Status
Available
Collection
Publication
Doubleday (2014), 288 pages
Description
In the powerful travel-writing tradition of Ryszard Kapuscinski and V. S. Naipaul, a haunting memoir of a dangerous and disorienting year of self-discovery in one of the world's unhappiest countries.
User reviews
LibraryThing member c.archer
This book was an interesting look into the life of a fledgling reporter. The author writes about his experience as a reporter during a recent year in Congo, Africa. Although a Yale graduate, he has no real reporting experience and struggles to get picked up by a news agency after he gets there.
I am thankful to the publisher, NetGalley, and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book. It will appeal to readers who enjoy exciting non-fiction, particularly concerning distant and unfamiliar places.
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Even when he begins writing for the AP, he is still considered a "stringer" and is paid only for the reports they choose to print. His life with the members of a friend's family is certainly spare, but I found it interesting. The political events of Congo often took a backseat to the writer's own experiences there. This was not off-putting for me, and in fact I found it to be sometimes more interesting. All in all the author does a good job of sharing his brief, but eventful time reporting from the Republic of Congo.I am thankful to the publisher, NetGalley, and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book. It will appeal to readers who enjoy exciting non-fiction, particularly concerning distant and unfamiliar places.
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LibraryThing member TheGrandWorldofBooks
I really wanted to like this book more. But it was a very depressing book after awhile. Not because the country is the way it is, but because every time Mr. Sundaram tried to do something, it seemed to not work out. And I know that can't be helped, if that's how it happened. It just made for a
Learning about Congo was interesting, though. I felt very badly for the people of Congo, because they live in such poor conditions, with so little hope of getting out. It truly makes one feel blessed for getting to live on a house with clean, hot water, consistently working plumbing, and electricity that one hardly has to worry about going out unless there is a bad storm. Those things we just take for granted, but to the people there, those basic luxuries would be so very wonderful!
Overall, I gave this a 3/5, because it was very interesting to learn about Congo.
Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own, and I am never compensated for my reviews.
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repetitious and depressing story after awhile, that's all. And I say repetitious because for the longest time, nothing seemed to go right, and there was just a lot of general unhappiness about his being there. It felt like he didn't even want to be there anymore because he complained so much, so I repeatedly found myself wondering why he didn't just leave.Learning about Congo was interesting, though. I felt very badly for the people of Congo, because they live in such poor conditions, with so little hope of getting out. It truly makes one feel blessed for getting to live on a house with clean, hot water, consistently working plumbing, and electricity that one hardly has to worry about going out unless there is a bad storm. Those things we just take for granted, but to the people there, those basic luxuries would be so very wonderful!
Overall, I gave this a 3/5, because it was very interesting to learn about Congo.
Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own, and I am never compensated for my reviews.
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LibraryThing member WaltNoise
Stringer provides a glimpse into contemporary life in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and, in particular, Kinshasa. This can seem to be a travelogue to Hell at times. Sundaram offers a needed insight into the lives of ordinary people that is lacking from most accounts of the wars in the
This is an important and useful book, but I find Sundaram an unsympathetic figure. He seems incredibly naïve. Travel tip: never get into an unmarked “cab” with no license plates while carrying a few thousand US dollars in cash.
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DRC.This is an important and useful book, but I find Sundaram an unsympathetic figure. He seems incredibly naïve. Travel tip: never get into an unmarked “cab” with no license plates while carrying a few thousand US dollars in cash.
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LibraryThing member eraderneely
I was kind of disappointed. It wasn't descriptive or emotional, so it was sort of caught between in boring-land.
LibraryThing member theonearmedcrab
Anjan Sundaram’s “Stringer” (2013) is not very interesting. Subtitled ‘A Reporter’s Journey in the Congo’, it is at least as much about Mr Sundaram’s own personal journey as it is about the Congo. Written in three parts, the first and longest deals with his arrival and stay in
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Kinshasa, with a local family rather than in a five star hotel. Quite interesting, the local scene, but not interesting enough for over a hundred pages. The second part is the most interesting one, when he travels upcountry, first by barge and motor canoe on a failed trip to visit a friend’s expropriated piece of land, then by UN aircraft to Bunia, to ‘visit the war’. But here again, it is too much about the author, too little about Congo, let alone about ‘the war’. In the third part, Sundaram is back in Kinshasa, where he lives through the election and the subsequent unrest, consisting of fighting in the streets between several political factions. But it is not that he is ‘reporting from anarchy’ as the book cover wants us to believe; Sundaram is holed up in a factory of an Indian contact, cut off from the outside world, until things calm down again after three days. Uncomfortable, for sure, but we are not talking about a hero, here. Altogether, quite disappointing. Show Less
Language
Original language
English