Product Description

'At thirty-three one's direction in life should be clear, and mine was not.' In search of some direction, or at least a new challenge, Jeffrey Tayler gave up his day job of opening rejection letters from publishers and went exploring. Having always been fascinated by Africa and the great age of Victorian exploration he went to Kinshasa in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and found a boat to take him up-river to Kisangani, deep in the heart of the jungle. Not content with that, he then bought a pirogue (a kind of canoe), hired a guide and set out to paddle the 1,000 miles back to Kinshasa. A personal journey, an intrepid voyage, an exceptionally well-written travelogue: FACING THE CONGO is all these things and more. A wonderfully vivid and exciting read for armchair adventurers everywhere.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #284892 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 341 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Recent years have seen a spate of "Congo books". Ronan Bennett, Barbara Kingsolver and John Edric have written acclaimed Congo novels, and Adam Hochschild's history, King Leopold's Ghost, documents the atrocities committed during rubber fever, when 8,000,000 died in the Belgian Congo and up to 14,000,000 died in French Equatorial Africa. In the travel genre, we have had Redmond O'Hanlon's great Congo Journey and Michaela Wrong's In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz. The combination of historical tragedy and contemporary anarchy makes this rich hunting ground for writers, but also provokes serious ethical questions about writing commercial books on a destroyed country--questions which only the nature of the books themselves can answer.

Facing the Congo is the latest such book. In it, Jeffrey Tayler recounts his attempt to canoe the navigable length of sub-Saharan Africa's most symbolic river. Equipped with help from one of Mobutu's henchmen and an ailing guide, Tayler finds things far from plain sailing. Negotiating corrupt officialdom, murderous peoples on the riverbanks, widespread suspicion and the dangers of the river itself, he ultimately finds his plans too demanding to be fully realised.

Tayler's prose is often evocative and his story is a compelling one. But he tends to load his descriptions with adjectives, which can over-dramatise situations. Of course this is a dramatic adventure, and Tayler tells it well, but at the end you can't help feeling that too little attention is paid to the root causes of both his troubles and the current situation in the Congo--rubber fever, greed and a callous European superiority complex. --Toby Green

Review
The exquisite sheen and might of the Congo itself flow through the pages of Jeffrey Tayler's account. His triumph is his ability to carry us deep into the very heart of Africa, negotiating like an old river-hand the eddies and curves of the dark enigma which is the Congo. There's a rare truth here, the grip, grind and mystery of the African forest, expressed not through a lurid tale of explorer antics, but through Tayler's heroic sensitivity to the everyday lives of river people. Here, in all its sweltering majesty, is the real Congo - the clicking, swirling intensity of one of the greatest of all rivers, as it moves timelessly through the lives of the crocodiles, fishermen and bandits who inhabit its feted shores. - Benedict Allen, author of LAST OF THE MEDICINE MEN and INTO THE CROCODILE NEST 'He has provided one of the warmest and most sympathetic accounts to date of a most perplexing part of the world.' TLS 'A fascinating record of an often breathtaking journey. Tayler's account is also an incredible adventure story.' BELFAST NEWS 'A gripping account.' SUNDAY TIMES Recent years have seen a spate of "Congo books". Ronan Bennett, Barbara Kingsolver and John Edric have written acclaimed Congo novels, and Adam Hochschild's history, King Leopold's Ghost, documents the atrocities committed during rubber fever, when 8,000,000 died in the Belgian Congo and up to 14,000,000 died in French Equatorial Africa. In the travel genre, we have had Redmond O'Hanlon's great Congo Journey and Michaela Wrong's In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz. The combination of historical tragedy and contemporary anarchy makes this rich hunting ground for writers, but also provokes serious ethical questions about writing commercial books on a destroyed country--questions which only the nature of the books themselves can answer. Facing the Congo is the latest such book. In it, Jeffrey Tayler recounts his attempt to canoe the navigable length of sub-Saharan Africa's most symbolic river. Equipped with help from one of Mobutu's henchmen and an ailing guide, Tayler finds things far from plain sailing. Negotiating corrupt officialdom, murderous peoples on the riverbanks, widespread suspicion and the dangers of the river itself, he ultimately finds his plans too demanding to be fully realised. Tayler's prose is often evocative and his story is a compelling one. But he tends to load his descriptions with adjectives, which can over-dramatise situations. Of course this is a dramatic adventure, and Tayler tells it well, but at the end you can't help feeling that too little attention is paid to the root causes of both his troubles and the current situation in the Congo--rubber fever, greed and a callous European superiority complex.' - Toby Green, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW 'Immensely gripping' - BILL BRYSON

BENEDICT ALLEN
'The exquisite sheen and might of the Congo itself flow through the pages of Jeffrey Tayler's account. '

Customer Reviews

'Facing the Congo'
This is a very well written book and Jeffrey Tayler's style is very well suited to those people who love to travel. Looking at some other reviews, they criticise the lack of description and 'travel tips' in these types of books - they are greatly missing the point. Travelling, like Jeffrey Tayler does, with little thought prior and a spirit of 'where will I end up', is the stuff great travellers are made of.
A great amount of his book is focused on people he meets and his experiences - this is very refreshing and the book reads like he is telling an old friend of his adventure. Leave the tips and descriptions for Lonley Planet, and read this book for this guy's fantastic ability to describe his rather reckless journey down a massive and dangerous jungle river!

Wanderlust meet escapism
Plus- The journey up and down the congo river is an interesting one detailed with observation and anaedotes, it would appeal to those who like travel stories.
Minus- Lack of meaning of his travel turns into an escapism, failed to dig deep into the heart of congo people and tell us their story.

Jeffrey Tayler, an American lives in Moscow, sensing his under-achievement and loss of purpose and direction, to quote his word 'The wanderlust that had impelled me to travel happily throughout my twenties had made me a terrible misfit in my thirties' Hence laid his decision to take some action, to travel, and he come upon Congo.

Then started the narrative from preparation to embarking his journey up the Congo river, from the rather peaceful Central African Republic to the eventful and dangerous Congo, with abundant stories of corruption, cannibalism, war, killing, expat life of diamond dealing, etc.

However, the fact that it is well written only qualifies the book as a standard travel story, a good narratives without meanings, it does not demonstrate his courage (though it demonstrate his rationale on safety precaution), does not deliver new insights nor offer us a new perspective on the lives of congo river. The story are dim throughout the book, and it does not answer any of question.

Absolutely brilliant
At thirty, African woman in search of direction, I picked up this book with great interest. I reluctantly turned the last page within two days. Amazing, moving and funny, so true. I couldn't recommend this book enough.