Book Review: The Last King of Scotland
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King of Scotland’ by Giles Foden is in the preparation stage and the film crews are heading this way. This I believe is good news and will hopefully put Uganda on the map in the same way as Hotel Rwanda has opened many people’s eyes. I have always been against the so called Hollywood take on life, where entertainment should reflect happiness and have a happy ending where everyone lives happily ever after. This being the case I was glad that Hotel Rwanda was realistic and showed how when things go wrong they can seriously go pear shaped. With this in mind I went to Aristoc and bought Last King of Scotland so I would get a feel of what is to come to the cinema in about a years time. The sleeve notes said it would leave me with unforgettable images, so I started reading with great anticipation. The book started well with the description of coming from the airport filling me with memories of my own first images of Uganda three years ago, it then spent the next hundred pages describing life as a bush doctor, living in a village while falling in love with a fellow doctor. I failed up to this point to learn anything about Amin and was quite literally losing patience when it kicked off in a desperate attempt to liven things up with tales of child soldiers, a few bombs and of course dismemberment. The story was hotting up a bit now with the introduction of Idi and the relationship that was now being forced between the main character and the dictator, while trying to include a conspiracy, which of course involved |
the British government. The horror of the situation was never really explained though and I have more vivid images having listened to some of my friends who grew up during the darkest period of Uganda’s history.
The story continued on, not really explaining the full horrors of what I had heard about, that said as an adventure story it was a good read and I await the film with baited breath. If you need to learn more about the history then I would suggest offering to buy a ‘mid thirties’ aged Ugandan friend a few Tuskers and find a quiet corner down at Just Kicking. The other thing that struck me was the lack of detail to the surroundings and I felt that the book was written by a holiday maker rather than someone who was here for a number of years, for that I would recommend ‘The man with the key has gone’ by Dr Ian Clarke, another story of a doctor in the bush but this time with a feeling of someone who has worked his way through the challenges of life in Uganda.
Having mentioned two books on life in Uganda it is with huge anticipation that I await the release of ‘Mrs. Carruthers is Black’ by Mr. John Carruthers in late May early June.
