The Darling

A white male American writing a book with a white middle aged female narrator reminiscing over the time she lived in Africa seems like a potential minefield. But somehow, Banks pulled it off and didn’t lose any limbs on the mines. For many mediocre writers Africa seems ripe for picking, full of conf......more

This novel is a scarier version of Philip Roth’s “American Pastoral” in which the indulged upper middle class daughter rejects her comfortable surroundings in suburbia and joins a group of radicals to bring about a utopian socialist society in America, with disastrous consequences. Hannah Musgrave, t......more

"That's the real American Dream, don't you think? That you can start over, shape-change, disappear, and later reappear as someone else." The white priviledge is tested to its limit. This American darling is a rebel; our multi-named heroine goes to Africa, liberates chimpanzees, talks with the Liberia......more

"I wondered if I had lost my mind...I thought, I could be a madwoman. And I wondered if I was standing there in the dark by the side of a narrow, unpaved road in the eastern hills of Liberia because somewhere back there, without knowing it, I'd lost touch with reality. Lost it in small bits, a singl......more

the woman's point of view is so well done in this book that it's hard to believe it was authored by a man. i simultaneously loved and loathed the main character. the fact that it's historically accurate, and that charles taylor, who is featured prominently in the novel, has been in the press recentl......more