Get It Now Crazy River: Exploration And Folly In East Africa Produced By Richard Grant Accessible Via Text

fascinating, occasionally grueling, insight into contemporary East Africa, with parallel analysis of previous exploration Burton, Speke, Grant, Livingstone, Although what I got out of the book was a little different than what I expected, I still really enjoyed this read, Somehow I had the idea that this would be an almost exclusively water based adventure but the reader is/of the way through the book.
. . if not more before the author ever really hits the water, While in Zanzibar, he gets a little side tracked by a former golf pro and ends up spending quite a bit of time with him before he remembers he's supposed to be rafting down the Malagarasi River.
Then when he finally gets to his watery exploration, it seems as if his crew is beset by one problem after another, When Mr. Grant finally finishes up his adventure he gets to interview the dictatorial president of Rwanda, At this point the reader gets a fair share and more of the history behind the Hutu/Tutsi genocide, which was enlightening but horrific, All in all, a great adventure, This is essentially a travelog about the author's travels through East Africa, It details the journey from Zanzibar across to Tanzania to make the first descent of the Malagarasai River, He also is looking to see the origins of the White Nile for himself and interview the president of Rwanda, This story gives the short story of the woes of travel in East Africa, health issues encountered along the way as well as introducing us to the cast of people who helped him along the way.
The writing is easy to read and the descriptions of the characters he meets are quite entertaining, The reader is able to travel vicariously through him in some of the back country areas of a part of the world not easily traveled.
His report of the conversation with the Rwandan president was interesting and makes me want to learn more of East African history than the news reveals.
Once I had time to sit and read the story was quite engrossing, I got this book from a kiosk where you leavebook and pick up another, I had mixed feelings about it, I enjoyed learning more about Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda, but thought the author was a bit nuts, A Random Assortment of Insightful and Thrilling Escapades from the Heart of Africa
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From the comfort of your living room chair, Richard Grant takes you on a chaotic adventure starting with his dodging of thieves and prostitutes in insalubrious bars in Zanzibar through to a tense interview with the first democratically elected president of Burundi.
In just overpages Grant manages to cram in seafaring the Indian ocean in a cargo dhow, navigating the whole of Tanzania's Malagarasi river in a raft whilst avoiding crocodiles, hippos, lions and bullets, whilst picking up on important issues in his destinations of Rwanda and Burndi, such as genocide and the questionable efficacy of foreign aid.


Following in the footsteps of Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke, Grant gives a more uptodate view on Eastern Africa whilst suffering similar illnesses and troubles that his predecessors succumbed to.
The tales of dangerous travel are interspersed with interesting reviews on the strange phenomenon that Grant encounters, such as the demonisation of Albinos in these countries.


This book is essential reading for any budding traveller, but large parts should be of interest to practically anyone,
The author, feeling the same wanderlust as his idol Richard Burton, decides to go to Tanzania to run the length of the Malagarasi, Tanzania's secondlongest river.
Facing one obstacle after another, he finally gets a guide, but then his troubles really start, in the form of impassable groves and rapids, crocodiles, and poachers willing to shoot on sight.
His river expedition comes to an end, but he treks on through Burundi, one of the poorest and most violent countries in the world, and onto Rwanda, where he has an appointment to interview the authoritarian president now currently in his unprecedented third term.
Along the way Grant tells parts of Burton's story as well,

