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No, we're not talking Bonnie Prince Charlie here. The title character of Giles Foden's debut novel, The Last King of Scotland, is none other than Idi Amin, the former dictator of Uganda. Told from the viewpoint of Nicholas Garrigan, Amin's personal physician, the novel chronicles the hell that was Uganda in the 1970s. Garrigan, the only son of a Scots Presbyterian minister, finds himself far away from Fossiemuir when he accepts a post with the Ministry of Health in Uganda. His arrival in Kampala coincides with the coup that leads to President Obote's overthrow and Idi Amin Dada's ascendancy to power. Garrigan spends only a few days in the capital city, however, before heading out to his assignment in the bush. But a freak traffic accident involving Amin's sports car and a cow eventually brings the good doctor into the dictator's orbit; a few months later, Garrigan is recalled from his rural hospital and named personal physician to the president. Soon enough, Garrigan finds himself caught between his duty to his patient and growing pressure from his own government to help them control Amin.
From Nicholas Garrigan's catbird seat, Foden guides us through the horrors of Amin's Uganda. It would be simple enough to make the dictator merely monstrous, but Foden defies expectation, rendering him appealing even as he terrifies. The doctor "couldn't help feeling awed by the sheer size of him and the way, even in those unelevated circumstances, he radiated a barely restrained energy.... I felt--far from being the healer--that some kind of elemental force was seeping into me." And Garrigan makes a fine stand-in for Conrad's Marlow as he travels up a river of blood from naiveté to horrified recognition of his own complicity. As if this weren't enough, Foden also treats us to a finely drawn portrait of Africa in all its natural, political, and social complexity. The Last King of Scotland makes for dark but compelling reading. --Alix Wilber
Book Description
Shortly after his arrival in Uganda, Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan is called to the scene of a bizarre accident: Idi Amin, careening down a dirt road in his red Maserati, has run over a cow. When Garrigan tends to Amin, the dictator, in his obsession for all things Scottish, appoints him as his personal physician. And so begins a fateful dalliance with the central African leader whose Emperor Jones-style autocracy would transform into a reign of terror.
In
The Last King of Scotland Foden's Amin is as ridiculous as he is abhorrent: a grown man who must be burped like an infant, a self-proclaimed cannibalist who, at the end of his 8 years in power, would be responsible for 300,000 deaths. And as Garrigan awakens to his patient's baroque barbarism--and his own complicity in it--we enter a venturesome meditation on conscience, charisma, and the slow corruption of the human heart. Brilliantly written, comic and profound,
The Last King of Scotland announces a major new talent.
Customer Reviews:
Mistah Kurtz--he alive again..........2007-09-29
In Giles Foden's fictionalized account of a Scottish doctor's experiences as the personal physician to Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada, evil isn't banal, after all--it's pompous, unpredictable, oafish, ostentatious, alternately unspeakably cruel and imbued with childlike exuberance, and, perhaps most startling of all, it's often more acutely wise to the ways of human nature than we care to admit. It throbs with the amorality of the life-force itself. Whatever else it might be, evil in the considerable form of Idi Amin is anything but boring.
*The Last King of Scotland* is a novel set firmly in the classic tradition of Joseph Conrad's *Heart of Darkness.* In this version of the Conradian theme, a young white doctor, highly-educated, civilized, British, heads to an under-developed Uganda driven by a mix of boredom, aimlessness, and the dim intention of doing some good. He's not there long when control of the country is forcibly seized by a Ugandan general named Idi Amin. Dr. Nicholas Garrigan and General Amin meet by accident--literally--when Garrigan is called to the scene of a roadside collision between a cow and a red Maserati drive by the new Ugandan president for life. Amin takes a liking to Nick--whose Scottish ancestry appeals to the general's obsession with Scotland--and offers the young doctor the position as his personal physician. It's an offer Nick can't refuse, not that he tries too hard to do so. After all, it's a rather prestigious post, better than working in the bush, and Amin is a dynamic and charismatic figure. There've been some rumors, but there are always rumors. Amin doesn't seem so bad, no worse than dozens of others in his position...not yet.
And so begins Nick's journey towards the heart of darkness and the beast who dwells there, propelled on his way by a quickening series of rationalizations, compromises, and choices that slowly erode his conscience and leave him a victim of circumstances. In the end, it's all too clear and all too late. Idi Amin is a monster and Garrigan is his doctor, his confidant, and his apologist--if only because by explaining Amin, Garrigan explains himself.
