Brazzaville Beach

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At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray, Scotland and then Nice University (Diploma of French Studies) and Glasgow University (MA Hons in English and Philosophy), where he edited the Glasgow University Guardian. He then moved to Jesus College, Oxford in 1975 and completed a PhD thesis on Shelley. For a brief period he worked at the New Statesman magazine as a TV critic, then he returned to Oxford as an English lecturer teaching the contemporary novel at St Hilda's College (1980-83). It was while he was here that his first novel, A Good Man in Africa (1981), was published. The reader knows from the second strand, at Grosso Arvore, that the marriage ended, but doesn't know how or what was the final straw until towards the end of the book. But we see Hope, still young, now researching chimp behaviour in Africa. Her task is to observe a small group of chimps who have broken away from the main group. Eugene Mallabar is about to publish what will be his magnum opus – the last word on chimpanzees – and his reputation is what brings in the grants and donations that make the research possible. But Hope begins to see behaviour in her chimp group that doesn't tie in with Mallabar's research. At first, she tells him about this but he dismisses her – he doesn't want his research threatened. So she begins to conduct her own research and is increasingly disturbed by what she discovers.

Sometimes referred to as “dandies” in English, the sapeurs of Brazzaville are men who dress up in stylish, colorful suits and strut their stuff around town. It’s about more than just clothes, though; it’s an identity and a way of life for these guys. To make it a bit more lusty, he throws in quite a few explicite descriptions of chimpanzee bacchanal sex. In the Congo, a sapeur is someone who belongs to the Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes, or S.A.P.E for short. This translates as something like “The Society of Tastemakers and Elegant People”. Hope reflects on what exactly made John Clearwater so attractive to her as a marriage partner in the first place. She always wanted her man to be extremely intelligent and highly unusual, however, as she eventually realizes, she will continually take second place to John's true love - mathematics. John is a man obsessed with developing a new theory and when Hope inspires him with what she terms his "Clearwater Set," John's fanaticism reaches scary levels. Oh, to have such fame within the world of mathematics! But at what cost?John Clearwater, Hope's former husband, is a mathematician thirsty for discovery and fame. This part of the narrative is set in London, where the couple share her flat in South Kensington, and southern England, where Hope works as an ecologist on an intriguing hedgerow mapping project in Dorset. At the beginning of their marriage the two are very much in love with Hope believing that John is the ideal man for her owing to his rather eccentric but empathetic character and strong intelligence. She is uninterested in working after getting her PhD until her former Professor forces her to take on the hedgerow mapping project. After being interviewed by Munro, its leader, Hope discovers she is pleased to be working once more, losing weight because she is outside all day, and enjoying the disciplined approach she has to adopt: Prior to my trip, I had the impression that the Congo was a dangerous, lawless country. While this is a pretty accurate description of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, things are very different in the neighboring Republic of the Congo. Congo Brazzaville vs. Congo Kinshasa It starts and ends with the line "The unexamined life is not worth living." I guess you would have to classify this as a cerebral novel, but also the parts set in Africa are dramatic; one thing happens after another - a civil war and infanticide and aggression and cannibalism and murder. Not one, but several. Murder of chimpanzees, but they are so similar to human beings that these too must be seen as murders. Chimpanzees and bonobos are the closest living relatives to human beings. Chimpanzees are more aggressive than bonobos. Right from the beginning it has the feel of something rather unusual and for me there was a definite double-take moment when I realised I’d found my place. There are a lot of trajectories to this book, including Hope's relationship with a Mig 15 mercenary pilot, an Egyptian named Usman Shoukry, who meticulously constructs (for his amusement) tiny, detailed airplanes made out of tissue and attached to horseflies. Hope sees Usman when she makes provision runs for the reserve.

Trips to the reserve are not exactly cheap, but it’s still cheaper than seeing mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda or the DRC. I booked a day trip with Wild Safari Tours and paid 245,500 CFA. This memorial to Brazzaville’s namesake was quite controversial when it was erected in 2006. Opinion is divided about De Brazza, an Italian-born Frenchman who convinced the local king to place his kingdom under the protection of the French, making the Congo a French colony. I thought Brazzaville Beach was a thoroughly engrossing book. I loved reading it as much as any book I can remember in the last two years or so. I hated to put it aside even to sleep. It’s not perfect, though, and my small quibbles are the only reason I didn’t rate it 5/5.During her marital separation, Hope worked on an ancient English estate, dating and describing hedgerows, with detailed specific answers available for her to ponder. However, when her estranged husband comes to visit, her life feels in flux again. He barrages her with his anxiety and failed research attempts. Like his 2012 book, WAITING FOR SUNRISE, Boyd employed a complex structure in this 1990 novel about science and discord, both marital and professional. Structure and the sciences are the glue for connecting the themes and metaphors of his overall story, a device for annexing separate compartments of the narrative and cohering it into a whole. Once you let that be, or let it go, and stop worrying if you are comprehending all the pieces while reading it, you can enjoy this compelling piece of fiction.