Rating: 
Summary: Romantic, absurd, gripping - you can't put this book down
Review: I picked up this book based on its cover artwork and the title, which sounded romantic and intriguing. I was not at all prepared for the author's harrowing accounts of his years in East Africa as a stringer for Reuters, or for the lingering effect this book has had on me. While he uses bits of his family history and the interesting story of one of his father's best friends as the glue to hold his tale together, The Zanzibar Chest is essentially a memoir of the author's own experiences as a journalist covering the century's most forgotten wars and hot spots: Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia. While other correspondents covered the glamorous European war - the Balkans - Hartley and his band of fellow cowboys lurched from country to country, hitching rides on UN cargo jets, on convoys of armed guerrillas, or travelling hundreds of miles by foot in the company of whichever militia would take them along - usually at their own expense. The descriptions of war, and in particular the unique hopelessness of African civil wars (ignored by the rest of the world), are written in flawless prose - evocative, truthful, but with a journalist's precision. The book becomes much more personal, however, as Hartley describes the deaths of his Reuters colleagues - several of whom died in a most horrific incident in Somalia. His retelling of the story of the four journalists stoned to death by an angry mob in Mogadishu will send chills down any reader's spine: it is this chapter that eventually brings the book into focus and reveals its purpose. (And it will illuminate and inform readers of Black Hawk Down.) The personal details that Hartley includes in the book - a full-blown love affair in the midst of the Rwandan genocide, his own use and abuse of drugs and alcohol to numb the pain - occasionally render him pathetic, but they also allow us to feel more than sympathy for him. Not many people could have survived the conditions that Hartley did, let alone live to write about it in such elegant prose. The futlity and senselessness of war and death in Africa is conveyed through a series of heartbreaking stories, and one can't help but take away an overwhelming sadness at the fate of most African nations and their people. By telling the story of Peter Davey - his father's best friend and an almost typical example of the 'white man in africa' in the early 20th century - Hartley manages to capture some of the inexplicable romance and allure of the continent and its people (although much of Davey's story takes place in the Yemen). Westerners will always try - and always fail - to put their finger on what it is that draws us to the 'other', whether we call it Orientalism or Colonialism or something else. Hartley's love for his home - he was born and raised and continues to live in Kenya - is obvious and contagious. His despair over his adopted home's fate is equally tangible. The Zanzibar Chest is an exceptionally graceful and stirring debut, and although one gets the feeling that Hartley has poured most of his heart and soul into this book, I can only hope that there are other stories that he has yet to tell.
Rating:
Summary: Thank You: Insight and Heart
Review: I was sat down and was honestly told the truth. This is about a man's life and family history, and about Africa. The family history centered around a father and mother that he clearly loved and admired, and they were clearly strong, admirable people, warts and all. The life story was about a young reporter covering Africa. He had a contractual relationship with Reuter's rather than employee relationship. This seemed to relieve them of much concern about sending him and others to dangerous, unpredictable places to dig up stories. The parts about Africa were about the stories of the day; carelessness and corruption, chaos in Somalia, genocide in Burundi and Rwanda and about living there in the 20th century. I'm afraid everyone came off in a bad light. The UN, Missionaries, Movie stars, African leaders, the US government and even US soldiers.
The author mainly displayed modern sensibilities, but hinted that he thought, maybe, the old European Imperialists were better at managing things than the UN and the government and non-government agencies that try to 'help' today. My impression was that this is right. It seems to me that we are just so much more arrogant now than they were then. I wonder if history will treat us any more kindly than we treat those old imperialists.
I don't think the Author wrote this book. I think he painted it. I think he sat outside taking in the stark East African countryside, drinking a Tusker, and painted it from his heart.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best book for those who want to learn about Africa
Review: In The Zanzibar Chest, Aidan Hartley attempts to weave a story about his life in Africa. Unfortunately, this is a big mess. It tries to cover too much ground, and it jumps from one thread to the other without warning. For example, one of the threads is about the zanzibar chest mentioned in the title, but he rarely touches on it. It covers just a dozen pages or so. Why he chose it as the title, I can't figure out. He tries to tell the story of a young man growing up in Africa, about his father's generation of colonialists, about his seperation from his father, about his drug and sex binges, about his work as a journalist in Africa, and about the drug and sex binges of his friends and co-workers. He jumps from one storyline to the next without rhyme or reason. The only storyline worth following is the one in which he presents his work as a journalist. All of the others could be cut out, and it would make this a better book. As for those who would like to get a little insight and learn something about Africa, you'll be disappointed with this book as I was. It's not about Africa, it's about Hartley. If you're not interested in Hartley, then this book will bore you to death.
Another thing I didn't like was his attitude toward Africa. He puts on a great show about his love of Africa , but in the very next breath his cynicism betrays his true feelings. Also, he displays a terrible attitude toward women. In one section, he gives us a sad story about African prostitutes, and how they are living a hopeless life, and then he turns around and says that he really enjoyed their company. He goes on to detail how Africa is a prostitution paradise for foreign journalists in Africa. Really, if you're interest in helping Africa, you shouldn't be part of the problem, and act as a cheerleader for the exploitation of women. And in a salute to bad taste, a few pages later he tells how he met the love of his life. That just left a bad taste in my mouth. I recommend that you avoid this book and find another if you're interested in Africa.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: It's been weeks since I finished and it still moves me in so many ways. While yes, this book will fill you in on some recent African history, it is oh so much more. A beautiful wrenching soul-searching memoir of a man I would love to sit down and have a few Tuskers with. If you want to lose yourself in a world so "foreign" as to be almost unfathomable in some ways, but so familiar in others, read this book.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best ever
Review: Many (non-African) people who have traveled or lived in Africa have written a book about their experiences, a large portion of these books are written by journalists who covered Africa for major news organizations. Some of those books are quite good. "The Zanzibar Chest: A Story of Life, Love, and Death in Foreign Lands" by Aidan Hartley, at first glance, seems to be another journalist-memoir of this sort. It is that, but it is much more. Mr. Hartley weaves many threads into a tapestry of his life in Africa: There are the memoirs of a journalist who covered Africa's big stories of the 1990s (Somalia, Rwanda, AIDS, etc.). There is also the behind-the-scenes story of being a journalist, the psychic toll it takes, office politics, the dangers and disappointments of journalism, and plenty of boozing and whoring. There are the stories of Mr. Hartley's parents and ancestors (ex-pats and colonial officials) and the story of the life and death of one of his father's friends. Finally, the story of how all of this affects Mr. Hartley's private life, his career, his home, his love affairs. All of it is told with a clarity and clear purpose that makes this much more than a book. It is a window into a world. Great. Very highly recommended. Books not 1/10 as good have sold more copies. Too bad.
