was neither a Negress nor, like Annie, a mulatto.”
“For two years Annie, with her lustrous black skin and inexhaustible capacity for sex (her attitude to which exactly resembles a monkey’s)…”
The group comes upon a village that has just been burned in ethnic wars. Bodies everywhere, but one ancient toothless woman survives: “What could any of us do for this pathetic piece of flotsam.”
“Negro sexual prowess is an extraordinary phenomenon, and one which deserves considerable respect.” Yes he goes on to talk about ‘gigantic dimensions.’
“Tomorrow, perhaps, we might pass a few natives, marching along the trail in Indian file: the usual cheerful, stupid, grinning faces, the usual cry of ‘Jambo! Jambo!’ ”
“Pure Negroes are seldom any good with animals. More often than not they treat them in a brutally cruel manner…But mulattoes sometimes have a touch of genius where wild animals are concerned.”
All these quotes are from the first 40 pages. Why bother to type this stuff up? Perhaps it could be useful to a sociologist or anthropologist studying racial stereotypes.
The dangers of trying to clear out your TBR pile! I got this book as a library discard, somewhere, perhaps 30 years ago. I won’t be lugging it around anymore, LOL
The author (1908-1977) wrote more than 25 books, almost all translated into English. He is probably best known for seven books about undersea expeditions co-authored with Jacques Cousteau.
Photo of the Okapi Wildlife Preserve in the northeast Republic of the Congo from the-okapi.org
The author from gettyimages.com
December 18, 2020
I read this book in the summer of 2017. I remember the guide being a tortured soul with a lust problem. The book paints quite the picture of the jungle, trekking across Africa, & 1960 Africa. A gritty adventure book written with poor character dynamics ruining the rest. I do not recommend this book.
May 22, 2021
The worst translation ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews