I think that the sections of the book concerning Hartley's experiences as a reporter in Africa work quite well. I thought Hartley's discussion of his own reaction to atrocities he witnessed in Somalia and Rwanda were very affecting, and the cynical insight he provided about life as a journalist were extremely interesting to me, if at times sort of horrifically funny - for instance, he tells a story about Sophia Loren coming to Somalia as a UN good will ambassador to help feed the children, but one of those starving children she was there to raise awareness for was trampled by the mass of photographers that followed her around and broke a limb. His discussion of the neglect of Africa among many major news outlets was also extremely interesting to me. However, I found the portions of the book in which Hartley attempts to learn about the life and death of a friend of his father's to alternate between being boring and distracting.

I'd also heard quite a lot about this book in connection with colonialism, and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it on that level. While Hartley is the child of colonialists, which of course affects his life, and he at times draws connections between colonialism and the wars that he covers in Africa, he also at times says things like "To be truthful, I saw [President Bush Sr's push to bring aid to Somalia under the label of a New World Order] as a new civilizing mission, similar to the imperialism of my British forebears in that it would bring to an end starvation, war, and dictatorship and replace it with peace, justice, and proper government" (214), which made me do a bit of a double-take since it seemed to so contradict what he himself identifies as the ill effects of colonialism. I'm clinging to the thought that I am just missing some sort of joke since it doesn't quite come together for me in a sensible way.

Although the book does have its problems, I would say it is worth reading for the sections about his time as a journalist, and you wouldn't miss anything by skimming or even skipping the chapters about his father's friend. ( )

Aidan's life started out not unlike mine (same boarding school in England, overseas parents, Reuters) and then turned in to my friend David's (Reuters, war correspondent, adrenalin junkie, burn-out). So of course I found this book interesting, but I'm not sure I would have been held by it otherwise. The interweaving of memoir and self-discovery through forensic exploration of family history didn't work -- loose threads all over.
( )

Hartley, descended from a family venerable old colonialists, occasionally glamorizes colonialism a bit much for my tastes. Still, this is an interesting book by a white man who's never considered himself anything but African. If you're interested in rarely covered areas like the history of Somalia or why newspapers failed to publicize the Rwandan genocide before it was too late, this is a good place to go. ( )