Ellis Hock is a 62 year old American. His marriage is over, his business is failing...he recalls the happiest time of his life, as a young man in the Peace Corps, teaching in Malawi. He longs to return to that optimistic world of improving the life of a remote village...and returns.
But life there is very different now, The people are poor, hungry...and resentful of the white aid agences and their superficial "assistance"...even while makingh full use of what they can get.
Theroux has given a negative portrayal of such organizations in his travel books, and I'm sure he has a valid point.
When you finish this (a fair read, somewhat suspenseful as it draws to an end) you'll never weant to visit Malawi... ( )

Taken from PT's experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer the book is a statement about the futility of helping those who won't help themselves and the harm done by those who want to affect poverty in Africa even when understanding local culture on the ground.
The end saved the book. Good descriptive writing but I didn't need anymore humiliation of Hock to get the point. PT obviously has a soft spot for Africa. ( )

The tension is unbelievable, coupled with the almost slow motion quality of the story unfolding. The "Bonfire of the Vanities" set in Africa.
( )

I tried but I have a snake phobia and there were just too many plot points involving snakes. Made it halfway through.

I felt guilty and I've restarted it....

I did manage to finish it but there were chunks I had to skip past. This was a tough read and I'm not sure if I liked it or not. Ellis Hock is a hard character to figure out, he seems to have an essential kindness about him but also so much passivity. With his life turned upside down late in his life, he tried to return to where he was once happy in Malawi. He seems to know that things will have changed but the extent to which he is unprepared for what happens is hard to fathom. There was alot that reminded me of The Mosquito Coast and how terribly badly things can go. However, my creep out factor of the snakes mostly just drove me to finish it as fast as I could, afraid of every page. Not a pleasant experience from an author I usually like.

This is an engrossing read, a sort of "what if" kind of speculation. The protagonist finds himself in late middle age with a failing business and a failed marriage. Rudderless, he decides to return to the one place he remembers being truly happy, the rural village in Malawi where he taught school in the 60s. What he finds seems at first comforting and then gradually reveals a sinister side. The pace picks up and the writing is descriptive but spare, with beautiful use of metaphor and allusion. So why only three stars? While the story is plausible and believable, the way it plays into Western archetypes of Africa as the dark, threatening continent of the subconscious is disturbing. On the merits of the writing, this book deserves more stars, but I just couldn't help but feel Theroux is devoting his formidable skills to retelling a story that has been told many times before by Conrad and others. This is a book about one person's fears and doubts, his struggle with self-image, and how rural Africa presents the last "mirror" in which he can attempt to view himself. ( )