Fiction in which major historical personages like Amin play a major role always runs the risk of straining credulity, ringing false, or offering a pale imitation of the original. What with truth being stranger than fiction and all. Especially such recent, bizarre, and well-documented history. How do you top the real-life stories of cannibalism, the heads in the freezer, etc.? But Foden does a remarkable job in breathing life into Amin's larger-than-life persona and his many notorious exploits. Foden is equally remarkable in his portrayal of Nicholas Garrigan. Written in the first person, supposedly as a journal, Foden so convincingly and engagingly describes everything from the presenting symptoms of rare (and disgusting) tropical diseases to field dressing gunshot wounds, you'd think Garrigan must be a doctor himself, or at the very least, had some sort of extensive medical training, although his author bio doesn't mention either. His Uganda is so vividly realized you don't doubt his narrator for an instant. In any event, the cumulative result is a novel that often doesn't read like fiction at all, but the memoir it's fictionally supposed to be. Only towards the end of *Last King* does this verisimilitude quaver a bit with the doctor's final confrontations with Amin and the consequences of Garrigan's Ugandan adventure with the British government and media. But this is a novel, after all, and while *Last King* makes an intelligent "thriller" Foden also does a perfectly credible job of speaking for Amin, who is himself a very effective mouthpiece for the heart of darkness--by turns seductive and horrific, satanic and angelic, the source of a running stream-of-conscious monologue that expresses the ongoing dialectic between good and evil in our own hearts; a debate we begin uneasily to suspect--not the least of which in our own fascination with figures such as Amin--is not strictly a matter of either/or.
An old-school novel of adventure and ideas, politics and moral dilemma made new again for our ambivalent and morally bankrupt age, *The Last King of Scotland* might very well be a genuine classic itself one of these days and it's depiction of an "innocent" man's journey to the Kurtz of the late 20th century take on even more mythic proportions. Until then, it's a timely, exciting, and excellently written story you'll find hard to put down until you run out of pages--and even harder to forget when you do.
Idi Amin rules (this book).......2007-07-29
So of course, my title refers to the character of Idi Amin rather than the man himself. In his first novel, Giles Foden tells the story of Nicholas Garrigan, a Scottish doctor who becomes Idi Amin's personal physician after the madman's rise to power in Uganda. Garrigan is personally torn between the facts of Amin's cruel military dictatorship, which he gets first- and second-hand, and the charms of the man in the flesh. This novel is told from the point of view of Garrigan writing his memoir of sorts, so that he is able to reflect on his time in Uganda and his connections (or lack thereof) with the atrocities committed there.
I wanted to read this book before seeing the movie, so now I have reason to get myself to the rental store. Tales of Forrest Whittaker's performance echo among the treetops, but in reading this book, it becomes clear that Whittaker had great material to work with. Foden's portrayal of Amin is masterful--Amin is a character larger than life in both his horror and energy and maybe even charisma, yet somehow identifiable, which is what makes him all the more scary. From his sermon from the platform of a device that lets him emerge almost god-like from a pool, a sermon he gives while chowing down on chicken and soda, to his moments of dementia when in his torture dungeon, Amin is a superb character, well worth the hatred and planning done by other characters in this book, plans to overthrow him and even kill him, plans that of course sometimes cross Doctor Garrigan's path. There is a moment later in the book, during the time of the anticipated downfall, that gets almost too unreal, too horror-movie, and Foden doesn't really convince during that chapter, which is unfortunate, because he succeeds quite well with Amin through most of the rest of the book.
But also, Doctor Garrigan's introduction of sorts, the situating of his life and viewpoints in the days before meeting Amin, was much less than interesting. I found myself glancing through many of these paragraphs rather than avidly reading them. Only when Amin came full force into the story did I finally know what drive I was missing, but unfortunately Doctor Garrigan and the historical background takes up the first 120 pages of the book or so.
