So, the debut attempt will Peter Godwin's book When A Crocodile Eats The Sun.
Ostensibly, it's a memoir of the author's experience growing up in Zimbabwe and shuttling back and forth from his life as a journalist in places like New York and London back to his parents in Zimbabwe. Along the way, though, is plenty of commentary about the recent collapse of Zimbabwe, and that is ultimately what the book is really about.
This has been a topic I've followed closely for years, so most of the information in the book was not new to me, though it added in a lot of color and detail to what I thought I knew. Being well acquainted with the facts, though, doesn't really lessen the impact of hearing eye-witness accounts of them.
What the dictator Mugabe has done to the Zimbabwean people, and what the Zimbabweans have done to each other and themselves, is alternately infuriating, depressing, and numbing. I find it impressive, then, that the author maintains quite a bit of sympathy and patience for the people who in many cases turned on him and his family. He spares Mugabe little (and credits him for nothing), and that suits me fine. I suppose some apologists may find him patronizing and criticize his viewpoint as a privileged ex-pat, but I am not one of them.
It's an unfortunate reality that most people probably don't care enough about Zimbabwe to read a personal history of how it has fallen apart. Alas, that's almost always a part of the enabling process that allows dictators like Mugabe to do what they please.
In any case, I recommend this book for any interested Africa-watchers, as well as those who simply enjoy a good memoir. A word of warning, though - it's not light reading and there aren't very many happy interludes in the narrative.
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