A Cafe on the Nile

Rating:
Summary: Sample the exotic treachery, intrigue, and love
Review: A beautiful cover led me initially to this book as the Sphinx glowed from the clouds amidst palms and distant mountains. The exotic beckoned as I iimagined what interesting pleasures might issue forth from a "cafe on the Nile." I was not disappointed!. A cast of fascinating characters led me into the labyrinths of intrigue, love, and war, not to mention the treachery and calculating energy that existed in Cairo in the early days of WWII. A brilliant and wealthy dwarf, a German soldier of fortune, an English gypsy safari leader and his medical student wife, an impoverished English Lord, and energetic twin sisters from Kentucky make up the main cast of characters, but there are numerous enduring indigenous characters that round out the multi-layered ethnic mixture of Egypt and Africa. This is a novel of intrugue, of close ties of friendship and of betrayal. It focuses on the Italian campaign in Africa where the Italians violated all rules of civilized warfare when they dropped poison gas on thousands of Abyssinian warriors and bombed Red Cross hospital tents. The ensuing torture and vengeance that traveled with their forces illustrates the horror of war and what it can do do one's humanity. Another element of this novel that distinguishes it from the usual historical novel is its focus on the pleasures offered in that part of the world that might be considered decadent in other cultures but that exists hand in hand with the austerity of Islam and the hypocrisy of Chrisianity. Sexual favors and delights are there for the enjoyig, given freely as gifts, as bribes, and as favors. Here the exotic manifests itself in an enchanting and throbbing rhythm that whets the appetite without being vulgar. In addition, the actual love affairs and intimate relations thrill without repulsing. All in all, this is a novel full of energy and excitement. History is there as well as adventure, intrigue and international affairs. Descriptions of the African bush are as beautiful and poetic as the animal and plant life that charm and enchant those on safari. To read Cafe on the Nile is to enter a world of fascinating intrigue and drama that dashes from start to finish, leaving the reader breathless and wishing for more.

Rating:
Summary: Sample the exotic treachery, intrigue, and love
Review: A beautiful cover led me initially to this book as the Sphinx glowed from the clouds amidst palms and distant mountains. The exotic beckoned as I iimagined what interesting pleasures might issue forth from a "cafe on the Nile." I was not disappointed!. A cast of fascinating characters led me into the labyrinths of intrigue, love, and war, not to mention the treachery and calculating energy that existed in Cairo in the early days of WWII. A brilliant and wealthy dwarf, a German soldier of fortune, an English gypsy safari leader and his medical student wife, an impoverished English Lord, and energetic twin sisters from Kentucky make up the main cast of characters, but there are numerous enduring indigenous characters that round out the multi-layered ethnic mixture of Egypt and Africa. This is a novel of intrugue, of close ties of friendship and of betrayal. It focuses on the Italian campaign in Africa where the Italians violated all rules of civilized warfare when they dropped poison gas on thousands of Abyssinian warriors and bombed Red Cross hospital tents. The ensuing torture and vengeance that traveled with their forces illustrates the horror of war and what it can do do one's humanity. Another element of this novel that distinguishes it from the usual historical novel is its focus on the pleasures offered in that part of the world that might be considered decadent in other cultures but that exists hand in hand with the austerity of Islam and the hypocrisy of Chrisianity. Sexual favors and delights are there for the enjoyig, given freely as gifts, as bribes, and as favors. Here the exotic manifests itself in an enchanting and throbbing rhythm that whets the appetite without being vulgar. In addition, the actual love affairs and intimate relations thrill without repulsing. All in all, this is a novel full of energy and excitement. History is there as well as adventure, intrigue and international affairs. Descriptions of the African bush are as beautiful and poetic as the animal and plant life that charm and enchant those on safari. To read Cafe on the Nile is to enter a world of fascinating intrigue and drama that dashes from start to finish, leaving the reader breathless and wishing for more.

Rating:
Summary: A superb book - a must read
Review: A Cafe On The Nile is the best novel I have read in some time. Author Bull is an outstanding writer, one who projects his characters right into your living room. The plot is outstanding and I was mesmerized by the intracies he develops with their interaction.

Rating:
Summary: A superb book - a must read
Review: A Cafe On The Nile is the best novel I have read in some time. Author Bull is an outstanding writer, one who projects his characters right into your living room. The plot is outstanding and I was mesmerized by the intracies he develops with their interaction.

Rating:
Summary: I expected much more!
Review: After reading "The White Rhino Hotel", I was looking forward to this book. I truly enjoyed the cast of characters I knew would be inhabiting it from Bull's other novel set in Africa. I was disappointed. The people of the story are still well-written and the texture of the settings is first-rate. But the story left me cold. I know that "coincidences" and "contrivances" are necessary to any plot, this one was almost nothing but. If you like a rather brutish tale set during the Italian invasion of Abyssinia and don't mind one set-up after another, you'll really like this adventure book. You will care about the characters. However, if you can get a copy of "The White Rhino Hotel", I'd think you'd spend your reading time with a much better story.