It seems to be a kind of unwinnable trap that Foden fell into and couldn't quite figure a way out. Clearly, Amin himself would not have served well as the primary focus of this book. His psychology was too wavering, and I had no interest in finding out the source of his being. Garrigan was a much more human character, with a moral, ethical and philosophical dilemma that is clearly the stuff of good fiction, but ultimately he does not pan out as an engaging figure to center the book on. As alluded to before, Foden's work with Amin is strong enough to pull this book through in the end, but the overall framework left a little to be desired. A good read, once you get past the obligatory set-up and character spotlights to get the real narrative going.
Great read........2007-07-24
The Last King of Scotland is a first book by Giles Foden. It takes place in Uganda, from the viewpoint of a young English physician. It is an intriguing read and complex enough to almost be a mystery novel but is based on the true story. I saw the movie before reading the book and that sequence just enhanced the reading. The book outdoes the movie, except for Forest Witaker,the "Last King of Scotland." Read it and find out what happens!
good..not great though.......2007-04-17
This book was ok. I liked the characters, however I felt like I got lost sometimes in the dialogue and it moved a little slow at times and didn't make sense to me.
You definitely believe the plight of Dr Garrigan and feel sorry for him as when he finally wants to escape it is too late.
I guess the ending kinda surprised me as there was no redemption for Dr Garrigan, he didn't get to have any revenge on Idi.
This was a page-turner for me albeit a slow one though. I didn't really get sucked in like I do with a great book. So I call this book good, not great.
Boring........2007-04-10
I was expecting a memoir about Idi Amin to be a little more eventful than this book. It was too detail oriented and got going way too slowly. The last hundred pages were great, but you have to wade through a lot before you get there.
Book Description
From Robert E. Howard’s fertile imagination sprang some of fiction’s greatest heroes, including Conan the Cimmerian, King Kull, and Solomon Kane. But of all Howard’s characters, none embodied his creator’s brooding temperament more than Bran Mak Morn, the last king of a doomed race.
In ages past, the Picts ruled all of Europe. But the descendants of those proud conquerors have sunk into barbarism . . . all save one, Bran Mak Morn, whose bloodline remains unbroken. Threatened by the Celts and the Romans, the Pictish tribes rally under his banner to fight for their very survival, while Bran fights to restore the glory of his race.
Lavishly illustrated by award-winning artist Gary Gianni, this collection gathers together all of Howard’s published stories and poems featuring Bran Mak Morn–including the eerie masterpiece “Worms of the Earth” and “Kings of the Night,” in which sorcery summons Kull the conqueror from out of the depths of time to stand with Bran against the Roman invaders.
Also included are previously unpublished stories and fragments, reproductions of manuscripts bearing Howard’s handwritten revisions, and much, much more.
Special Bonus: a newly discovered adventure by Howard, presented here for the very first time.
Download Description
“Howard’s writing seems so highly charged with energy that it nearly gives off sparks.”
–STEPHEN KING
“Howard was a true storyteller–one of the first, and certainly among the best, you’ll find in heroic fantasy. If you’ve never read him before, you’re in for a real treat.”
–CHARLES DE LINT, award-winning author of Forests of the Heart
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews:
Beyond Sword and Socery, This is Literature!.......2007-05-27
Beauty and savagery, sorrow and violence, such is the song of Bran Mak Morn. These are violent fantasy tales, but written with such literary flare you cannot put them down. Robert E. Howard captures the emotion of rage like no one else. As an exploration of rage and the things it can drive men to do, this is a superlative work. As compelling adventure stories, nothing is better.
Less bran than expected.......2007-05-03
I hadn't read any of these stories before, though I like Conan and Kane. Overall, I was a bit disappointed. The books seemed to have a lot of fillter, and the stories were only loosely connected. Some were definitely atmospheric, so it wasn't that the individual stories were disappointing. Just that I expected stories about a central character and got stories about a central idea -- the race of the Picts in a Howard's mythology.
El ultimo rey de una raza que desaparece.......2007-04-11
"Bran Mak Morn" recoge todos los cuentos de este rey picto, que ve como su raza va desapareciendo en las brumas del tiempo.Un gran héroe trágico.Howard se luce en cada historia de este tomo, siendo mi favorita, el "crossover" que realiza con otro grande de Howard:Kull de valusia en el corto "Reyes de la noche". En todo este libro se puede sentir la épica violenta que caracterizaba a Howard, y aunque los seguidores del escritor de pulps estaran mas que satisfechos con esta edicion "definitiva" de Bran, probablemente sean los neófitos - ¡oh, afortunados!- que disfrutarán mas de aquel torbellino de imagenes y emociones fuertes del inmortal REH.Imprescindible.