Grant is a wonderful travel writer, He writes eloquently of the scenery, but does not skip over the tsetse flies, ticks, fevers, mouth sores, and other ailments he gets on his trip.
He writes admiringly of the benevolent African people who give him hospitality and help him, of their strength and skill in navigating corruption, But he also looks with a grimly realistic eye at the culture of handouts, questioning the effectiveness of foreign aid and how it might create a continent of beggars.
He contrasts the Western approach with how the Chinese are bringing infrastructure to Africa, not out of postcolonial guilt but to encourage trade with themselves.
In Rwanda, he wonders at how in fifteen short years the desolation and genocide has been transformed into a clean, crimefree, bribefree, independent country, but with tragedy and grievances still bubbling underneath, held in check only by authoritarian rule.
The book is entertaining, especially in the first sections in Zanzibar Grant takes up with a selfproclaimed, eccentric "golf pro," and the river expedition provides all the drama and bumbling that one might expect.
The sections of Burundi and Rwanda are, of course, grimmer, but on every page Grant shows a keen eye for the picturesque, picaresque, perplexing, or profound.
Highly recommended for armchair travelers who read vicariously, This is the second Richard Grant book Ive read this year and he is proving to be an excellent travel writer, one part travel, one part history lesson, one part his story.
And hes funny too. Crazy River is full of interesting to outlandish characters he meets along the way and he keeps a running commentary on legendaryth century explorers Speke and Burton that he, at times is retracing their steps.
This is really an excellent window into much of East Africa in thest century, particularly the challenges of western aid much of it rerouted to fuel wars and/or resold in open markets and also the books chapters on the Rwanda genocide and its remarkable turn around, particularly the role Protestant Churches played in it.
Though one Rwandans response when John asked him what would happen if current strong man Rwandan president Kagame were to die is certainly chilling, He said without hesitation, “instant genocide, ” I am just entranced with this book! I've been to many of the places he travels through albeit in thes and the correlations between his trip and Burton/Speke ofis fascinating.
Unputdownable. And yeah I know the worst toilet in Africa, It's in the Kampala Uganda train station, One of the most interesting reads of Africa I have ever read, Highly recommend. Not so much about paddling as about the history and current conditions there, I read this book mostly because of its intent to parallel an expedition of Richard Burton's, a figure I'd found really fascinating in Fawn Brodie's The Devil Drives.
Also I always enjoy reading about Africa, a continent that US media appears to believe is still lost, for all the coverage it gets there have been more novels by African authors in African settings published since George Floyd's murder, but still not much nonfiction.
While this book was entertaining, wellwritten, and explored much deeper issues than the typical travel book, it never really escaped the tension of an English guy writing, often critically, about a culture that has been so ravaged by imperialism.
I stopped giving the author the benefit of the doubt when, early on, he compares the chattel slavery of thethth century Atlantic world to the tribal slavery of medieval Africa, and seems to diffuse the blame for chattel slavery by saying that "percent of the slaves.
. . were originally gathered by African slavery, " There are of course no sources cited for this controversial statistic, and no discussion of how European hunger for slaves might have intensified and brutalized existing slavery practices.
Despite this, the author is generally fairminded about the serious issues he's discussing, but there is something unsatisfying about the lack of depth with which a travel book can discuss deep issues.
A telling contrast is the brilliance of his reflection on the immense gratitude that a woman shows when he gives her an empty whiskey bottle with his superficial dismissal of the importance of Western aid in impoverished countries.
I enjoyed reading this book while I was travelling through Malawi many of Grant's observations and insights about African culture and travel resonated with my experiences and with the stories I'd heard from other travellers, and I agreed with his views on aid.


I'm not a big fan of travel writing in general, though, Reading books like this usually makes me feel like I'm swapping tales with other travelers which I do enjoy, except without being able to relate my own experience or get into deeper discussions/arguments about the issues.


I've also noticed that travel books tend to include far too many overwrought insights into the author's state of mind and emotions for my tastes somehow I never seem to find myself having the same sorts of crises of conscience or emotion or identity while travelling.
The few male travel writers I've read, this one included, also seem to spend a lot of time in bars, commenting on how beautiful the women around are something I'm not particularly interested in reading male readers may feel differently!.
A trip that went so bad you can only laugh, Excellent end section of interviews with the golden boy President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, I'm a big fan of Grant's writings, He used to be a Tucsonan, Richard Grant is excellent. I enjoyed this book very much, but for reasons other than I expected,

As a kayaker and passionate lover of rivers, I expected to most enjoy the river journey account, It was well depicted, but amounted to a couple of big rapids, and lots of machete and grunt work to find flowing channels in low water.
But the people along the river were endlessly interesting,

