PICNIC AT POROKORRO

ISBN: 9780648590538 Géneros: Sinópsis: On first publication in 1958 The Daily Telegraph39s reviewer said Hugo Charteris39 Europeans are neurotic frightened clinging to their fragmented patternsthe sheer intensity of the whole book is terrifying In the wilds of British West Africa in the 1950s as colonialism is dying a small group of whites administer and work a diamond mine with African help They are typical of their era in their casual racism their preoccupation with British modes the atmosphere can sometimes be likened to 39a Thames country club circa 193839 Around the mine are places where Africans from the surrounding area and neighbouring French territory also prospect for the valuable stones This blasted landscape is the place from which the ferment of insurrection and dissatisfaction which will bring about the colony39s coming independence arises Porokorro in particular has been a troublespot lately MacPherson the local Provincial Commissioner is nearing the end of his career Wanting to spread a raft of calm upon these troubled waters and wanting to show from his intimate knowledge of the local people that relations will never truly sour he organizes what can only loosely be called a picnic an outing to prove that all is well With slowly coiling tension Charteris loads the scene with many and varying points of view Barber the head of the mine whose gregarious ease hides a calculated vision of exactly where the flashpoints might be hiding Meyer a diamond dealer and survivor of Buchenwald whose outward coolness hides a troubled marriage and a scarred psyche Isobel his much younger and seethingly restive wife over on a visit Warner an idealistic journalist who senses a story and is prepared to risk disaster in pursuing it and Paul MacPherson the Provincial Commissioner39s young son out from school in Britain who chases butterflies with his net fascinated by the glimpse his father is giving him of a lifestyle which is slowly but surely ceasing