HORIZONTAL HOTEL

by Roger King ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1984

A slight (126 pp.), half-pretentious, half-amusing sketch of an Englishman's identity-crisis in a shaky African republic--where a few Western types still hang on as administrators for the independent black government. John Meddows, Deputy Director of Rural Planning, wakes up one morning with a fever, a hangover, vague memories of the previous evening's debaucheries with native ladies. Furthermore, ""there is no disputing that tomorrow I am due to give the opening address to the Five Year Planning Conference of Ministers and I have no idea of what I will say."" He shuffles over to his office, trades innuendos with his black counterpart Obi--an ambitious, immoral, genial sort. (""I am carried along by his shamelessness. . . ."") He chats with aging Southern belle Marylou, a painter whose onetime role as cultural ambassador has long since faded. (Why does she stay, then? ""John, I just like to screw African men."") He goes to a meeting with visiting Ministers--where Obi unleashes a surprise-attack on their boss Adrian, an Englishman whom Obi accuses of aloofness and anti-African feeling (in contrast to John, who has gone native with a vengeance). And, after more sex and dancing at the Horizontal Hotel, John slips further and further into fever and self-disgust: he winds up in the hospital, where he and Adrian finally debate their contrasting approaches to post-colonial colonialism. . . with John realizing the extent of his own sexual exploitation. Preachy with its themes, artsy in some of its fever/sex/dancing evocations--but pointed and specific in the satiric vignettes of corrupt post-Independence Africa and those seedy hangers-on.

Pub Date: May 1, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Andre Deutsch--dist. by David & Charles

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1984

Categories: FICTION