Two of these books are by real journalists - Blaine Harden for the Washington Post, Andrew Buckoke for the financial Times and others. The third is by a Writer, Ryszard Kapu?ci?ski, who spent many years masquerading as a correspondent for the Polish news agency, PAP. In covering epic misfortune of the kind one reads about in Africa, all three have learned to talk straight from the shoulder, although Buckoke's is slightly hunched under the white man's burden and Kapu?ci?ski's is often set to the wheel of invention, which makes much of his plain speaking deceptive. Only Blaine Harden keeps a respectable posture throughout and can even be quite sanguine in adversity - mostly other people's.

LRB 9 May 1991 | PDF Download