Reviews

Congo Solo: Misadventures Two Degrees North by Emily Hahn, Ken Cuthbertson, Anneke Van Woudenberg

marilynsaul's review against another edition

3.0

Having finished "No Hurry to Get Home", I set out on Congo Solo and am halfway through this plodding book. I've realized the difference between Congo and No Hurry, is that Congo is comprised of unrefined diary entries, whereas No Hurry is comprised of polished articles published in the New Yorker and brought together as a memoir. Congo doesn't have any of the smart, snide asides one finds in No Hurry, and is full of irreconcilable inconsistencies: On the way to Penge, Hahn's luggage (including her typewriter and gun) are lost overboard, yet later in the diary Hahn is fussing about who will carry her typewriter on a trek and at one point methodically loads her gun in order to intimidate a native into doing her bidding.