This book contains some interesting information and provides a broad and in-depth historical look at its topic. However, it’s a bit dull, rations its commas much too severely, has a tendency to overgeneralize, and its racial characterizations and blind spots are troubling. And by virtue of being published in 1996, before the current opiate crisis, it’s dated now, focusing mostly on the 19th and 20th centuries.

The early chapters provide a good overview of how opium is grown, its effects, and its use from antiquity through the 18th century. The author has a tendency to want to make everything about opium (like every image in the Rime of the Ancient Mariner – there’s a lot about Romantic poets here), but I still found this fairly interesting.

But its Anglocentric perspective becomes clear as it gets into the Opium Wars of the early 19th century and beyond, with wide-eyed details about drug smuggling and an approving view of the drug war. While it’s not exactly surprising that this white British author failed to draw the insights Alexander did in The New Jim Crow fourteen years later, I find literature about the drug war that doesn’t consider its racialized nature to be fairly worthless reading today. It’s like reading a history of the American South that never mentions black people – sure, you might still get some information from it, but how much that’s really useful? There’s even a howler about how increasing heroin use in black and Hispanic “ghettos” in American cities “so worried the FBN [predecessor of the DEA] that, in 1951, a mandatory minimum sentence of two years was instituted for a first conviction of narcotics possession.” Worried…. because “worry” (with its implications of stewardship and compassion) is what causes officials to throw poor young men of other races into prison for two years for a minor, first offense. Right.

Weird racial comments are even more prevalent regarding Asians: the “beautiful Oriental whores” of Hong Kong, the “native ignorance of hygiene” that caused illness from needle sharing in 19th century China (given that the hypodermic syringe wasn’t invented until the 1840s, I’m pretty sure its safe use was new to everybody at that time), the comment that “[t]he sight of opium addicts in the streets of Hong Kong was a commonplace which most Chinese ignored but which even long-term expatriate residents could seldom see without a shudder of sympathy.” Given that the author’s sources are overwhelmingly European, I’m not sure why he thinks it’s appropriate to contrast European feelings with Chinese action, unless it’s in service of some unsupported idea about Europeans having finer feelings, perhaps?

At any rate, I learned some stuff from this book, though I really only read the first half for its information and skimmed/skipped over the second with its cluelessness and racism. Worth looking at if you’re interested in the older historical aspects, less so for the modern history.

I previously read Maru, by the same author, and found it well-written but disturbing, given that the central "romance" consists of the male protagonist stalking, manipulating and putting down the female protagonist. So I expected to really enjoy another book by Head, with a different plot. Unfortunately, while this one isn't disturbing, nor is it engaging. The book tells us a lot about the characters and they tell each other a lot about agriculture, without their ever coming to life in a way that would draw me in. I read 121 out of 188 pages, until I realized there was no reason to continue to drag myself through something that isn't entertaining. Too many other books are waiting!

What a strange novella. Skillful in many areas, but dominated by a bizarre and manipulative non-romance – I’m not sure what to think, or what the author was trying to do. None of the positive reviews I’ve read address the problems with it, so if you have some insight, please do share.

 

This review will be full of SPOILERS, because the book is only 127 pages long and so nearly everything is a spoiler, and also to fully explain my confusion. But the story begins at the end, so it isn’t exactly a suspense-driven narrative.

 

Margaret is an orphan from a poor, marginalized and much-hated tribe in Botswana, but she’s raised by a missionary, gets an education and becomes a teacher. Her first job is in a remote village where she knows no one, and many of the locals are horrified when they learn of her ethnicity. She handles this situation with grace, and finds fulfillment in setting up her home, developing her artistic talents, a friendship with another teacher and a crush on a local Lothario, who reciprocates her interest.

 

Enter Maru, the Lothario’s best friend and the other teacher’s brother, and here’s where it gets weird. After one brief meeting, in which he confiscates her bed, Maru decides he wants to marry Margaret. So, he apologizes for his poor behavior and begins courting her, proving himself more steadfast than his friend… no wait, he doesn’t, because that would make sense. Actually, he keeps his distance, has other people spy on her for him, and threatens his friend to stay away, ultimately coercing him into marrying Margaret’s best friend. Margaret is heartbroken over this development, and Maru, of course, is concerned for her well-being:

 

“‘Is she sick, Ranko?’ he said smiling. ‘Is she dying? Don’t worry about that. Let her suffer a bit. It will teach her to appreciate other things.’”

 

Actually, he waits till she’s at her most vulnerable, then goes to her house (their second meeting ever), coerces her into marrying him and carries her off to some remote farm, away from everything and everyone she’s ever known. Where they live happily ever after, except when he’s telling her she’s worthless. But, but! Their marriage is a symbol of racial tolerance and is empowering to Margaret’s tribe, no other member of which actually appears in this book!