Rating:
Summary: I expected much more!
Review: After reading "The White Rhino Hotel", I was looking forward to this book. I truly enjoyed the cast of characters I knew would be inhabiting it from Bull's other novel set in Africa. I was disappointed. The people of the story are still well-written and the texture of the settings is first-rate. But the story left me cold. I know that "coincidences" and "contrivances" are necessary to any plot, this one was almost nothing but. If you like a rather brutish tale set during the Italian invasion of Abyssinia and don't mind one set-up after another, you'll really like this adventure book. You will care about the characters. However, if you can get a copy of "The White Rhino Hotel", I'd think you'd spend your reading time with a much better story.

Rating:
Summary: I expected much more!
Review: After reading "The White Rhino Hotel", I was looking forward to this book. I truly enjoyed the cast of characters I knew would be inhabiting it from Bull's other novel set in Africa. I was disappointed. The people of the story are still well-written and the texture of the settings is first-rate. But the story left me cold. I know that "coincidences" and "contrivances" are necessary to any plot, this one was almost nothing but. If you like a rather brutish tale set during the Italian invasion of Abyssinia and don't mind one set-up after another, you'll really like this adventure book. You will care about the characters. However, if you can get a copy of "The White Rhino Hotel", I'd think you'd spend your reading time with a much better story.

Rating:
Summary: Fun novel -- I'm ready for the next one!
Review: Another reviewer is correct in noting that not enough of these adventure novels are being written. With 'A Cafe on the Nile', Bartle Bull offers a great next adventure with his characters from his previous novel, 'The White Rhino Hotel' (don't worry, advanced reading of White Rhino is not required). But beware! Bull's novels are pack-full of rich details (i.e. descriptions of exotic foods and miscellaneous Africana) and his prose can be a bit starchy and simplistic. I, for one, love the details and the high adventure. So while the writing in this novel may not measure up to 'For Whom the Bell Tolls', what does? And finally, the ending seems a little rushed (couldn't some of the earlier Anton/Gwenn material been thinned out instead?) I can only hope that this ending serves to set the stage for further North African adventure during the Big One. Bring on Rommy, Monty, and Patton!!!

Rating:
Summary: Almost the Perfect Adventure Novel
Review: At the beginning, A Cafe on the Nile reminds you of those great adventure stories that are so rarely being written any more. Author Bartle Bull takes an unusual combination of characters, gives them complex problems, and then plops them into tremendously interesting times. In this case, the time is 1935, the place: East Africa on the verge of the Italian invasion. Olivio Fonseca Alavedo is an ambitious dwarf who runs a popular meeting place in Cairo. There, his many friends from across Africa stop in to visit, and many plots are hatched in Olivio's floating cafe. His former employer Lord Penfold, a vague and sad elderly aristocrat, takes refuge there during the summer of 1935, meeting another old buddy, professional hunter Anton Rider. Rider has abandoned his wife Gwenn and their children to keep his hunting business going through the Depression, while Gwenn, in need of money and a profession, is studying medicine and has taken up with an Italian military officer. Despite the looming of an invasion of Abyssinia by Italy, Anton takes out the first safari party he's had in months-American twin sisters and an artistic fiancee. Anton wants Gwenn back, but has his own struggle with his attraction to the American twins. While hunting, one of the sisters films the Italian army using poison gas on civilians. The Italians want the film, and the hunters become the hunted. Up to the departure for safari, Bull has written a lively, enjoyable novel, with richly developed characters and a marvelous sense of place. But once the safari takes off and Italy invades, A Cafe on the Nile becomes quite a nasty, bloody book. This is not just the gore of war, but a great deal of such salacious doings as popping out an eyeball and sticking a burning torch up a man's backside. It's a relief to get back to the characters in Cairo where Olivio has been buying up land along the Nile and has become involved in a war of nerves with a government minister over water rights. He's also involved with a rather sadistic Swiss doctor as he battles the bone degeneration that afflicts so many dwarves. And he's seeking revenge for the murder of his favorite daughter. What keeps the bloodshed from completely overshadowing everything else in the book is a great sense of history and place. The invasion of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) was not condemned by League of Nations because Hailie Selassie's government refused to end widespread slavery, and the Italians vowed to stamp it out. The use of poison gas would have brought the League down on the Italians, so destroying the film is top priority. I have to wonder who steered Bull out of his characters' heads and into the gore. This man is a good writer, and it would have been much more satisfying to see his characters play out the war like the human beings he initially establishes, as opposed to the cartoonish action figures they become.

Rating:
Summary: Certainly a humorless bunch!
Review: Bull has written a rather brutish tale of high adventure in Africa. I thought his situations were interesting, even if they were contrived. After almost stopping on page 202, I was glad I stuck it out. The action sometimes gets bogged down in the descriptions, there's no comic relief and few surprises. However,the characters are interesting and well developed. I had to see how they fared in the end.