Customer Reviews

A Cafe on the Nile

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A beautiful cover led me initially to this book as the Sphinx glowed from the clouds amidst palms and distant mountains. The exotic beckoned as I iimagined what interesting pleasures might issue forth from a "cafe on the Nile." I was not disappointed!. A cast of fascinating characters led me into the labyrinths of intrigue, love, and war, not to mention the treachery and calculating energy that existed in Cairo in the early days of WWII. A brilliant and wealthy dwarf, a German soldier of fortune, an English gypsy safari leader and his medical student wife, an impoverished English Lord, and energetic twin sisters from Kentucky make up the main cast of characters, but there are numerous enduring indigenous characters that round out the multi-layered ethnic mixture of Egypt and Africa. This is a novel of intrugue, of close ties of friendship and of betrayal. It focuses on the Italian campaign in Africa where the Italians violated all rules of civilized warfare when they dropped poison gas on thousands of Abyssinian warriors and bombed Red Cross hospital tents. The ensuing torture and vengeance that traveled with their forces illustrates the horror of war and what it can do do one's humanity. Another element of this novel that distinguishes it from the usual historical novel is its focus on the pleasures offered in that part of the world that might be considered decadent in other cultures but that exists hand in hand with the austerity of Islam and the hypocrisy of Chrisianity. Sexual favors and delights are there for the enjoyig, given freely as gifts, as bribes, and as favors. Here the exotic manifests itself in an enchanting and throbbing rhythm that whets the appetite without being vulgar. In addition, the actual love affairs and intimate relations thrill without repulsing. All in all, this is a novel full of energy and excitement. History is there as well as adventure, intrigue and international affairs. Descriptions of the African bush are as beautiful and poetic as the animal and plant life that charm and enchant those on safari. To read Cafe on the Nile is to enter a world of fascinating intrigue and drama that dashes from start to finish, leaving the reader breathless and wishing for more.

I read an average of two books a week. This is the best book I have read this year. This book has a fast moving plot and delightful characters and a pace I haven't seen since I read the Hardy Boys mysteries as a child. Bull has chosen a location and time that is unfamiliar to most of us. The historical setting alone is worth the time. His turn of phrase comes close to the quality of Tom Robbins with a richness of lexicon that is like rich chocolate. The predecessor novel The White Rhino Hotel is also worth your time. I only wish Bull were more prolific.

They don't write 'em like this anymore. Or at least they don't write and publish enough of them. Here is a tale of high adventure set in the wilds of Africa (from the rough and tumble city of Cairo, Egypt to the highlands of Ethiopia) on the eve of World War II. Bull writes vividly about a fascinating cast of characters caught up in events which are both world shaking and personally significant to each of them. World War I is only just behind these people and World War II is already looming on the horizon. Fascist Italy has pretensions to empire in Africa and poison gas is to be the key to it. All the while, the Goan dwarf, Olivio Fonseca Alavedo, is poised to grow rich with his schemes to corner the cotton market while his friends are struggling with the Depression-induced poverty of the thirties.

Into this shaken time come twin sisters from America, paying for a safari to be conducted by Olivio's old friend, the hunter Anton Rider out of Kenya, while Anton's lovely wife Gwenn, who has left him to do something more significant with her life, and for her two sons, lives nearby, the mistress of a clever Italian air force officer whose attentions enable her to pursue her medical studies at the University of Cairo. An elder, down-at-the-heels English gentleman rounds out Olivio's little circle of close friends while the rough-edged German adventurer, Ernst von Decker, shows up to draw Rider into his own schemes.

Although the players are mostly of the stock sort, they are engagingly drawn. I loved how Bull portrays the "white hunter", Rider, as a veritable fish out of water in the mean streets of Cairo, stumbling awkwardly about and giving his prospective clients second thoughts about him, yet a man who is masterfully competent in his own milieu in the bush. And the Goan dwarf, Olivio, is an especially intriguing (and oddly touching) personality in his machinations to outlast and defeat his scheming enemies in the Cairene bureaucracy while grappling with personal disabilities which would defeat lesser souls.

