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On the Edge of the Great Rift: Three Novels of Africa
Three comic and sinister novels set against Africa’s vibrant landscape.
Fong and the Indians: A Chinese immigrant in a ramshackle East African country, Sam Fong is reduced to scraping a living as a grocer. Outnumbered by Africans and outfoxed by Indians, Fong is nevertheless a survivor, and survival in East Africa depends on one thing: making friends with the enemy…
Girls at Play: Miss Poole runs an isolated school for African girls in the Kenyan bush. Her unmarried, white, female teachers’ common fear of Africa bonds them, but fear alone is no match for bitchery within the ranks…
Jungle Lovers: Life is not easy in Malawi for the dedicated insurance salesman, nor for the revolutionary terrorist. So from the moment when Calvin Mullet of Homemakers International is taken prisoner by the ruthless Marais and attempts to sell him a policy, their fortunes become strangely interwoven…
Fong and the Indians: A Chinese immigrant in a ramshackle East African country, Sam Fong is reduced to scraping a living as a grocer. Outnumbered by Africans and outfoxed by Indians, Fong is nevertheless a survivor, and survival in East Africa depends on one thing: making friends with the enemy…
Girls at Play: Miss Poole runs an isolated school for African girls in the Kenyan bush. Her unmarried, white, female teachers’ common fear of Africa bonds them, but fear alone is no match for bitchery within the ranks…
Jungle Lovers: Life is not easy in Malawi for the dedicated insurance salesman, nor for the revolutionary terrorist. So from the moment when Calvin Mullet of Homemakers International is taken prisoner by the ruthless Marais and attempts to sell him a policy, their fortunes become strangely interwoven…
656 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1996
2 people are currently reading
119 people want to read
About the author
Paul Theroux
224 books2,636 followersPaul 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 known as a travelogue writer, Theroux has also published numerous works of fiction, some of which were made into feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel The Mosquito Coast.
He is the father of Marcel and Louis Theroux, and the brother of Alexander and Peter. Justin Theroux is his nephew.
He is the father of Marcel and Louis Theroux, and the brother of Alexander and Peter. Justin Theroux is his nephew.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 4, 2021
Fong and the indians
1 ⭐
This story was offensive. The author used people that lived in the capital of East Africa, during his time living there, for characters in his story.
Here's a sample:
"... But Mehboob had dreadful thoughts as he drove up the narrow mud trucks lined with high, dense elephant grass: naked warriors watched him, Savages who, if so inclined, could crush him. These fierce men were at the summit of every hill, behind large boulders which they could roll onto his van, his goods, his head; it was said that these tribesmen slept in the warm mud puddles in the middle of the road, indolent prey for the passing 'Persian' who, when caught at the next village for the murder of the tribesmen, would pay the maximum penalty, a punishment verified by his half brother's friend's cousin, a cotton-ginner in Burundi at the height of the bahutu uprising against the watusi. The punishment consisted of cutting off the offender's feet and ordering him to stand on his stumps (raucous laughter as he falls), then cutting off his legs to the knees and making him stand again, and so forth.. it was too much for Mehboob to think about; only the thought of it made deep dread."
Fong of the title is a Chinaman, a former Carpenter who's reduced to selling groceries in a store that has practically no merchandise. He is used by a South indian, Fahkru, to enrich himself.
The author makes fun of everybody, East africans, South Asians and Americans. The author has his protagonist and his large family practically starve to death (sometimes they avoided starvation by catching and eating grasshoppers), before, in the end of the story, making his most fervent dream come true.
5 stars Girls at Play
Heather, a 36-year-old teacher who has been transferred to the school of the story's setting from Nairobi, starts out being described by the author as being attractive to men. But as The story goes on, Heather's description becomes more and more rundown, flabby, messed-up makeup, messed-up hair, growing-out Gray, etc.
She and Miss poole are at loggerheads. Miss poole is the headmistress. They begin sniping at each other, and before long they're practically at war. Heather is always drinking and smoking.
Miss poole never cleans her house. She has cats living in her house, and she lets her favorite cat sit on her lap at the dinner table, feeding her tit bits from the serving plates.
"...Animals obeyed and could be trained and would respond as humans never did, for she saw in these creatures a helpless innocence bordering on holiness which did not exist in humans. There were times when she herself felt this bewildered helplessness which small animals showed. Unlike most humans there was no malice in the cats; while there were the usual subtle responses -- many more than most people thought -- there was no evil. They had not fallen. Man had. Much more than the high-voiced and man-crazy female, magotty in the head and committing sins, these Meek creatures were God's own."
At their first meeting, Heather's dog attacks Miss poole's favorite cat, Sally.
"They faced each other: Miss poole with her hair in a bun, in brown Tweed darkened with a streak of cat-piss, flat-chested, yellow gray in complexion with light feline Tufts of facial hair, rocking her cat mechanically at her bosom as a mother does a small child; heather, her blue dress wrinkled at the back from the hot drive, her blonde-streaked hair half-fixed, thick calves, pudgy with drink, her lips a bright sticky red, a fleshy braceleted arm holding her dog's collar."