 

“Well,” I hear the astute among you thinking, “this marriage could be problematic but also a step forward in race relations, given that the majority people barely recognized this tribe as human before.” And that is true. Except that since Maru’s idea of wedded bliss involves stalking and kidnapping a woman he’s only met once, and carrying her off to live in the middle of nowhere so that he can farm rather than fulfilling his role as a leader in the village, it starts to look like he chose someone marginalized by society specifically because she’s undemanding and lacks the power to protest, giving him complete control. Maru isn't so much taking a stand against racial prejudice as he is taking advantage of it.

 

Despite the decidedly creepy direction of this story, I am giving 3 stars: the characterization is good, especially for a short novella, and there is some arresting imagery. I had no problems with the writing style, and clearly my attention was held, since I’ve produced a review of this length. But the plot is unsettling – perhaps the best explanation is that it was written in the 70s?

 

Everyone is related to Africa; everyone comes from Africa. We are all distant relatives. - Damian Marley

 

Let’s face it – think of Africa, and the first images that come to mind are of war, poverty, famine and flies. How many of us really know anything at all about the truly great ancient African civilizations, which in their day, were just as splendid and glorious as any on the face of the earth? - Henry Louis Gates

 

No matter what we call it, poison is still poison, death is still death, and industrial civilization is still causing the greatest mass extinction in the history of the planet. - Derrick Jensen

 

I felt like a kid at Christmas when I received the request from Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine to read and review Die Again: A Rizzoli and Isles Novel. I have always been a huge fan of Tess Gerritsen and the series, and to be trusted with this eleventh addition to the series was a mind blowing experience! Woo hoo!

 

If you are one of those who have only watched the television series (and why would that be? You don’t know what you are missing!) the series is indeed good, but it can’t reach the depth and brilliance of the books. There simply isn’t the time or capability for a television series to meet the standards of exceptional writing Ms. Gerritsen is known for. I highly encourage you to read all of them, starting with The Surgeon and working your way through. If you love a police procedural with strong suspense, mystery and thrills, and a pair of the most exceptional women characters in literature, you can’t go wrong.

 

Okavango Delta, Botswana

 

In the slanting light of dawn I spot it, subtle as a watermark, pressed into the bare patch of dirt. . . . I crouch down beside it and feel a sudden chill when I realize that only a thin layer of canvas shielded us while we slept.

On a photography safari in Botswana with a diverse group of seven tourists from four continents, a guide and a tracker, Millie Jacobson wakes this morning to the prints of a leopard inside the perimeter of the camp. But that is only the beginning – a whisper, a bare scent on the wind, to what is to occur next. For evil stalks. And not on four legs.

 

Boston

The call comes at eleven fifteen A.M.

“I’m on Sanborn Avenue, West Roxbury, oh-two-one-three-two. The dog-I saw the dog in the window …”

 

Detective Jane Rizzoli takes the call, expecting just another murder. What she gets is something unexpected. And unexpectedly gruesome, even for a long-time Boston Homicide Detective. The victim, a big game hunter and taxidermist, is hung in his own garage, gutted like one of the animals whose lives he has taken for the sheer joy of murdering them.

 

What happens next spans not only continents but also many years as the incidents incidents come closer and closer together, threads drawing together like a fine tapestry woven of blood and pain. But could these instances be even older, more frightening and more deadly, than Jane and Maura could have ever expected?

 

This is, to my mind, one of the best, and most wide ranging of Ms. Gerritsens works. The mysteries are, of course, brilliant. But the interpersonal relationships between the characters, especially Jane’s family and Maura’s life, have grown and developed over time. The interpersonal relationships between the police officers, the FBI, and the various groups who are part of the case are just as one would expect, well rounded and often aggravating.

 

Honestly? I was thrilled that the first Boston victim found his end the way he did. With no compassion, no love, no feelings of regret for the loss of the often endangered species he slaughters with no compunction, I cheered his passing. The book is filled with evil people who consider it their right to slaughter entire species simply so they can have a trophy head hanging on their wall. Take that evil species destroyer! But over and beyond the ideals of ecological saviours vs. ecological destroyers, this is an amazing story of an incredible country, filled with life and death, where taking your next breath can often mean an intense struggle for survival. A world where joy comes in the rise of the sun over the horizon, in sight of amazing wildlife, and the often harsh lifestyle that draws its visitors into its soul.

 

“But that’s what our ancestors did, Millie. This is where we all come from. Some part of you, some ancient memory deep in your brain, recognizes this continent as home. Most people have lost touch with it, but the instincts are still there.”

 

If you are up for an amazing novel that will draw you in and leave you breathless, you must read Die Again. It shouldn’t be missed.

 

I received this book from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine in exchange for a realistic review. All thoughts are my own. Highly recommended!

I've been reading a lot about Africa in general and Botswana in particular this year, and the evidence for how much I've learned is that this short story collection was nicely illuminated by my previous explorations. It would have been enjoyable even without the background knowledge, but the stories, which tell tales about peoples lives in their villages (not folktales, as might be inferred), just lit up. Head is a strong writer who doesn't pull any punches. Her narratives are frank about the status of women, sexuality, violence, politics, religion, superstition, and jealousy. Fortunately, much of her oeuvre is available in Heinemann's African authors collection.