On June 30, 1960, the Congo was emancipated from Belgium. African nationalist leader Patrice Emery Lumumba became the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo when it declared its independence - the long awaited "Depanda" had arrived!
Although i liked the setting - and the plot & characters were good, they writing style made it difficult for me to get through this book. it seemed to general where more detail was needed, too much detail where i wasn't interested and in general i put the book down after every few pages, chapters - where is this going, why is he telling me this...
The Catastrophist is a very good read--highly recommended. It is a thinking person's page turner.
The Catastrophist makes an interesting counterpoint to Giles Foden's The Last King of Scotland. Both books examine the deterioration of colonial rule and the ensuing chaos in central Africa from an outsider's perspective and with some studied distance in voice and tone.
This is a beautiful book. Set against the political events leading to the independence of Congo, we are told of the story of a woman's political involvement and her partner's difficulty to grasp the emotional intensity of her commitment.
Ronan Bennett's "Catastrophist" grips you from the outset. Who are these characters stranded on the banks of the Sankuru river in December 1960 and what is their involvement in the life and arrest of Patrice Lamumba?
Ronan Bennett has written a landmark novel. On the surface, "The Catastrophist" appears to be treading well worn grounds occupied by illustrious writers like V S Naipaul and Chinua Achebe, but this Whitbread Prize shortlisted novel is no second rate hack job.
Excellent piece of historical fiction...part doomed romance, part political thriller, and part well-rounded character study.
This novel was given to me as a gift by someone who had no idea that I had recently been binge-reading about the history of Zaire /Belgian Congo. It's quite a few years since I read it but at the time I found it to be an excellent follow-up to several non-fiction books about the country.
This is a political novel set in what is now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo before it became independent. It focuses on the terrorism and war going on between different sides fighting for the independence.
Beautifully written with intense characters against an interesting historical background.
The Catastrophist by Ronan Bennett is set in the Belgian Congo in the early 1960's. The plot centers on two writers who are caught up in the rise and fall of the charismatic leader, Patrice Lamumba.
This caught my eye at the tip shop because a therapist once said i was a catastrophist. Even though there's a scene with the protagonist and his girlfriend where she accuses him of being a catastrophist, I'm not entirely sure that's what he was.
3 stars, an okay novel held back by its narrator's heavy-handedness and constant, constant reiteration that he is apolitical. Could have benefitted from some more engagement with the Congo itself, but I suppose it was a choice to have detached characters.
One of the best books Ive read in a long time. I would give it five stars in a heartbeat but ultimately the characterisation of the female protagonist Ines let me down and led me to the 4 stars she is just not as three dimensional as others such as Gillipsie or Stipe, for example.
