THE DIAMOND BOGO: An African Idyll

by Robert F. Jones ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 27, 1977

Not unlike Blood Sport (1974), Jones' second shows a powerful gift for metaphor swamped by free association and by the woozy-boozy, malarial myopia that seizes American writers who get bitten by the Congo tse-tse fly and other headbustin' u-bhangi euphoriants. The unwary reader will face what seems to be another Moby Dick variation when ""the Diamond Bogo"" turns out to be a fantastic buffalo ""as big as a house""--with a $10-million diamond stuck permanently between its horns with Krazy Glue (it makes an unbreakable bond) by an aristocratic Russian exile. Any sense of earnest adventure soon breaks down when said reader meets up with a tribe of superhuman pigmies (called Toks) who have hugely outsized brains, granite erections housed in splints, and a Tudor-style village with diamond windows and Japanese baths. They also speak superior English, are milking the world diamond market, and are setting up modern warfare defenses against intruding nations. Broadly sliced satire (Swiftian in the sense of canned ham), in an emissive delirium that, frankly, will make some wish that Jones were bound in splints and allowed to cool under Victoria Falls.

Pub Date: April 27, 1977

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Prentice-Hall

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1977

Categories: FICTION