R. E. Howard's most personal hero.......2006-12-07
In bringing to us the tale fo the doomed Pict Bran, Robert Howard, perhaps unknowingly, reveals much about himself as he details the vain struggle of the First Race to overcome the tide of Roman power in Britain. Fighting against a fate he can never bring himself to yield to, Bran Mak Morn summons demons and asks the aid of long-dead kings even as he must battle bloodthirsty wizards in his own tribe as he seeks to reestablish the great days of Pictdom. Tragically for Bran, his failure is utter, and like his creator, he falls to his destiny. Had Howard written more about the king of the Picts, the saga would stand better among the Texan barbarian's work. As it is, though, the incomplete chronicles of this doomed hero haunt and intrigue readers to this day. His equally doomed creator would almost certainly have been pleased.
Enjoyable, but Perhaps not Enough Completed Material to Justify a Single Volume.......2006-09-17
The Roman Empire has stretched in Britain. One race of people fights Caesar at every turn, the Picts, led by their king, Bran Mak Morn. But the Picts, rulers of a vast empire themselves in the days of Atlantis, have long since degenerated into brutish barbarism. Bran knows that his battle against Rome and his own people's extinction is a lost cause, and fights on, nonetheless.
I was unfamiliar with Bran Mak Morn before Wandering Star and Del Rey began reprinting Robert E. Howard's work. Since I had enjoyed the Conan and Solomon Kane volumes, I added "Bran Mak Morn: The Last King" to my library eagerly. However, after reading the volume, I must admit that this isn't my favorite example of Howard's work. I was surprised, as most scholars consider Bran Howard's most personal character. Bran arose from Howard's interest in his own Scots-Irish ancestry. Bran also represents Howard's own ideas about the nature of humanity, the ever-present barbarian struggling against the hypocrisy of civilization. Unlike many of his other stories, however, Howard's Bran stories place substantial emphasis on mood more so than on action.
Bran's people, the Picts, are a common fixture in Howard's writings. They appeared frequently to plague Conan years after Howard had left Bran behind. Howard's version of these people is a romanticized one, with an elaborate, mythical history of their spectacular empire built in the long-forgotten past. But he also presents them as a disintegrating people, who long ago forgot most of the basic skills necessary to maintain and build a civilization. Howard is also able to examine some of his own racialist points of view, as Bran is an exception, maintaining the majestic Aryan qualities that had marked the Picts in the ancient days.
Howard only completed six stories about Bran. Howard experimented with techniques with Bran more than he did with his other characters. The first story "Men of the Shadows" is a first person narrative of a Roman soldier and his capture by the Picts, and his meeting with Bran, who is simply referred to as a chief. The most important aspect of this story is that it sets the stage for who and what the Picts are. It was not published until after Howard's death.
The second story, "Kings of the Night" is one of the two truly stand-out stories in this collection and certainly one of Howard's best stories generally. Bran is attempting to build an alliance with various tribes against an impending Roman assault. One tribe refuses to fight unless led by a king. A wizard summons forth Howard's own King Kull from the past. This story is interesting as it explicitly connects Howard's various series of fiction. Bran is the descendent of Kull's ally Brule the Spear-Slayer and Kull himself plays an important role. The action of the battle is gleeful and ferocious, and the atmosphere is chilly and foreboding.
In "Worms of the Earth", which is certainly one of Howard's most intense and creepy tale, and the other real stand-out story. The only story told from Bran's point-of-view sees the monarch make an unholy bargain with another race the Picts forced underground generations past. The bargain: vengeance against the Roman procurator. The imagery of sub-human creatures skittering around in the dark waiting to drag unsuspecting souls to their deaths is delicious in its horror.
The last two stories are interesting in that Bran isn't physically in either story. In "The Dark Man", Turlogh Dubh, an outcast Celt, pursues a young princess of his clan and her Viking captors. On his journey, he discovers a large wooden statue, and carries it with him on his pursuit. The statue is an image of Bran Mak Morn, long dead, but still thirsting for battle. "The Dark Man" is an entertaining yarn, as the statue plays a pivotal and magical role in Turlogh's quest. I also found it fascinating that Howard had allowed one of his characters to have definitive end.
