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| Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart | 
 enlarge | Author: Tim Butcher
Publisher: Chatto and Windus
Category: Book
Buy Used: £19.98
New (2) from £21.82
Avg. Customer Rating:  68 reviews
Sales Rank: 137025
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.6
ISBN: 0701179813
EAN: 9780701179816
ASIN: 0701179813
Publication Date: June 7, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: We ship daily from the United Kingdom
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| Customer Reviews:
A great read September 2, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found it a great blend of interesting history and a fascinating insight into the modern-day Congo. I was genuinely gripped by the descriptions of the suffering going on there and horrified at my lack of awareness. The descriptions of his travel were secondary for me but were well-written and interesting. The only bits of the book that grated for me were his constant reminders of the dangers he was facing and the amount he was suffering which, on a backdrop of the Congolese people who were genuinely suffering and had no way of escape, felt unfair and over-stated. Other than that it was a great read nad I would highly recommend it.
 Disappointing! September 1, 2008
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book sounded so promising!
But I found this nothing more than a portrayal of one mans arrogance and self-absorbtion. Despite the opportunities and experiences described the author fails to demonstrate any true insight or understanding of this deeply troubled and complex region.
Helen Zetter August 23, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Interesting!Well written.A Treacherous trip following the footsteps of H.M.Stanley crossing the Congo.Certainly Tim Butcher did his homework researching and telling the readers the history of the Congo.His journey is very beleivable,but rather sad.It was a book which was a little repetetive but that may be was due to the aid workers who one felt were very stuck there finding their tasks ardious.I feel the book is very much a mans book however ones interests lie in Africa.It is sad to say such circumstances still have to exsist.
 A fantastic book August 7, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
How anyone can call this book dull is beyond me. I admire the way that Butcher persevered through what most travellers would consider pretty terrifying conditions. My stomach churned at times and I imagined how I would probably have bottled out of many of the 'towns' that he ventured through. The book itself is brilliantly written with a keen eye on the historical context and some thoughtful and brilliantly expressed passages. I would like to ask any of the critics of the book to place themselves in Butcher's position and see if they could have managed it. How easy it is easy to give one star to a book like this in the comfort of your own home. Personally, I loved it.
 Disappointingly dull August 7, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Tim Butcher is a journalist, no doubt good at reporting the facts (insofar as any journalist can). But he's not a writer. The main problem is that there is no change of pace throughout this book. It doesn't matter whether he's planning the journey (a good third of the book) or actually on the journey in dangerous places: it just plods along with the same dribble of information. Butcher is obsessively worried about the fact that the Congo is not the place that it was when the Belgians exercised their extreme authority there. So far, so unsurprising. And this obsession with what's been lost means that none of the places or the people ever come alive in the present. I wonder if the journey was all a bit too much for Butcher and lost the plot fairly early on. Although he meets numerous people along the way, he seems to be - and feel - distant from everyone. They're just thin sketches. It's not clear whether that's because: Butcher wasn't really interested in them; didn't make the effort to talk to them; is a rather stiff, diffident Englishman who can't interact; or just lacked the spirit to record the interactions. If you've enjoyed O'Hanlon's Congo Journey or love travel writing by Thubron and Murphy, you'll be sorely disappointed by this.
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