This was a great book. I went into it not expecting much, as I had just read Fong and the indians, which I hated.
2 ⭐ Jungle Lovers
The third and the last novel in the book "On the Edge of the Great Rift: Three Novels of Africa." This wasn't as good as "Girls at Play."
The story is mainly about Calvin, an insurance salesman from Hudson, Massachusetts, who is sent to Malawi East Africa, by his insurance company. In the beginning of the story he is earnest about selling policies.
The story is also about Marais, a half European, half American wannabe revolutionary. Neither one of these men are successful at what they do.
It takes place at the time of East Africa's independence from England. Fed up with white sovereignty, Africans are showing their hatred of the white.
This was disappointing.
1 ⭐
This story was offensive. The author used people that lived in the capital of East Africa, during his time living there, for characters in his story.
Here's a sample:
"... But Mehboob had dreadful thoughts as he drove up the narrow mud trucks lined with high, dense elephant grass: naked warriors watched him, Savages who, if so inclined, could crush him. These fierce men were at the summit of every hill, behind large boulders which they could roll onto his van, his goods, his head; it was said that these tribesmen slept in the warm mud puddles in the middle of the road, indolent prey for the passing 'Persian' who, when caught at the next village for the murder of the tribesmen, would pay the maximum penalty, a punishment verified by his half brother's friend's cousin, a cotton-ginner in Burundi at the height of the bahutu uprising against the watusi. The punishment consisted of cutting off the offender's feet and ordering him to stand on his stumps (raucous laughter as he falls), then cutting off his legs to the knees and making him stand again, and so forth.. it was too much for Mehboob to think about; only the thought of it made deep dread."
Fong of the title is a Chinaman, a former Carpenter who's reduced to selling groceries in a store that has practically no merchandise. He is used by a South indian, Fahkru, to enrich himself.
The author makes fun of everybody, East africans, South Asians and Americans. The author has his protagonist and his large family practically starve to death (sometimes they avoided starvation by catching and eating grasshoppers), before, in the end of the story, making his most fervent dream come true.
5 stars Girls at Play
Heather, a 36-year-old teacher who has been transferred to the school of the story's setting from Nairobi, starts out being described by the author as being attractive to men. But as The story goes on, Heather's description becomes more and more rundown, flabby, messed-up makeup, messed-up hair, growing-out Gray, etc.
She and Miss poole are at loggerheads. Miss poole is the headmistress. They begin sniping at each other, and before long they're practically at war. Heather is always drinking and smoking.
Miss poole never cleans her house. She has cats living in her house, and she lets her favorite cat sit on her lap at the dinner table, feeding her tit bits from the serving plates.
"...Animals obeyed and could be trained and would respond as humans never did, for she saw in these creatures a helpless innocence bordering on holiness which did not exist in humans. There were times when she herself felt this bewildered helplessness which small animals showed. Unlike most humans there was no malice in the cats; while there were the usual subtle responses -- many more than most people thought -- there was no evil. They had not fallen. Man had. Much more than the high-voiced and man-crazy female, magotty in the head and committing sins, these Meek creatures were God's own."
At their first meeting, Heather's dog attacks Miss poole's favorite cat, Sally.
"They faced each other: Miss poole with her hair in a bun, in brown Tweed darkened with a streak of cat-piss, flat-chested, yellow gray in complexion with light feline Tufts of facial hair, rocking her cat mechanically at her bosom as a mother does a small child; heather, her blue dress wrinkled at the back from the hot drive, her blonde-streaked hair half-fixed, thick calves, pudgy with drink, her lips a bright sticky red, a fleshy braceleted arm holding her dog's collar."
This was a great book. I went into it not expecting much, as I had just read Fong and the indians, which I hated.
2 ⭐ Jungle Lovers
The third and the last novel in the book "On the Edge of the Great Rift: Three Novels of Africa." This wasn't as good as "Girls at Play."
The story is mainly about Calvin, an insurance salesman from Hudson, Massachusetts, who is sent to Malawi East Africa, by his insurance company. In the beginning of the story he is earnest about selling policies.
The story is also about Marais, a half European, half American wannabe revolutionary. Neither one of these men are successful at what they do.
It takes place at the time of East Africa's independence from England. Fed up with white sovereignty, Africans are showing their hatred of the white.
This was disappointing.
December 15, 2022
These were the first three novels authored by travel writer Paul Theroux back in the sixties. While I found them to be serious page turners and consider him to be an EXCELLENT writer technically, I'll never read another. Talk about DARK. The themes of these three was summed up by one of his native East African characters when he quotes "Hobbies," i.e. "Life is nasty, British and short."
Read
September 15, 2010Very enjoyable selection of stories
August 10, 2011
These are not happy stories. If you are someone who enjoys feel-good novels with happy endings, On the Edge of the Great Rift is not for you.
April 11, 2023
There is a story in here of a shop owner in Malawi that's really good. Paul Theroux was in Malawi in the Peace Corp. His take on human affairs can be pretty rough at times. And, I enjoyed this one.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews