Chronic Chaos (A Good Man in Africa - William Boyd)

Member Name: MALU

Product:	A Good Man in Africa - William Boyd
Date:	22/08/08 (209 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good story, good characters, good style

Disadvantages: none

Meet Morgan Leafy, first secretary of the British High Commission in Nkongsamba, capital of the mid-west region of the no-where West African country of Kinjanja. He hasn't got the right social background, hasn't attended the right schools, has drudgingly worked his way up in the diplomatic service to find himself in this hot, humid, dead-end place among people he hates (his boss and a colleague), despises (most of the other Europeans living there) or doesn't understand (the natives). He drinks like a fish, he's overweight, permanently randy, misanthropic, a born loser.

As if this weren't enough, some weeks before Christmas when we get to know Morgan, external circumstances arise that could fell even a happy-go-lucky fellow. In ascending order: His boss tells him that an obscure Duchess will visit and they have to impress her, his boss's wife persuades him to dress up as Father Christmas for the children of the foreigners' club and distribute the Duchess's presents, he loses his boss's daughter he dreams of marrying to a newcomer due to a predicament his native mistress has got him in, a native woman living on a compound near the Deputy High Commissioner's residence has been struck by lightning but can't be buried before juju has been performed by a native wizard, Morgan is to see to the disappearance of the decomposing and stinking body before the Duchess arrives, political unrest is brewing in Kinjanja, the most powerful African politician of the region blackmails him.

This is the content of the first part in a nutshell, the second part goes back to the beginning of the troubles and explains how Morgan became involved, the third part ties in with the first and we watch Morgan trying to get out of the mire, or rather mires.

If I were a LOL reader, I'd have disturbed the whole house while reading the novel, but as I'm an IG (inner grinner), nobody noticed my amusement. So many books are advertised as funny, comic, hilarious, but are nothing of the kind, this one, however, is all this. The humour is farcical, bizarre, even unsavoury at times, if you can enjoy yourself on this level, then this is your kind of book. But A Good Man in Africa is not just a collection of funny events, I've already pointed out the structure, the plot is good, the characters are well described with their weaknesses and strengths, they may seem slightly exaggerated but I'm afraid that such people exist. Of course, you won't find them all together at the same place and the same time, it's the prerogative of the author to bring them together and see what happens when they interact.

In the case of A Good Man in Africa the result of such an interaction is a satire on (from the net) "the pompous, self-righteous and arrogant British colonial rulers (diplomats) of Africa during the 1960s." In this respect the novel may appeal especially to British readers but I think it transcends the British colonial history and sheds light on all negative First World - Third World relationships. But the aim of the novel is not a profound analysis of the British Empire and its aftermath, its aim is to entertain, and entertain it does.

There are fine descriptions of nature, people and objects but never for their own sake, as is so often the case in novels of minor quality, they're always integrated in the story and help create atmosphere. One could say that it was easy for William Boyd to write well on Africa as we was born in Accra, Ghana, (in 1952) and attended school in Ghana and Nigeria, but if this were true, we would all be able to write brill novels about our home countries which, sadly, we're not. No, Boyd is just a born storyteller, he likes what he's doing and it shows. "I do enjoy writing. I know some writers enjoy the invention but find writing an endless night of the soul. I don't. I think, if you can earn your living writing fiction, it's very agreeable."

Boyd got the Whitbread Literary Award and the Somerset Maugham Award for his debut novel A Good Man in Africa, a good decision if you ask me (often it's wise to stay away from award-winning literature). He's published sixteen more books since then of which I've read Brazzaville Beach, Restless and Armadillo; he's extremely versatile, he sets his stories in different parts of the world and can write from the point of view of a man as well as from a woman and always rings true. I've become a fan and intend to read some more novels by this author.

--

Penguin Books
320 pages
First published in 1981
RRP 7.99

Summary: a British diplomat's adventures in Africa