GAZELLA

by Stuart Cloete ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

There's a haunting quality of superstition in a presumably modern world and of pagan survivals stronger than anything the white man has brought to Africa in this new and rather baffling novel from one of Africa's interpreters. The setting this time is Mozambique, where the Portuguese were the overlords, and willingly conceded to Englishmen, Germans and Swiss the privilege of pioneering in their still primitive country. To Loamba comes an American, running away from an insoluble marriage impasse-Douglas Frazer. His curiosity about the identity of various colonists among the assortment at the Savoy bar leads him into a situation involving a number of them:- Janion Percy, a ""white Kaffir"", who had gone native; Gilberto Mackinsen, part German, part Portuguese, fabulously rich- from an unknown source, and obsessed by one passion- to revenge himself on a wild elephant, a giant among them, revered by the natives; Gazella, the exquisite half caste dancer, Mackinsen's mistress, whom he is ready to pass on to Frazer; and Henriette, whom he has brought from Paris to take Gazella (Maria Theresa)'s place. It is a weird story, full of the philosophy of men- and women- cut off from civilization, full-too- of the strange motives of love, hate, revenge that dominate their thinking and actions. Completely amoral in the acceptance of the local sex mores, the interchange between men and women is taken in stride. The most interesting part is the final third, as the strands of the mystery are drawn together when the pursuit of the king elephant, Chimboro, brings a solution -- an answer. Absorbing though not always easy reading.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1958

Categories: FICTION