The other story "The Lost Race" finds another Celt, Cororuc, in a battle for his life when he is captured by the last remnants of the Picts, long driven underground. It's an interesting story providing a coda to the Bran saga, but at the same time going back over the Picts history and their tragedy without providing anything new or insightful. Bran has long been dead, and no trace of him appears, only his magical descendent.
"Bran Mak Morn: The Last King" is probably my least favorite collection of Howard's work thus far. While I liked the character, there is so little complete Bran material that I never felt connected to the character. The bonus materials are fascinating, but at the same time, they feel like padding. A small part of me wondered if perhaps, instead of the various unfinished drafts and the like, the Bran stories might have been better served in a more general collection of Howard's work. That having been said, Howard's storytelling skills are in top form in these stories, and anyone who has enjoyed Conan does owe it to themselves to read Bran Mak Morn.
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The Last King of Scotland
Giles Foden
Manufacturer: Blackstone Audiobooks
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Binding: MP3 CD
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ASIN: 0786170212 |
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The Last King of Scotland
Giles Foden
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ASIN: 0786158484 |
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The Last King of Scotland
Giles Foden
Manufacturer: Blackstone Audiobooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
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ASIN: 0786149329 |
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Last King of Scotland
Giles Foden
Manufacturer: Blackstone Audiobooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
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ASIN: 0786149477 |
Book Description
No Man Could Tame Her
Jessi Rose Clayton would do anything to keep the family ranch from falling into the wrong hands-even agree to take on a rough-and-tumble outlaw as her protector. With his rugged, handsome face and muscular bronze body, Griffin Blake can draw a sigh from a lady's lips almost as fast as his strong, sculpted arm can draw a gun from its holster. But Jessi Rose has no intentions of falling for his charms. No, her relationship with him is strictly business.
Until He Came Along
Robbing the railroad is Griffin Blake's game, but he has no choice. Either he agrees to help Jessi Rose or he gets sent back to jail-so he arrives at the ranch ready to help the ornery female protect her land. But underneath Jessi's all-business exterior is a femininity she's kept hidden for far too long-making Griffin think it might be time to tame this wild Texas rose.
Customer Reviews:
Buy! Now!.......2007-07-20
I love beverly jenkins as an author. Her heroines are strong black women and it takes an strong black man to handle them. Her books are so good because you know there going to get together but the way she takes to get you there is so great you wont mind reading it agian because it only gets better.
Man oh MANNNN!!.......2007-05-14
This book is wonderful!!! I love the attraction Griff and Jessi had. How they flirted and played with each other. Griff brought out the woman in Jessi and in the process became a man he didnt know he could be. This was a great love story. I love Beverly Jenkins' books.
Funny, sad and romantic.......2006-10-12
I would love to see this filmed as a tv movie it would be so funny to watch and full of tension like a typical western with good guys v the bad guys.
Can't wait to read the twins story
I couldn't stop laughing.......2006-07-18
I never laughed thru a novel before this one, Those twins and Griff himself had me tears from laughing so much. I thought this book was written very well with it's history and a little bit of humor as well. I've read every book written by Ms. Jenkins and I have to say not only are her books educational but romantic and funny.
Age ain't nothin' but a number...........2006-05-05
This was a great story...I loved Jessi and Griff. Although, Griff was younger than Jessi, (only by seven years) he had lived a thousand lives. He was a real, FINE man with enough maturity and heart to shower Jessi with all the love she'd ever need. I also enjoyed catching up with Dix Wildhorse from "Topaz" and meeting Preacher and the "Terrible Twins" Two Shafts and Neil July. They had me laughing out loud with their special brand of justice. Beverly Jenkins is awesome, much respect!
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The Taming of Jessi Rose
Manufacturer: Avon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0739406825 |
Product Description
This the hardback by Avon Books, 1999.
Books:
- The Red Sea Rules The Same God Who Led You In Will Lead You Out
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- The Stones Of Summer
- The Tale of the Unknown Island
- The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground, Ripley's Game (Everyman's Library)
- The Turning: New Stories
- The Water-Method Man
- The Woman Who Waited: A Novel
- Third Girl from the Left
- Timbuktu: A Novel
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