The Wilbur Smith Discussion Forums

This book was recommended to me a few days ago by a friend. She told me it's about a missionary trying to convert people in the Congo, and is set sometime before a war.

Sounds good, I'll be reading it as soon as the library delivers! Has anyone read it, or will be interested in reading in the future?

I would love to trade thoughts!

Nefer, I got this book about a year ago, unfortunately I put it down after about a hundred pages. please let me know if I should pick it back up.

Will do

The girl who recommended it to me praised it a lot - this after she noticed my entire shelf & and a half of WS!

love your siggy BTW!

You're a better man than me, Silver, I didn't get past page 20!!

The different view-points suprised me - I had no idea who these people were at first! I thought the book was in the mother's POV... then I thought, okay, she's looking back on her life... The daughter with the southern accent was the last straw really! I can't stand people who talk like that - 5 minutes of it is cute, any more is annoying, really.

Why did you stop reading it?

Sorry to hear it I was hoping you could sell me on it. Like you I got bogged down with the perspective of a small girl in the mid 1960's it didn't didn't grab me and the father being an arrogant know-it-all bothered me.
Have you read Don't Lets Go To The Dogs Tonight, or Scribbling The Cat?

Nope, never heard of them!

By the same author?

Yeah, her name is Alexandra Fuller. she is an ex-pat Zimbabwean who lives in Canada (sound familiar?) both books are great. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight is her childhood memories in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and was a bestseller. In Scribbling the Cat she goes to see her folks in Zambia, meets a scarred Veteran and they return to Zimbabwe. Neither is fiction and both are good or better.

Son of the Silver Fox,

I read "Don't lets go.." and found it fascinating in an awful way! The telling of Rhodesia decline, post-UDI, from the POV of a child growing up in the bush was amazing! Quite the counter-view to WS' line of writing. The degenerate older generation, the rising anger of the natives. Bloody brilliant.

Also check out "Mukiwa", by Peter Godwin another coming of age autobio about a chap who grew up in the 60s, left and returned in the 80s as reporter. Reads like "Leopard Hunts" except it's for real!

Poisonwood is an interesting read, and certainly a good side-dish for main courses of WS. Non-linear stoy-telling, with glaring clashes of culture, and lifestyle. If you are a parent, you will identify with some characters more than others. This is a good parallel with "Rage"

WS inspired me (With Time to Die, no less) to do more reading about africa, and Rhodesia in particular.

Check 'em out

yeah, I agree mukiwa was a good read.