cd - didn't enjoy it much

A rather random find on BorrowBox to fit a reading challenge task. I didn't have any particular book in mind so I was browsing and thought this might be a fun-funny sort of read. I guess there was some funny bits but there wasn't enough for me to think it as a funny read. This cover (the blues and yellows) made me think that it's going to be a hilarious romp through Africa but boy, was I wrong! And unfortunately, I just wasn't that interested in the story or any of the characters but I didn't mind the wily ending. I don't think I'd read the rest of the trilogy.

Though it raises interesting issues about Africa, the writing is all over the place and not done very well.

So far so good. Story appears to be largely factually based so gives a view of life in East Africa.

I liked it

It was a fair read but not as funny as I was expecting. I live in Kampala so I can relate to much of the book. Why though do authors stereotype many aspects the people one finds living/working in Africa. Worth a read though.

What a disappointment! I love Alexander Mccall Smith's books on Botswana and the Wild birds of East Africa. So, I was hoping for another little gem which sadly never materialised. I shan't be reading the sequel.

I read to page 230 of 300 when a ridiculous plot twist made me close the book with no intention of going back to finish it. It was OK up to that point but, life is too short to read a book that relies on such an inane device. It turned into a farce & I realised I actually didn't care what happened & I won't be finding out.

Brilliant, well-written and funny.

Funny and no doubt realistic in parts.

Wryly amusing tale of fictional African country where the locals are adept at outsmarting any and all comers from aid agencies to journalists & everything inbetween.

I think I would have liked this book more if it was more about Charity, the owner of “Harrods”. A lot of the political and news writer verbiage could have done with being reduced. However, I liked the clever twists that came because of the national people’s being underestimated by the white people.
Apparently this is meant to be no. 1 in a series. I am not quite sure I would look for the sequel to read. But maybe if I came across it somewhere, I would see how the lives of the characters progress. And perhaps there would be less political chatter.

This first book in a trilogy is set in a lightly fictionalized version of Nairobi's largest shantytown. The author grew up in then-Rhodesia and returned to Kenya as a journalist for the Financial Times for some two decades. Toss this lived experience with the warm-hearted but practical vibe of Alexander MacCall Smith's Botswana-based "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" and the results are somewhat mixed.

The story meanders around a restaurant/bar at the edge of the shantytown, where locals, journalists, aid workers, and other expatriates mingle. The owner is a no-nonsense, big-hearted widow who keeps the local gang/soccer club/homeless kids more or less in line (when they aren't sniffing glue). There's a British banker who moved to the area after his divorce and has set up a microlending bank. There's an earnest development worker lady who is inappropriately excited about a cholera outbreak. There's a journalist in the waning days of his assignment, trying to land one more story before he flies out. There are a pair of the street boys who weave in and out of everyone's stories. There is the World Bank president on a one-day visit. And there is the crafty and dangerous President, who is working hard to win his final election before retirement.

However, there's not really any main plotline to hang on to -- more a goulash of intertwining interests. The book strives for humor that doesn't quite land, and strives for satire that's also rather thin. I've known plenty of people in the aid world who work in Africa, and while I suppose the book manages to capture the kinds of tradeoffs that are constantly at play in post-colonial development, it's always skimming along the surface. The characters are all types and the tone is generally light, so it's impossible to really care about any of it, even as events build to a riotous conclusion.