A Good Man in Africa (Klett)
Important works:
William Boyd seems to have been around a lot
longer than he actually has. Now respected as one of our greatest
British writers, his first novel A Good Man in Africa (1982),
displayed the kind of self assurance normally associated with a writer
who has been around the block and back. His confidence was not ill
founded however, and Boyd hit the floor running, his first work winning
both The Whitbread Award and The Somerset Maugham Prize. It's not
surprising that Boyd's inspirations include both Graham Greene and
Evelyn Waugh, an interest in the events of the 20th century almost
placing him in that age and not this. A Good Man in Africa was
written in only three months after procuring a publishing deal with
Hamish Hamilton (Boyd had insinuated to his publisher that the novel was
almost finished when in fact it did not exist at all) although he had
written two novels before that which had never been published (entitled Is
That All There is? and Against The Day). A comic novel set in
West Africa, A Good Man in Africa follows a drunken diplomat who
is being blackmailed by a local politician whilst the country slowly
falls into chaos.
Boyd's second novel An Ice Cream War (1983) also received
rapturous praise and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the
John Llewelleyn Rhys Prize. From then on it seems like Boyd was sweeping
the board of literary prizes on publication of nearly every work. An Ice
Cream War was followed by the stunning Stars and Bars (1985),
The New Confessions (1988), which traced a fictional character
through key moments in the last century, Brazzaville Beach (1991
winner of the McVitie and The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes), The
Blue Afternoon (1994, winner of the Sunday Express Book of the Year
Award and The Los Angeles Times Book Award for fiction in 1995), Armadillo
(1998) and his novel Any Human Heart (2002).
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/books/author/boyd/
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Based on a novel by William
Boyd (who also wrote the film's screenplay), this darkly witty drama
explores the political, social, and sexual gamesmanship of a group of
British and African politicians. Morgan Leafy (Colin
Friels) is a British diplomat who, for the past three years, has
been assigned to the British High Commission of Ninjana, an African
nation slowly divesting itself of colonial rule. Leafy is an arrogant
and frequently confused alcoholic romantically involved with an African
woman named Hazel (Jackie
Mofokeng). Arthur Fanshawe (John
Lithgow), a new High Commission appointee who wants nothing more
than to be promoted and moved out of Africa, brings some interesting
news to Leafy: massive reserves of oil have been discovered in Ninjana,
and if the British want to reap the full profits of this windfall, they
will want to stay on the good side of Sam Adekunle (Louis Gossett Jr.),
who in all likelihood will be the next president of Ninjana. However,
something of a diplomatic crisis has come up; a native woman was struck
by lightning in the courtyard of the High Commission's compound, and the
locals insist that she cannot be moved until certain time-honored
rituals have been performed. At a loss for advice, Leafy turns to Dr.
Alex Murray (Sean
Connery), a Scottish doctor who has been in Africa for 23 years and
is one of the few people equally at ease with both the British colonials
and the natives. However, Leafy doesn't seem so eager to seek out
assistance in his romantic problems; while he's involved with Hazel,
Leafy also finds himself dallying with Adekunle's wife Celia (Joanne
Whalley-Kilmer) and Fanshawe's wife Chloe (Diana
Rigg). By the way, don't bother looking for Ninjana on a map -- it
doesn't really exist. Mark Deming
Source: http://video.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?ean=96898172639
Reinhard
Donath: Englischunterricht in der Informationsgesellschaft
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