Rating:
Summary: To be read again...
Review: Rarely do I keep a book once I've read it but The Zanzibar Chest is one that will remain on my bookshelf for a return read. Hartley has done an excellent job of writing about the less-than-glorious life of a reporter in Africa. His pen relays the humor, confusion, frustration, amazement, horror, and eventually, burn-out of those on the front lines in news reporting.
Too often we watch the evening news and think we know what's happening around the world as we congratulate ourselves on being informed. Aidan Hartley's The Zanzibar Chest is not only a true-life adventure story, it also makes clear that the final cuts we see in 3 minute blips over cocktails in the evening don't begin to tell the real story.
Rating:
Summary: stunning, just stunning
Review: Take a trip into Africa at different difficult times, experience it again through this writer's eyes, gain another perspective. Aidan Hartley is truly a kenyan and african at heart and can put himself in the shoes of Africans and see events from their perspective Being kenyan, i enjoyed the swahili references.(Utanitambua mimi nani-)If you like Tusker beer, this is a must read. The story grabs you, stuns you and doesnt let go. What i enjoyed most about this book is mr hartley's empathy and frankness about his experiences and opinions. This book is definitely worth it. It moved me to tears and enlightened me on the suffering of people and the risks that journalists endure for us to get the story. To a great extent this book made me feel the story, its horror and its effect. If you are african, read this book to get a view of those events (I am ashamed that most african countries did not intervene in somalia and rwanda - surely some more effort could have been made).For a fascinating look at events he witnessed firsthand, history and alittle mystery, grab this book. Peace.
Rating:
Summary: Read it , to experience it!
Review: The book is an interesting read. Probably a 101 and advanced course about Africa rolled into one. Mr.Hartley has written everything he has experienced with complete honesty and anyone with a little background knowledge, or anyone who has followed the political history of Africa in the past 15 years or so can agree completely with his narrative. I would disagreee though with a few sections of analyses put forward by him, for example blaming the civil war (actually genocide/macabre) in Rwanda on the west's imposing democracy as a "one-size-fits-all" solution. I also notice that Mr.Hartley does struggle at places with his identity while explaining his journalistic endeavours in Africa. For example, at a place where he tells a fellow passenger on a train that he was born in africa (almost providing the reader an insight into his sense of pride in being African born), on the other hand in a few pages from there, he calls himself a european journalist (since he was working for reuters - An African working for Reuters would not have called himself a "european journalist"). Having said that, this book is a recommended read. Necessary for intellectuals and the common man like me who needs to understand the hard facts from another "common" man, I would like to believe, Mr.Hartley.
Rating:
Summary: Harrowing, but worth it
Review: There are times when reading this book that the images finally sink in and you sit in your little oasis of the suburbs and realize you can't even begin to comprehend what happened in Somalia or Rwanda and you just ache. Then Hartley turns it around again with his story of Davey's life or the people he worked with and you get a history lesson and a glimpse of this amazing continent that draws him back and amazing people who witnessed or tried to help. Its a history lesson, a memoir and fascinating. Not an easy book to always read, but its harder to try and put it down.
Rating: 
Summary: Sex and drugs and atrocities...
Review: This book is a vivid account of a young man's coming of age in Africa, a very different Africa than his forebears had inhabited for the previous 150 years. His story is woven with a narrative about his father and a close friend of the family who are admirable and fascinating in ways that brought 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom' and 'Out of Africa' to mind. In contradistinction is the life of Mr. Hartley, who begins his career as a Reuters stringer quite well educated but professionally clueless. He gradually hones his craft during long, hot, unhygenic, drug-fueled months through close friendships with more seasoned and cynical professionals. Eventually he himself becomes a seasoned and cynical professional and acts as mentor to newcomers. Together, he and his friends bear witness to several famines, the civil war in Rwanda, as well as the battle of Mogidishu. It is the butchering in Rwanda that finally overfills his capacity for horror. He eventually retires to write this memoir. Though he possesses the neutral eye of a journalist, Mr. Hartley does occasionally talk about the way the the events affect him and criticizes western goverments' attempts to help. The structure of this book was the most interesting part of the book to me. I enjoyed the contrast between his progress through the 1990s horror show with his pursuit of long dead characters of another generation. I bought this book because I enjoyed the author's interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Because of that interview, I was already familiar with the story and some of the most terrifying events, particulary in Rwanda. I was, therefore, most shocked by his incredulous reaction to the inhumanity he witnessed in a brief assignment in Bosnia. In a way that is puzzling to me, Mr. Hartley ambles through the bloody lanes of his homeland, but can't seem to reach his mind around the violence in a European country. All told, I enjoyed his 'voice' on the radio more than in the book, but as an artifact from the ground of some of the most Biblical destruction in the past century, this book is indispensible.
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