Journal Entry 1 by hobbit from Surabaya, Jawa Timur Indonesia on Monday, April 17, 2006

Journal Entry 2 by hobbit from Surabaya, Jawa Timur Indonesia on Sunday, August 06, 2006

This book, in addition to the story, was full of philosophizing and musings from the main characters, who were often suicidal. Parts of it were very interesting, and other parts just lost me. It certainly doesn't make either Zaire or the Congo sound like appealing places to live.

The main character is a former soccer player in Zaire who becomes a school principal. He loses his job after lusting after a young woman and attempting to resist her by beginning to drink heavily. He ends up in prison, with his children dead. His wife commits suicide. After he's released, he flees to the Congo where he becomes enmeshed in their political struggles.

Here's one of the passages that I found interesting:
Yealdara hung her arms around Dadou's neck. She kissed him on the mouth. The fishermen exchanged meaning glances. "The white men's ways are here to stay," thought the old man. "The ancestors will never be right again on this earth. At partings she gave you a tuft of hair or some intimate object. But not her saliva. Blood, yes. Sometimes there were two bleedings. You mixed the blood and then drank the mixture. Those most in love touched each other's private parts. The more sensitive wept, mingling their tears. But not insipid saliva!"

I am counting this book for the Congo, in my attempt to read works by authors from every country that participates in the Olympics. 

Journal Entry 3 by hobbit from Surabaya, Jawa Timur Indonesia on Sunday, November 26, 2006

Reserved for rootmartin.

update: I went to the post office on Friday, 12/1, and this is on its way to rootmartin as part of a virtual bookbox about Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. 

Journal Entry 4 by rootmartin from Marlborough, Massachusetts USA on Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Received in the mail today. Thanks for participating in the bookbox, hobbit! I look forward to reading this book. 

Journal Entry 5 by rootmartin from Marlborough, Massachusetts USA on Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Mailed to hendertuckian on Saturday as she chose it from the vbb. 

Journal Entry 6 by hendertuckian from Henderson, Nevada USA on Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Selected for Olympic Challenge - Congo
At first I thought this would be another Lolita but it quickly spun in a direction I didn't expect and became an interesting book. 

Journal Entry 7 by blackwidow1971 from Winchester, Hampshire United Kingdom on Saturday, December 08, 2007

I would agree with Hobbit on this one. At times, the style and speech lost me a little, and it hardly painted a positive view of Congo (Zaire) or DRC. But then a colleague of mine who worked there did say it was the worst place he had ever been (including war zones) and as I recall, Joseph Conrad took quite a dim view too!

I found the ending a little unsatisfactory - sort of just stopped. I didn't find Dadou a particularly sympathetic character, but I did like the character of Yealdara.

I would be interested to know the original French word which has been translated (oh so many times) as "putrid" because I had the feeling that it wasn't quite the right word. 

Journal Entry 8 by katyan from Detroit, Michigan USA on Thursday, February 07, 2008

Oh, sweet balckwidow, thank you for this surprise RABCK! It was so touching to get these 2 so interesting books for the Challenge! 

Journal Entry 9 by katyan from Detroit, Michigan USA on Sunday, February 10, 2008

Oh, I agree with the previous readers that this was quite a sad book about Congo. The language was also quite weird too, but still I feel this kind of books are important in giving us more knowledge about this world. Sometimes it is hard to remember that we are actually living in paradise compared with some other far corners of earth... 

Journal Entry 10 by AspenYard from Turku, Varsinais-Suomi Finland on Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Thank you for sending this Congo-book to me. Unfortunately, it will lay in my 'hill'-tbr some time :) 

Journal Entry 11 by AspenYard from Turku, Varsinais-Suomi Finland on Thursday, September 18, 2008

I found this book great and interesting. I liked the language of the book, noticing that there were lots of words with origin in French, which didn't disturb me, however. Maybe the translator had done that in purpose.

I've read some other books about central African countries, some of which have caused some shock, even though I've been aware beforehand, that there's been very violent in the area after 1960's ie. after the end of colonialism. I've found especially 'Heban' by Kapuscinski Ryszard very broadening.
This book was set to late 60's, early 70's, and in that sense, the book was even kind of surprise, talking about people with emotions and life, instead of only killing and war, taking the view of ordinary people, how they felt and were able to adapt, instead of the view that the media shows us.

Towards the end, the story became more scattered. At the same time, it somehow took distance to the characters and their life. Somehow, the book showed how people find their ways to survive in chaos, that there are other options than just to obey. It's often said that people in Africa are quite superstitious, which was in a way disproved in this book - even that cannot be generalised, and (in addition) not only to Africa...

The name of the book 'Antipeople' was quite interesting, too. For me, it means something like people with antifeelings, which might be something similar to not having ability to feel due to draumatic experiences. According to this, antifeelings could be attached to depression and fear, focusing to negative emotions. I'm quite an amateur in psychology, but my experiences have made me very curious own-path-follower...
By the way, about the word 'putrid - fr. putride' (which was quite irritating before I had checked it from my dictionary), somehow the word seems to refer to moral corruption... The other thing is, what the author has thought. I think that the expression 'putrid world' only showed how the world view can be very personal, independent on how other people experience it.

Sometimes in the last spring, I saw a documentary of Congo in TV, showing what the civil war had done - the one-leg village boys etc. War is always terrible. But mainly Congo and Zaire are jungle and savannah anyway, and I'd say there must be lovely districts, too, somewhere far from cities and bureaucracy, where people may live in harmony together with wildlife (I wouldn't call that peace, at least not now, due to my own background, not being so used to having crocodiles etc. nearby).

This will present Republic of Congo in my Book from every country challenge as the story starts and mainly happens in Brazzaville (from where the author comes from), even though it ends up to the other side of river, The Democratic Republic of the Congo (ex-Zaire). Maybe I'll swap the books/countries later depending on future readings :) 

Journal Entry 12 by AspenYard from Turku, Varsinais-Suomi Finland on Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Mailed to thy.

#53 release in Keep them moving 2008 challenge 

Journal Entry 13 by thy from Nurmijärvi, Uusimaa Finland on Thursday, October 02, 2008

Thanks for the book, Aspen72 (and the positive thoughts that arrived with it;)
This book will represent the Democratic Republic of Congo in my Book from every country -challenge.

14.10.2008: This was an interesting book to read, the story changed a couple of times, it did not continue at all in the way I expected.
It has been a quite sad experience trying to read books on every country. There have been so many wars, genocides, dictatorships...
 

Journal Entry 14 by Sirah from Helsinki, Uusimaa Finland on Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Thank you, Thy for bringing the book to our monthly meet-up.