And yet, there was something pro-forma about it all. One of the inside blurbs called this book "a cup of CASABLANCA, a dollop of Isak Dinesen, a pinch of INDIANA JONES and a touch of TENDER IS THE NIGHT." I think that's about right and that it makes for a very heady brew if you like this sort of thing. As it happens, I do. There were, however, a few problems since the tale did seem somewhat drawn out and not nearly as compelling in the middle as at the end. And I was made a bit uncomfortable by the constant shifts between locales and story lines as the action was continuously deferred in one place to look in on alternating players elsewhere as the tale progressed.

My own preference is for a story which pretty much carries you right through the main line of action. But the varying streams were each interesting in their own way and, while slowing up the read, did not finally halt it. I found myself more and more anxious to see how the characters would work themselves out of their various predicaments (though I never doubted for a moment that they would). Although they were not the deepest of personalities and were plainly stereotypes, they were nicely drawn for the most part (though I had some problem with the lack of presence of Olivio's Kikuyu wife, Kina).

There is a bit of graphic sexuality and violence here but nothing that seemed out of the way for this sort of book and the events it portrayed. However, I thought Mr. Bull's credibility and authorial authority somewhat compromised in the end when he consistently referred to crocodiles as amphibians rather than the reptiles they are. At first I thought it an editorial slip but he did it more than once which I found jarring (though not debilitating to the tale which did seem to reflect a real feel for the terrain). I guess Mr. Bull is just not strong in the sciences . . . or had a momentary lapse. Yet, with all these caveats I have to pound the table for this book because most of the time I wanted to keep going back despite all and, in the end, I couldn't stop until I'd finished it. And when I had, it felt as though I'd been there.

SWM
author of The King of Vinland's Saga

Another reviewer is correct in noting that not enough of these adventure novels are being written. With 'A Cafe on the Nile', Bartle Bull offers a great next adventure with his characters from his previous novel, 'The White Rhino Hotel' (don't worry, advanced reading of White Rhino is not required). But beware! Bull's novels are pack-full of rich details (i.e. descriptions of exotic foods and miscellaneous Africana) and his prose can be a bit starchy and simplistic. I, for one, love the details and the high adventure. So while the writing in this novel may not measure up to 'For Whom the Bell Tolls', what does? And finally, the ending seems a little rushed (couldn't some of the earlier Anton/Gwenn material been thinned out instead?) I can only hope that this ending serves to set the stage for further North African adventure during the Big One. Bring on Rommy, Monty, and Patton!!!

I found this vivid African thriller to be a terrific combination of history, adventure and bittersweet romance. With Mussolini's Italian arrmy invading Ethiopia while the white hunter hero is on safari with his wild American clients (a pair of beautiful and spoiled twins from Kentucky), and with other exotic characters intriguing and romancing in 1935 Cairo, it's a rather old-fashioned and very well-written non-stop adventure. The atmosphere is compelling, and I felt I was in Africa. I recommend it to readers who like exciting historical novels and don't mind a few sexy scenes.

This is the first Bartle Bull I've read but won't be the last. Thoroughly enjoyable and difficult to put down. Very fast paced and it just keeps going and going. Sort of like Tom Clancy without the techno-babble and Robert Ludlum without the gory details. I got caught up in what was going to happen next to the characters, the color of Cairo, Ethiopia and colonial empires circa 1935 and the plot. Although the characters are many, they are well developed. I got a sense of knowing them well quickly without page after page of agonizing character building. I just became a fan of BB. On to the Devil's Oasis and Shanghai Station.

If nothing else Bartel Bull can be described as a master of description. It is not the type of description that evokes emotion but one that stimulates the senses. In Café on the Nile I could see the water of the Nile pouring into the farmlands and feel the coolness it brought to the parched land. I could smell the gun oil on the Colonels Barretta, feel the dust of the desert in my eyes and taste the fruits being eaten by the Doctor. But, all of this comes at a price. At times the minute descriptions take a lot of concentration and make the going slow. That being said, the book is a wonderful mind journey into a place and time few of us know existed. Bartel Bull has carefully crafted a work of fiction so full of facts that it can act as a textbook for Egypt and Ethiopia at the time of the Italian invasion. So careful is the author to get things right that he dedicates a page in the back of the book to explain the few places where he took "literary license." I recommend this book for any serious mind traveler, it is a first class ticket but be prepared to pay the price with your attention, it is not a light read.

