ANTONIA SAW THE ORYX FIRST

by Maria Thomas ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 28, 1987

This unfailingly intelligent first novel about the enigma that is modern Africa finds its strength in anthropological detail and observed life. Antonia Redmond, born in East Africa of American parents, has lived almost all her life on a continent that no longer wants her. Moreover, after years of living dangerously, she has come no closer to understanding the lunancy of post-colonial politics and the limits of her medical science. Various notions of Africa compete for attention here. Brian McGeorge, Antonia's friend since their days as children of rich coffee-growers, now summarizes his Africa in coffeetable books with titles like Warrior! and Hippo!. There's the Africa of Antonia's lover, Ted Armstrong, a cynical foreign adviser who's tired of ""helping Africans"" when nothing seems to work. There's the Africa of Cynthia Dale, an Arthur Hailey-like novelist who sees it as one beautiful Game Park, as she's titled her latest. There are the American naturalists who seem to prefer animals to people, the social scientists who diagnose malaise, and the reporters who everywhere find ""opera buffo with sinister overtones."" Somewhat smugly, Antonia imagines herself a privileged observer, especially after her long romance with Paul Luenga, whom she met in medical school at Harvard, but who is now the typical socialist bureaucrat justifying all the drabness and inefficiency. Despite his warnings, Antonia stays on ""without really knowing why,"" After meeting the ""bewitched"" Esther Moro, a prostitute brutalized by a Greek sailor, Antonia loses confidence in her medical-science abilities. Following the legends of Esther's ""faith-healing"" through the countryside, Antonia wants to believe in the illiterate woman's strange ""physics,"" but instead realizes only her own superfluousness in this increasing hostile land. An awful title and a deadly serious tone don't detract from this well-told tale of unrelenting misery and the difficulty of knowing what to do about it.

Pub Date: April 28, 1987

ISBN: 156947446X

Page Count: -

Publisher: Soho--dist. by Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1987

Categories: FICTION