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Review of Blood River by Catherine
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Catherine posted a review at 2008-06-16 04:58:33.
(Language: English)
  
I read this for our book club last month and found it riveting - on another review site I said there were mixed views in the group in that some liked the book but not the author. I had the reviewer's ultimate cringe moment this weekend when I met Tim Butcher at our travel writing festival in Lismore (Ireland, not Oz) and he had read it! Not something I expected and he was extremely gracious about it all and I enjoyed meeting him and Jane. We have had a fantastic weekend and Tim's talk on his Congolese experience was absolutely honest. He went into the journey aware of the limitations of both time and modes of travel available but probably didn't anticipate just how difficult and frustrating it would become, given that his mother travelled with comparative ease and comfort in the 1950s along part of the river. He cast a critical eye on colonialism and its universal brutality; the image of plucky little Belgium post-WW1 was shattered as he saw the lasting results of their endeavours.
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