Bartle Bull's "A Cafe on the Nile" is a rip-roaring adventure yarn set in 1930's Africa -- generally set in the urban jungle of Cairo and the vast plains and mountains of Abyssinia (Ethiopia). A large cast of characters breathes life into Bull's vast canvas, as the novel is part romance, part war novel, part treasure hunt, and all excitement.

Full disclosure -- I picked this novel up without knowing it is a sequel to Bull's "The White Rhino Hotel." I think this novel succeeds as a stand-alone work, although I'm pretty sure I would have enjoyed it even more knowing some of the backstory involving many of the characters -- suffice it to say that I will be jumping into "Hotel" as soon as possible!

Bull has truly created a cast for the ages. The dwarf Olivio runs the titular Cafe, and his devious mind is forever plotting his next venture (as well as how to ruin his enemies). Bull captures the psuedo-formal speech and thought of this Goan genius very well, and Olivio's brainstorms are among the most entertaining passages in the novel. Unfortunately for Olivio, he has taken on some powerful enemies as he seeks to expand his holdings in the Nile Delta, and this is a land where enemies play for keeps. But with trusty Lord Penfold at his side, as well as the muscular Nubian Tariq, Olivio has a fighting chance.

On a parallel storyline, the English gypsy Anton Rider is trying to put his marriage to the beautiful doctor-in-training Gwenn back together. Fed up with Anton's multiple infidelities and his long absences on safari, Gwenn and her two sons are shacking up with Lorenzo Grimaldi, an officer in the Italian air force. Gwenn's romance with Grimaldi comes to a sudden halt once she decides to take part in the Red Cross efforts in Abyssinia -- everyone knows that Italy is soon going to invade Abyssinia and annex it as part of Mussolini's bid to bring the Roman Empire back from the ashes of history. And soon Gwenn is in the middle of the fighting as the Italian war machine hits the Abyssinians hard with everything at its disposal . . . including the poison gas outlawed by the ineffectual League of Nations.

Anton Rider is also in Abyssinia when the war breaks out, leading a bunch of rich Americans on safari, including the beautiful (and sexually aggressive) twin Kentuckians, Harriett and Bernadette. The safari is spoiled by the outbreak of the war, particularly because the Italians see that Harriett has filmed the Italians using the poison gas. Rather than risk international outrage for this breach of the rules of war, the Italians decide it would simply be easier to kill the witnesses.

Further complicating matters, Anton Rider's ruthless friend, the German mercenary/thief/soldier Ernst von Decken, has stolen several chests of Italian silver coins which are vital to the war effort. Soon, von Decken is also engaged in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the Italian army.

"A Cafe on the Nile" is not for those looking for subtle character developments. The novel is set at a harsh time and in a harsh place, and bullets, swords, cleavers, crocodiles, and other "tools" create a pretty high body count. And Bull's characters obviously find danger to be a powerful aphrodisiac, as there is quite a bit o'sex to go along with the violence. And while the heroes are quite able to dish out the violence, the villains (generally, the Italian armed forces) are equally up to the task.

Spiced with generous amounts of action and humor, "A Cafe on the Nile" offers some genuine moments of sorrow, as not all the beloved characters who start the novel survive to its finish. Winding up with a final chapter that promises more novels to come (including, apparently, "The Devil's Oasis," already written), "A Cafe on the Nile" promises more rollicking excitement for its readers. A thrill-ride from start to finish, "A Cafe on the Nile" is virtually impossible to put down. A must-read!

After reading "The White Rhino Hotel", I was looking forward to this book. I truly enjoyed the cast of characters I knew would be inhabiting it from Bull's other novel set in Africa. I was disappointed. The people of the story are still well-written and the texture of the settings is first-rate. But the story left me cold. I know that "coincidences" and "contrivances" are necessary to any plot, this one was almost nothing but. If you like a rather brutish tale set during the Italian invasion of Abyssinia and don't mind one set-up after another, you'll really like this adventure book. You will care about the characters. However, if you can get a copy of "The White Rhino Hotel", I'd think you'd spend your reading time with a much better story.

This is the type of novel that allows just the correct amount of history, exotic locale and adventure to make a great reading experience. Pre WW II Africa is the setting just prior to the Italian invasion. The story, characters and conflicting cultures made for me a truly enjoyable read.