I was excited to read this book when I found it in the library but it wasn't really what I was hoping for. It just kind of fell short and although the author was largely honest and fairly impartial, his own views did show through a little uncomfortably at times. I'm aware it's a memoir and is to be expected, but that doesn't change how I felt about how it was executed. ( )

I wavered about how many stars to give this book. Grant is an honest writer, who freely admits his own ignorance and fears when appropriate. He admits, for example, that one of the major purposes and driving necessities of his trip to the Malagarasi River in Tanzania is to be able to write a book about it. He roughly follows Richard Burton's attempt to find the source of the Nile, starting in Zanzibar and traveling through Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda. His description is vivid and interesting. I did get a little tired of his assumption that "real life" is always to be found in cheap bars and dives, however. He seems to be a pretty poor judge of character and evinces very little healthy skepticism about some of the people whom he comes to admire, one of whom he sincerely believes to be a world class golf pro who just happens to be drinking himself to death in Zanzibar in the company of someone Grant believes to be the president's son because someone in a bar told him that's who it was. I share his skepticism about aid projects and NGOs, and I admire his attempts to integrate into the local culture, but I can't help feeling he would have written a better, more insightful book, if he had spent less of his prep time on geography of the Nile and a little more talking to African immigrants near his home and brushing up his French and Swahili. A fun book to read for the adventure and the author's humor and honesty, but don't expect any deep or unusual insights. His generalizations about Africa and Africans are probably forgivable for the genre; travel writing is all about generalizing based on little information, but they are still a bit much at times. ( )

The author explores a river in east Africa, and at the same time describes how things are in these relatively new countries and how they got that way, with a fairly unbiassed view. Well written, painful in parts. Worth the read and will probably give readers new perspectives of the entrenched problems of the area, from poverty to genocide. ( )

Richard Grant is a very good author and an intrepid traveler. The combination makes for a very good book. I like that Grant attempts to describe people and places without any sort of preconceived notions. You get an honest take with some of his writing having a sort of anthropolgy/sociology type of feel. I highly reccomend reading his stuff even if you don't have much interest in the places he is describing. He probably should get more acclaim in the non-ficition world. He is a way better writter and way more interesting than most of the non-ficition writing that tends to be mass marketed. ( )

One of the best things about travel writing is learning about places you will likely never get to Visit. With Richard Grant's latest book, he continues the theme he started with his last book God's Middle Finger and that is writing about places you would not go to unless you are insane! In God’s Middle Finger he travels to the Sinaloa region of Mexico to learn more about life there. This is rather entertaining considering it is the home of the most violent drug cartels in history. Where horrific murders take place daily, and unless you are forced to be there no one wants to be there. there to IN this book he starts off in Zanzibar, but not the new version of the country which is all about relaxing at $500.00+ a night resorts on the beach but the capital Stone Town and hooking up with an assortment of criminals, alcoholics, prostitutes, and drug addicts. From there he travels to Tanzania to navigate down a river which is next to impossible. He closes out the book by interviewing the president of Rwanda. In between we learn about a couple of counties in Africa that are often times beyond comprehension. He also discusses how destructive all of the aid that western countries pour into Africa is and how it has made many African countries wholly dependent on it. I won't labor this part of the book as there are many books out there that discuss government aid and NGO's and the damage they do in the name of help. What I will say is this, If you like exotic travel writing, DON'T MISS READING THIS BOOK! ( )