Descriptions of life in Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda took a reader way beyond what we usually hear from official sources, Grant meets and spends lots of time with a large variety of local, everyday people, and travels to places many wouldn't go, One is greeted by the full effects of overpopulation and vast inequality and corruption in places that bear the brunt of it, Environmental devastation and rampant lawlessness are shown in everyday lives of citizens, but also how many desperately poor people manage to live in grace and dignity amidst this.
Grant also manages to give a new perspective on the expectation that white visitors give money to those who befriend and help them rather than rob or extort, which was also omnipresent in the first two countries.


Rwanda, with its dictator, was something I had not known much about, The last I had heard of Rwanda was the horrific, brutal genocide between the two tribal units making up most of the population, But this dictator has somehow eliminated corruption, instilled pride in working and keeping trash picked up better than the US, and has the two tribes living together in outward peace though divisions in their hearts remain for brutally massacred family members.
Citizens are truly invested in making Rwanda a very good place, Grant also has ahour interview with the dictator, I want to know more about how this dictator achieved the beginning of this astounding transformation,

It isn't often that one is entertained while learning a lot about real conditions and people in the world, and this book does that.
Recommended. I thought I would hate this book more than I did,

It starts off

inauspiciously, Hes in a bar in Zanzibar, he schmoozes with a golf pro, and he wont let you forget how faithful hes being to his girlfriend back home despite no shortage of beautiful prostitutes to his north south east west.
star! Whys he even here

But then he goes to some other places and has some more interesting things to say about bugs and wildlife and conservation and trophy hunting and NGOs, and even though the question remains Why is he doing this and even though I dont agree with all he has to say, I liked his writing enough to finish it.
This is a third about Grant's illadvised attempt to trek the full length of the Malagarisi, a third parallel history followed the legendary British explorer Richard Burton, and a third commentary on the joys and horrors of East Africa.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Another fantastic African travelogue. Grant travels through some far flung East African locations, meets very interesting people and recounts the fascinating history of Burton amp Speke traveling a similar route many years earlier.
His writing is honest and insightful and I felt I learned so much about the history and present landscape of this beautiful amp troubled part of the world.
I will surely check out his other efforts, From the acclaimed author of Dispatches From Pluto and Deepest South of All comes a rollicking travelogue from East Africa.


NO ONE TRAVELS QUITE LIKE RICHARD GRANT and, really, no one should, In his last book, the adventure classic Gods Middle Finger, he narrowly escaped death in Mexicos lawless Sierra Madre, Now, Grant has plunged with his trademark recklessness, wit, and curiosity into East Africa, Setting out to make the first descent of an unexplored river in Tanzania, he gets waylaid in Zanzibar by thieves, whores, and a charismatic former golf pro before crossing the Indian Ocean in a rickety cargo boat.
And then the real adventure begins, Known to local tribes as “the river of bad spirits,” the Malagarasi River is a daunting adversary even with a heavily armed Tanzanian crew as travel companions.
Dodging bullets, hippos, and crocodiles, Grant finally emerges in wartorn Burundi, where he befriends some ethnic street gangsters and trails a notorious maneating crocodile known as Gustave.
He concludes his journey by interviewing the dictatorial president of Rwanda and visiting the true source of the Nile, Gripping, illuminating, sometimes harrowing, often hilarious, Crazy River is a brilliantly rendered account of a modernday exploration of Africa, and the unraveling of Grants peeled, battered mind as he tries to take it all in.
Ride with Richard Grant as he takes you to and through the Malagarasi River in Tanzania
His encounters with pods of Hippos, crocodiles, guns and thugs make for a heady combination
Vivid descriptions of East African people's accents, lifestyle and appearances brought back a rush of memories of my stay in Nairobi two decades ago

This book is not just about his exploration of a lesserknown river but also provides an account of the unspeakable and ghastly human genocide in Rwanda in thes, specific details of which left me sleepless.
And there must be more and worse that I don't know about,